Mario Morino
Co-founder and Chairman of Venture Philanthropy Partners
Chairman, Morino Institute.

Mario Morino is co-founder and chairman of Venture Philanthropy Partners and chairman of the Morino Institute. His career spans more than 45 years as entrepreneur, technologist, and civic and business leader. He also has a long history of civic engagement and philanthropy in the National Capital Region and Northeast Ohio. He is the primary author of the book Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity (2011), which is informing efforts in more than a dozen countries to increase the impact of nonprofits, foundations, and public-sector entities.

In the early 1970s, Mario co-founded and helped build the Legent Corporation, a software and services firm that became a market leader and one of the industry’s 10 largest firms by the early 1990s. He retired from the private sector in 1992. Since then, he has sought to “level the playing field” for children of low-income families, focusing almost exclusively on economic, social, and educational issues.

Mario has benefited from a 25-year relationship with General Atlantic LLC, one of the leading global growth equity firms providing capital for companies in markets with high growth potential, typically driven by globalization, industry consolidation, technology, demographics, liberalized markets, and other transformative factors. After serving as a Special Advisor and a member of its Executive Advisory Board, he continues as an Advisor to the firm.

In his philanthropic work, Mario founded the Morino Institute in 1994 to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship, advance a more effective philanthropy, close social divides, and understand the relationship and impact of the Internet on our society. In the 1990s, his efforts focused on the application of the Internet in communities and, in particular, opening up new technology-enabled learning opportunities and centers for children and youth of low-income families. Concurrently, he played a leadership role helping the National Capital Region understand and advance its position as a world center in information technology and telecommunications.

In 2000, Mario co-founded Venture Philanthropy Partners as a philanthropic investment organization that concentrates investments of money, expertise, and contacts to improve the lives and boost the opportunities of children of low-income families in the National Capital Region. He has been one of the leaders in adapting the relevant principles of venture and growth equity investment firms and applying them for investing in the nonprofit sector to build stronger, high-impact, lasting nonprofit institutions. He also helped bring together and continues to advance a growing community of high net worth families in and around the nation’s capital.

In addition to his roles with Venture Philanthropy Partners and the Morino Institute, Mario serves as a member of the board of directors of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation and the advisory board of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Institute, an honorary trustee of The Brookings Institution, an Emeritus Trustee of Case Western Reserve University and member of their Research and Technology Commercialization Visiting Committee, and on the boards of the Lawrence School and Saint Joseph Academy. He is also an advisor to Echoing Green, Within3, PEACE X PEACE, The Fuqua School of Business Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University, and the Partnership for Public Service. Mario informally advises scores of organizations and individuals across a range of areas.

An active public speaker and writer, Mario has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He received a B.B.A. from Case Western Reserve University and lives in greater Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife and three children.