Miles Lasater - Social Investment Council Profile

1) Tell us about yourself!  Where are you from and what do you do for a living?

I grew up in San Francisco and live in New Haven, CT.  Depending on the company, I sometimes reveal that I was born in Texas.  I work as Founder and COO of Higher One.

Founded in 2000, Higher One provides higher education institutions and their students with efficient, convenient and easy-to-use solutions to handle financial payments. These include: student refunds, on-campus and community purchases, payroll and employee expenses, as well as the collection of payments from students, parents, and sponsors.  Higher One offers a suite of online banking services including the OneAccount, an FDIC-insured checking account, and OneCard, a Debit MasterCard(R). To date, Higher One has disbursed over $4 billion in refunds for its clients to more than 2,000,000 students, faculty, and staff at distinguished public and private higher education institutions throughout the country.

Higher One recently ranked 85 on the 2007 Inc. List of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the United States.

I'm also known for hanging around with fellow entrepreneurs and dancing more than is appropriate. I enjoy long walks on the elliptical and was recently spotted at my own wedding.

2) Why did you get involved with Echoing Green and our Social Investment Council?  How have you been involved?

As an entrepreneur, I am excited about the early stage of idea creation and organization building.  Through my work starting the Yale Entrepreneurial Society and the associated annual business plan competition, I had become familiar with our award winners who went on to become Echoing Green fellows.  For example, Ruth and Benita, founders of Mercado Global and Andrew Youn of One Acre Fund were inspirational.  I wanted to help support social entrepreneurs of this caliber.

I am still learning how I can be most helpful to Echoing Green.  I have reviewed applications for fellows.  And I was excited that through the Echoing Green network, I was lucky enough to connect SKS Microfinance Founder Vikram Akula with a U.S. based Catholic charity. They are now doing a joint microfinance project in India.

3) What is your social change passion?

I am excited by pattern changing business models or organizations that can catalyze large scale movements - especially when they are self-sustaining financially.  In paticular, I am excited by civic engagement, conflict resolution, and applications of technology.  For example, information technology application can be information technology like SeeClickFix or agricultural technology like Kickstart or One Acre.

That being said, I love learning about new models and ideas and meeting the people who have what it takes to make them a reality.

4) What is your favorite song/movie/book of all time?

The only book I've read three or four times is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  (I'm not counting books my parents read to me or picture books I can't remember any more!)  A fast-paced science fiction novel with a protagonist who is "too young" to be a leader, but who demonstrates a keen understanding of human psychology and power dynamics.  And, yes, since it is science fiction, he saves the world from invading aliens.

There are many other books I have enjoyed or learned from - too many to mention here.