Skollar 2004/05
Before coming up to Oxford, Jesse Fahnestock worked for four years with Benetech, the technology social enterprise, helping them launch their Bookshare.org community for persons with reading disabilities. He also worked in online community development and as a journalist. He was educated at Princeton University and King's College London.
Jesse decided to do an MBA because he wanted to help tackle the climate change and energy issues, which he saw as the biggest challenges facing his generation. "I thought 30 was probably too old to do an engineering degree, but that I could possibly learn to move money instead of electrons!" he says.
The year in Oxford proved inspiring. "The whole year, both as a "Skollar" and as a Saïd student, was the best year of my adult life - challenging, inspiring, romantic (in the poetic sense), and a lot of fun. I don't think there's a better place to get inspired than Oxford, or a better way to experience Oxford than through Skoll and Saïd," Jesse says.
After completing the MBA programme in 2005, Jesse spent two years in Geneva at the World Economic Forum dealing with environmental issues, helping the Forum to launch its Global Leadership Fellows' programme and directing the Global Risk programme. He is now Climate Policy Advisor at Vattenfall AB in Sweden. In this role he works to develop Vattenfall's internal emissions reduction strategies, as well as to positively influence public policy through the 3C (Combat Climate Change) initiative founded by Vattenfall's CEO.
"The Oxford MBA opened doors to interesting people," Jesse says - four classmates went with him to Geneva and he is still in contact with his fellow Skoll Scholars. "But having a helpful network is not the point. Precious memories shared with good people - that's the point." For the future, he is determined not to lose the inspiration he found at Oxford.