Skollar 2004/05
Prior to coming up to Oxford, Tara McConaghy’s background was in bridging the gap between the worlds of entrepreneurship and education. She worked first for a Silicon Valley venture philanthropy fund and then for the California Charter Schools Association, a state-wide network which endorses an entrepreneurship-based solution for a social cause – the creation of quality education for all children through charter schools.
Having witnessed the benefits of applying business principles to a social cause, Tara applied to the University of Oxford because she wanted to study for an MBA from a world-class organisation while focusing on social entrepreneurship.
Highlights of her year in Oxford included the two work-based projects that form an essential part of the MBA programme. For her Entrepreneurship Project, Tara worked with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Foundation in London, a charity designed to give disadvantaged youngsters the chance to gain professional training in the restaurant industry. For her Strategic Consulting Project, she conducted a feasibility study for Participant Productions in Los Angeles, a media company set up by Jeff Skoll to create films that inspire social change.
After graduating, Tara served as the chief operating officer for GOOD Magazine, a publication than unites idealism with capitalism. In this capacity, she established partnerships for an innovative social marketing campaign designed to raise US$1 million for 12 non-profit partners. She then went on to set up her own consultancy, working with non-profits in communications and organisational strategy, and working with philanthropists on grant-making, strategic partnerships and marketing initiatives.
Tara says that the contacts she made at Oxford have proved invaluable, and says she now has an “Oxford family” all over the world of fellow Skoll Scholars on whom she can call at any time.