Philip Gaskin

Philip Gaskin is vice president of Entrepreneurship for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where he is responsible for leading the Kauffman Foundation’s efforts to build an economy that works for all people by making entrepreneurship an integral component of economic development policies, practices, and programs.

As a leader with deep expertise in implementing strategies that change conditions in communities of all types, Gaskin provides the vision, strategic thinking, and thought leadership to scale and deepen the impact of the Foundation’s comprehensive entrepreneurship portfolio, which aims to eliminate systemic barriers and enhance economic activity through inclusive entrepreneurship. With deep experience in organizational management in a variety of settings, he is also responsible for the department’s strategic planning, talent acquisition, program execution, grants process, budgeting, and operations. Charged with leading the team of more than 30 associates, Gaskin uses his collective life and work experiences to inspire each associate to achieve extraordinary things, reach their full potential, and impact the lives of those the Foundation serves.

Prior to joining the Kauffman Foundation, Gaskin was chief operating officer for Impact Hub in the U.S., where he led organization-wide initiatives to develop and scale a social innovation marketplace to support entrepreneurs and impact investors to build sustainable businesses that drive long-term social and environmental change. He served as lead partner to Impact Hub’s global association to promote interorganizational alignment, shape global business strategy, and advance strategic efforts in developing regions of the world – including Africa and Latin America.

Previously, Gaskin served in various campaign positions for national candidates, including Cory Booker for U.S. Senate and President Barack Obama, directing efforts in Pennsylvania for Obama for America. In leading the grassroots operations, Gaskin opened and managed multiple offices, and built, scaled, and activated teams of staff and volunteers who delivered historic results by aligning community, city, state, and federal leaders to support policy initiatives.

Earlier, Gaskin held private sector executive leadership roles with leading global firms providing strategic enterprise and travel management consulting to Fortune 50 companies. Gaskin served as senior vice president for multinational business strategy and solutions where he led global operations, customer strategy, account and contract management, technology, human resources, finance, and business development teams across 35 countries for a standalone, 400-person business unit representing $1B in revenues. Gaskin led the industry’s first global service marketplace, an automated follow-the-sun service delivery platform providing real-time service solutions to thousands of customer employees in over 30 countries. Gaskin also provided executive leadership for the firm’s global entertainment and media business unit providing enterprise consulting, high-touch services, and production logistics to the majority of music and motion picture studios across the globe.

A native of Los Angeles, Gaskin attended Pennsylvania State University and graduated from California State University with a Bachelor of Science in marketing.