Bio - A Quick Snapshot

Since the early 2000s, Bronx-born, Philadelphia suburb-raised Alicia has used business as a force-for-good at home and abroad. She is obsessed with helping entrepreneurs build sustainable and meaningful businesses.

There’s an old saying, usually attributed to Confucius, that goes something like this, “Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you’ve fed him for a lifetime.” This quote can best be used to summarize Alicia’s career. An updated version of that well-known philosophy seems fitting to sum up her professional legacy of empowering others through the global businesses she has started: “Teach a woman to bake and you’ll feed a village for a lifetime.”

Current

Alicia currently serves as Advisor to numerous social enterprises and for-profit organizations. She provides guidance on a wide range of topics, including strategic planning, financial modeling, and social media marketing. Alicia employs both waterfall and agile methodologies, utilizing cutting-edge project planning software, tools, and AI to achieve the best results for her clients.

Prior to this, Alicia served as an Advisor to the Oakland Department of Planning and Building where she was responsible for overseeing components of the revival of the City’s Proactive Rental Inspection Program (PRIP).

The goal of the Program is to locate all residential rental properties within the City and conduct proactive inspections to ensure and improve upon the overall quality of life for the Citizens of the City and address the issue of substandard rental properties and promote greater compliance with the City’s Municipal Codes and Health and Safety Codes.

Additionally, Alicia worked extensively with the Department of Diversity and Equity (DEI). Alicia wrote the Planning & Building Department’s first Racial Equity Assessment which will serve to evaluate the Proactive Rental Inspection Program. The report will be used to inform the development of the PRIP plan and ensure is established with baseline conditions for Oakland residents to inform the creation of specific elements and measurements by which outcomes can be tracked over time and to address social inequities inherent in existing housing conditions.

She served as an esteemed Fellow of FUSE Corps – “a national nonprofit that partners with local government to help urban communities thrive”. FUSE works “with cities and counties on a range of issues, including economic and workforce development, healthcare, public safety, climate change, and education”.

ALICIA POLAK

Alicia’s Superpower

Using business as a force for good

If you’re thinking about starting a business; are stuck in a certain stage of your business planning and operations; just need to get things done; or if you want to make an impact in the world but aren’t sure how, and you need an inspirational driver to help realize your professional or personal potential – Alicia is your go-to force for change and accomplishment.

The Long of It: Leveraging social enterprise to spread empowerment

Since the early 2000s, Bronx-born, Philadelphia-raised, who went on to spend much of her adult life in New York City and Cape Town, has used business as a force for good at home and abroad. She is obsessed with helping social entrepreneurs build businesses that generate societal wealth, do the least amount of harm to the environment and community while doing the most amount of good for all those involved.

Alicia’s beliefs and values remain steadfast over the course of two decades. Job creation, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE),and Systemic Equity are the core elements of all the work she has done since leaving Banking. She is now embarking on a new journey, called Battling Back from Baseline™ to help those dealing with depression.

The Back Story

On a trip to India, former Wall Street investment banker Alicia (who specialized in Initial Public Offerings at Merrill Lynch for closed-end country funds) witnessed abject poverty. This experience, coupled with her own experience as the daughter of a WWII Refugee, was the tipping point which led her to find her purpose as a Social Entrepreneur, advisor, educator, and mentor.

Along with the emotional impact of the US terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, this epiphany, convinced her to change the course of her profession and life, and commit herself to work with international aid organizations. The result was the creation of a forward-thinking equation that has since allowed her to fulfill a personal commitment to bettering the lives of others. 

“I wanted to help people change their lives – I just didn’t know at the time it would be through a vehicle called Social Entrepreneurship”.

Cookies With a Conscience: Leveling up the Social Entrepreneurship model

South Africa

After spending time with an NGO in South Africa, Alicia was further inspired to create something that would contribute to sustainable job creation while generating societal wealth.

“I wanted to create jobs for people as a means to make them self-sufficient.”

The first business Alicia built was in South Africa – The Khayelitsha Cookie Company. The company was built to help create long-lasting employment opportunities for those – especially women – who were deemed unemployable. Today it this is South Africa’s longest-running Social Enterprise.

Through this innovative business model with a social objective, Alicia utilized the entrepreneurial and analytical skills she had gained on Wall Street to expand her model for social transformation. The success of the initiative motivated her to replicate and share the model in other developing and underdeveloped countries, as well as in disadvantaged communities in the US.

Alicia founded The Khayelitsha Cookie Co., which today continues to employ women (and men) from Khayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa, to bake, pack, and sell their KCC branded cookies to hotels and restaurants across South Africa.

Areas of Expertise

Alicia is an Advisor on Social Enterprise across multiple continents, an Educator and Mentor. She provides fiduciary advice and guidance to private and public institutions. Her expertise includes:

 

  • Consulting and Coaching
  • Curriculum Design and Evaluation
  • Demographic Research
  • Feasibility Analysis
  • Marketing and Business plans to determine revenue streams
  • Marketing from concept to roll-out
  • New Business Venture guidance
  • Nonprofit Management
  • Scalability Analysis (to determine additional sources of income)
  • Workforce Development advice, plans and guidance

Credentials

A Fulbright Scholar, Alicia received a BA in journalism from New York University, an MBA from the University of Cape Town, and an MPA the New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Alicia has a strong background in both the corporate and non-profit sector, coupled with years of entrepreneurial experience. In addition to Founding South Africa’s longest-running Social Enterprise, Alicia also advances Social Entrepreneurship through her lecturing at The Wharton School, and created Kreate Advisors to advance Social Entrepreneurship globally.

“I thrive when creating and improving upon efficiencies to make operations run smoothly.”

Alicia has traveled extensively and assisted with the creation of uplifting initiatives across the globe over the past two decades. She lived and worked in Africa for over a decade, and works well in any cultural setting. She uses a series of proven innovative business models, many with social objectives to help clients across the globe create, achieve, execute and launch their business.

She worked for Merrill Lynch and BlackRock, started businesses in the United States, has run import and export companies, and successfully applied for patents and trademarks.

Alicia specializes in change and project management, marketing, organizational development, supply chain, and logistics. She is highly experienced at driving operations, and building and scaling organizations, with a focus on meeting business objectives while addressing such issues as societal change, employability, and sustainable development. Through her professional experiences Alicia has also began the all-important work of advising on Racial Equality Analysis requirements and writing these analysis for Governments and local business in the United States.

Get in touch with Alicia to find out how she can assist you with realizing your potential.

Education

Fulbright Scholar Alicia received an MPA with a specialization in International Public Policy and Management from The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service (NYU), as well as a BA in Journalism from New York University. Alicia also holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business.

She is a certified Project Manager.

Professional Certifications

WHARTON BUSINESS SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ARESTY INSTITUTE OF EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

  • Negotiating for the Competitive Advantage – May 2008
  • Advanced Finance and Accounting – May 2010

HARVARD EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

  • Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management

FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR

  • International Development and Social Entrepreneurship – January 2010

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF CONTINUING EDUCATION

  • International Marketing – May 1999

Career Highlights

Highlights:

  • Founded The Khayelitsha Cookie Co. (KCC) – a Social Enterprise using a proprietary Social Entrepreneurship model -– negotiating sales to 1000+ Whole Foods, Peets and Protea Hotels and local South African airline.
  • Created a program designed to train refugees, immigrants and asylees to bake and secure jobs in (on average) under 30 days. Achieved 90% graduation, job retention and employment rate.
  • Reduced staff turnover from 93% to 16% over three years, and shaped culture that emphasized empowerment, quality, productivity, and standards and goal attainment.
  • Advisor to Engro, Exon and The World Bank on launching Social Enterprises in Pakistan, India and Africa, South Africa and the United States.
  • Featured in Oprah Magazine and on CNN and ABC.
  • Rescued businesses from closure through leading commercial real estate transition under budget by 10%, raising $240K for training & production facility tenant improvement (TI) – saving costs of $1.2M.
  • Lecturer on Social Entrepreneurship at Wharton School of Business (since 2006).
  • Spoken at over 300+ Engagements on the Topic of Social Entreprenuership and Leadership

 

Awards

INNOVATION IN EDUCATION

East Bay Economic Development Award for Innovation in Education – The San Francisco Business Times – 2016

The East Bay Innovation Awards celebrates the cutting-edge innovators in business that make the East Bay one of the preeminent regions of innovation in the nation.

HONORABLE MENTION AWARD

Social Venture Network (SVN), October 2008

Imagine What’s Next: Ideas that Will Change the Way the World Does Business.

This Contest was sponsored to recognize and support the next generation of socially responsible business and nonprofit leaders who are creating positive social change in the business sector.

EDIBLE ENTREPRENUER OF THE YEAR AWARD

FOOD NETWORK, 2007

The ceremony awarded individuals, destinations, and products that have changed the culinary world. This award went to the business with the best idea.

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Public Speaking, Press & Lectures

Public Speaking, Press & Lectures

A regular public speaker and author, Alicia has contributed to more than 75 events and articles, has been featured in Oprah Magazine and on CNN and ABC, and has been lecturing on Social Entrepreneurship at Wharton School of Business since 2006.

Her work has been featured in CNN Headline News ‘Small & Global’, and in publications such as The Financial Times, Glamour (South Africa), O, the Oprah Magazine (South Africa), and Business 2.0. Alicia also received the Food Network Awards 2007 ‘Edible Entrepreneur of the Year’ award.

Get in touch to book Alicia for a speaking engagement or event.