Languages: English, Spanish & Portuguese
JESSE LEON creates innovative public-private-philanthropic partnerships to develop and implement strategies for social impact investments and grantmaking programs for affordable housing, mixed-income housing developments, sex trafficking, addiction, mental health and LGBTQ+ issues.
Jesse managed multi-billion-dollar investments in the private and public sectors for affordable and mixed income housing (including the first LGBT senior housing development in Florida). He managed philanthropy and corporate giving strategies for JPMorgan Chase and built over 5,000 units of mixed income housing representing over $2B in real estate investments and master development projects while at Bank of America.
Jesse has managed budgets ranging from $10MM to over $2.3B while managing teams of various sizes. In addition, he helped build the philanthropic movement in the US with national funders on equitable development to create cross-silo strategic grantmaking connecting housing, transportation, education, health, and the environment. He also brings almost three years of experience managing nearly $300M in public sector grants while at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Jesse received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California at Berkeley, his Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a post-graduate fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania’s (UPENN) Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence. While at the Kennedy School he conducted probono consulting for Native American communities on economic development and environmental justice issues. Jesse studied international economics abroad in Spain for one full academic year, and in Cuba for a summer conducting research on HIV prevention strategies. He is a native Spanish speaker and fluent in Portuguese. He currently serves on the executive board of the Harvard Club of San Diego.