Scott Issen is President & CEO of Future Founders, a non-profit that believes every youth can become an entrepreneur. Scott has over 14 years of experience in management, leadership and fundraising. As one of the organization’s founders, Scott created an unparalleled suite of entrepreneurship programs for students in elementary school through college. During his tenure, Future Founders has served over 29,500 students and will serve another 2,000 students in 2015-16.Prior to joining Future Founders, Scott served as Managing Director for the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (CEC), an organization that today runs 1871. In this role, he led the organization’s finances, marketing, public relations and operations. Scott raised over $1 million through his fundraising efforts, managed staff members and provided strategic guidance to the CEC’s Board of Directors.During his time with the CEC, Scott successfully launched the Future Founders youth entrepreneurship program, which spun out of the CEC in September 2011 and is now called Future Founders Ignite. The program was recognized by Mayor Richard M. Daley, the Chicago City Council, the CEO of Chicago Public Schools and various media outlets. Scott also oversaw the annual Momentum Awards Dinner that grew to a $1 million+ event with 950 attendees in four years.In addition, Scott was a CEC business advisor and counseled entrepreneurs on debt financing, market and channel analysis, lead generation strategies and corporate positioning and messaging. He served on numerous strategic advisory boards for entrepreneurs and was recognized in 2006, 2007 and 2008 for outstanding support on three advisory panels.Previously, Scott managed small business programming for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and staffed the Technology Growth Committee. He also held various positions at ABN AMRO and LaSalle Banks (now Bank of America).Scott serves on the Washington University Chicago Regional Cabinet, is a Chicago Co-Chair of the Washington University Alumni and Parent Admission Program, a board member for Mishkan Chicago, a startup Jewish spiritual community, and a member of the Chicago Ideas Week YOU(th) Advisory Committee. Previously, he was a director for the Smart Bet Charity and a founding member of the Program Leadership Council for the Illinois Mentoring Partnership.Scott was named to the 2013 Crain’s “40 Under 40” list as well as the 2013 Jewish “36 Under 36” list by the Jewish United Fund.Scott graduated magna cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and majors in marketing and finance.
