Michael Chu was appointed a Senior Lecturer in the General Management Group of the Harvard Business School in July 2003, where he is part of the Social Enterprise Initiative. He is also a Partner Emeritus of the IGNIA Fund, a venture capital firm in Mexico dedicated to investing in disruptive enterprises delivering high impact goods and services to the emerging middle class and low-income populations, which he co-founded in 2007. He continues to serve as Senior Advisor to Grupo Pegasus, a private equity firm headquartered in Buenos Aires, which he co-founded in 2000.
Chu teaches the second year elective Business at the Base of the Pyramid, a course introduced jointly with Professor V. Kasturi Rangan. He is Faculty Co-Chair of the Executive Education programs Strategic Leadership for Inclusive Finance. In his academic research and teaching as well as a practitioner, for over twenty-five years Chu has focused on business delivering goods and services to low income segments, with a particular interest in the use of commercial platforms as a response to social issues and public responsibilities. He serves as Faculty Chair for Latin America.
Before Pegasus, as President & CEO of ACCION International, Chu participated in the founding and governance of several regulated microfinance banks throughout Latin America, including BancoSol, which under his chairmanship was the most profitable bank in Bolivia, Mibanco in Peru and Compartamos Banco, which following its IPO in 2007 was incorporated into the index of the Mexican Stock Exchange.
From 1989 to 1993, as an executive and limited partner in the New York office of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, Chu was one of sixteen professionals deploying KKR’s $5.7 billion private equity fund and managing an investment portfolio with aggregate annual revenues in excess of $60 billion. He joined the private equity firm from PACE Industries, listed by Forbes as one of the twenty largest private companies in the United States, a KKR-sponsored leveraged buyout, where he served as Senior Vice President & CFO. Previously, he held senior management positions in U.S. multinational corporations and was with the Boston Consulting Group. Chu currently serves on the boards of Arcos Dorados (NYSE-ARCO) and Takeoff Technologies, Inc, a global leader in robotic micro-fulfillment centers for the global eGrocery industry, including major supermarket chains. He is also on the board of the World Justice Project, dedicated to the rule of law across the globe. He is an Academic Advisor to the Chinese Academy of Financial Inclusion and a Trustee Emeritus of Dartmouth College. He served on the inaugural Economic Advisory Board of the International Finance Corporation (The World Bank).
Chu graduated with an A.B.(Honors) from Dartmouth College and received a M.B.A. with highest distinction (Baker Scholar) from Harvard Business School.
Chu was born in Kunming, China and grew up in Montevideo, Uruguay. He and his wife Victoria Cowling Chu reside in West Newton, MA.
