K. Shelly Porges is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Beyond The Billion (launched as The Billion Dollar Fund for Women) the world’s first and largest global consortium of over 100 venture funds and limited partner investors that have pledged to invest and are actively deploying beyond $1B towards women-founded companies. In under two years, pledged funds in the consortium have deployed $638M into close to 800 female-founded companies, of which to date, 15 have been recognized as unicorns. She is also on the Advisory Board for Cornerstone Capital, Mindshift Capital, Different Funds and Global Invest Her. Ms. Porges also served as a Board Member of the Financial Alliance for Women, President of the North American Jury for Cartier Women’s Initiative for over a decade and as the former Senior Advisor, Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP) at the U.S. State Department, a program she expanded to almost 150 countries, under Secretary Hillary Clinton. Before joining the State Department, she had a distinguished career in the private sector, including both corporate and entrepreneurial ventures.
She served as executive head of marketing for American Express Canada and as chief marketing officer for Bank of America during a historic turnaround. Ms. Porges co-founded six ventures including Porges/Hudson Marketing; Scudder Weisel Capital LLC, a joint venture between Thomas Weisel Partners and Zurich Scudder Investments; and Global Payments Experts LLC, a payments industry advisory firm. Ms. Porges holds both a BS with Honors and MPS degree from Cornell University.