Catherine Hoke

Catherine Hoke is the founder and former CEO of Defy Ventures, a United States-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.[1][2] In 2014, Hoke was named in Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business [3] and was elected an Ashoka Fellow.[4] In 2015 Hoke received the MDC Partners Humanitarian Award on behalf of Defy Ventures.[5] In the same year, she was also named as a WIRED #maketechhuman Agent of Change.[6] Forbes included Hoke in its 2017 40 Women to Watch Over 40 list.[7] In 2018, Hoke released her book A Second Chance: For You, For Me and For the Rest of Us (published by Seth Godin with a foreword written by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook).[8] In 2009, Hoke resigned as CEO from the Prison Entrepreneurship Program after admitting to sexual relationships with formerly incarcerated students.[9] In 2018, she resigned as CEO from Defy Ventures, also launched by Hoke, after further allegations of sexual harassment.[10]

Catherine Hoke
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
OccupationFounder, Former CEO PEP

Founder, Former CEO Defy Ventures

Founder, Cat Hoke LLC
Websitecathoke.com

Background

Early life

Cat was born in Montreal, Canada. Her Hungarian-Yugoslavian father, immigrated there when he was 22, and he became a successful inventor. As young as age seven, Cat began inventing solutions and proposing business models to her father, an engineer hired by Stanford University. From a young age, she says that she was consistently thinking about ways to give back to the underserved.

After graduating from the University of California, Hoke was hired by Summit Partners, a venture capital firm, and several years later became the Director of Investment Development at American Securities Capital Partners in New York City. Hoke found early success and grew in her role on an investment team as she mastered how to identify promising entrepreneurs.

Prison Entrepreneurship Program

In 2004, Catherine Hoke (previously Catherine Rohr) toured several Texas prisons and discovered that many of the incarcerated men she met possessed strong business acumen, sales skills, and entrepreneurial qualities. She also found that many gangs and drug rings are run similarly to corporations —with bylaws, bookkeeping functions, marketing strategies, and quality control programs. Following this realization, Hoke recruited executive volunteers and conducted a business 101 seminar. Four months later, Hoke ran her first-ever business pitch competition, which was covered by the Wall Street Journal.[11] Hoke turned these efforts into the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP), an organization that she grew statewide in Texas, teaching entrepreneurship and character development to incarcerated men.

PEP was nationally recognized for the organization's positive impact under Hoke's leadership. In 2007, Hoke received the Texas Governor's Award for Criminal Justice Volunteer Service for Social Innovation.[12] In 2007, Hoke also received the Manhattan Institute's Social Entrepreneurship Award.[13] In 2008, Hoke was inducted into the Philanthropy World Hall of Fame,[14] and PEP received the “Rising Star” award from the Monitor Group/Fast Company Social Capitalist Awards.[15] PEP also ranked as a finalist in contests for the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation and the Ashoka Changemakers award.[16]

In 2009, Hoke was banned from Texas prisons after she admitted to having sexual relationships with PEP participants after their release from prison. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice deemed those relationships inappropriate.[17][18]

Defy Ventures

After being forced out from PEP [19] in October 2010, Hoke founded Defy Ventures in New York City.[20] Defy's vision is "To end mass incarceration and cycles of recidivism by using entrepreneurship as a tool to transform legacies and human potential.” Defy took on solving the issue of high recidivism rates through entrepreneurship programs that taught incarcerated participants a comprehensive business skill-set through comprehensive curriculum.

Defy Ventures was featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and Forbes.com.

A Second Chance: For You, For Me, and For the Rest of Us

Hoke released her book, A Second Chance: For You, For Me and For the Rest of Us in early 2018. The book follows Hoke's personal journey and tells the story about how she came to serve incarcerated people. The book was published by Hoke's mentor, Seth Godin.

Sexual Harassment Allegations

In January 2018, a number of allegations against Hoke and Defy Ventures were made by a former employee. The allegations included sexual harassment, having a sexual relationship with a formerly incarcerated participant, misleading donors, exaggerating the success of the program, and not accurately tracking outcomes of former program participants. [21]

gollark: hodl?
gollark: Actually, 2 days, given that I'm in the UK.
gollark: You could donate to osmarks.tk. 31.7 cents would cover about 3 days' operational expenses!
gollark: Wow.
gollark: We have significant costs, you know.

References
  1. "Defy Ventures Looks For a Few Good Felons in Oakland". criminalu.co. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  2. "Helping ex-criminals develop start-ups". nytimes.com. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  3. "Most Creative People in Business 2014 | Fast Company". Fast Company. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  4. "Meet New Ashoka Fellow". forbes.com. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  5. "MDC Partners Presents the 2015 MDC Partners Humanitarian Award to Defy Ventures". yahoo.com. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
  6. "WIRED #MTH". April 11, 2017. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  7. Johnson, Whitney. "40 Women To Watch Over 40 Celebrates Possibilities Ahead For Women". Forbes. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  8. "A Second Chance". Sounds True. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  9. "Prison Entrepreneurship Chief Quits Over Relations With Ex-Cons". The Crime Report. October 14, 2009. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  10. "Prison Reformer Resigns After Daily Beast Story". The Daily Beast. March 22, 2018. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  11. Journal, Katherine RosmanStaff Reporter of The Wall Street. "Have Donation, Will Travel". WSJ. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  12. "Ex-Cons Relaunching Lives as Entrepreneurs". Inc.com. May 29, 2012. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  13. "Social Entrepreneurship Initiative | Manhattan Institute". Manhattan Institute. September 2, 2015. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  14. "Texas Legislature Online - Report". capitol.texas.gov. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  15. "Rising Star: Prison Entrepreneurship Program". Fast Company. December 1, 2007. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  16. "PEP | PEP Results". pep.org. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  17. "Ex-Cons Relaunching Lives as Entrepreneurs". Inc. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  18. "Startup Gets Tech-Industry Experts to Mentor Convicts". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  19. "Ex-inmates defy odds". foxbusiness.com. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  20. "Most Creative People". fastcompany.com. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  21. https://www.thedailybeast.com/silicon-valleys-favorite-prison-reformer-accused-of-sexual-assault-and-harassment
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