Gerald Chertavian

Founder & CEO, Year Up

Gerald Chertavian is the CEO and Founder of Year Up, a non-profit organization that provides intensive professional education to urban young adults. His organization was recently recognized by Fast Company and The Monitor Group as one of the top 25 organizations in the nation using business excellence to engineer social change. Prior to starting Year Up, Chertavian co-founded Conduit Communications and served as the head of marketing at Transnational Financial Services in London. He has been an active member of the Big Brother mentoring program since 1985, and was awarded New York’s outstanding member in 1989. He was also awarded the 2003 Social Entrepreneurship Award by the Manhattan Institute and the 2005 Freedom House Archie R. Williams, Jr. Technology Award. A graduate of Bowdoin College and Harvard Business School, Chertavian was born and raised in Lowell, MA.

All Videos

Dinner With Martin Luther King

If Gerald Chertavian could do dinner with anybody, it would be the great civil rights activist, whose insights into social justice and grassroots organization have proven timeless.

▸

2 min

—

with

Gerald Chertavian

All Videos

A Guide to Building a Business That Matters

Returning to America after 10 years abroad, the founder of Year Up found himself alone and with nothing but a big idea. Here he explains how he turned this situation […]

▸

7 min

—

with

Gerald Chertavian

All Videos

Adam Smith’s Non-Profit

Though the father of modern capitalism is generally associated with the virtues of self-interest, he also possessed a deep moral concern for our responsibility to help others. According to the […]

▸

5 min

—

with

Gerald Chertavian

All Videos

Getting Over College

The price of 4 year universities has been increasing by an average of 5 percent per year, a trend that is both unsustainable and contrary to the needs of a […]

▸

9 min

—

with

Gerald Chertavian

All Videos

How Would You Change School?

For the founder of Year Up, asking this question of his students has yielded three concrete principles that are proving to work.

▸

2 min

—

with

Gerald Chertavian

All Videos

Making Non-Profits Work

If the social entrepreneurship movement is going to be successful, an entirely new social contract will need to be forged between the private and public sectors. As the work of […]

▸

7 min

—

with

Gerald Chertavian

All Videos

Big Think Interview With Gerald Chertavian

Big Think sits down with the Founder and CEO of Year Up.

▸

30 min

—

with

Gerald Chertavian