Introducing a New Member of the Kiva Team, CEO Martin Tschopp

We are honored to announce a new member of our team, Martin Tschopp, as CEO of Kiva. As co-lead with Kiva’s President and Co-founder, Premal Shah, Martin brings a skillset that will help Kiva grow our reach, maximize social impact and leverage technology in strategic new ways.

Martin comes to Kiva after 12 years with eBay, most recently as the Vice President and General Manager of eBay Advertising. At eBay, he worked to build and grow marketplace and e-commerce businesses in 20 countries, with a consistent track record of success in a wide range of markets.

Martin is one of a handful of executives in the world that has amassed such expertise working with consumer internet businesses, from startup to scale up. He will now bring this expertise to the social good space, and is dedicated to using his knowledge to help grow the Kiva community in service of the organization’s vision and mission.

“I’m filled with great excitement and a lot of humility stepping into the role of CEO of Kiva. Humility because I am in awe of what Kiva has achieved over the last 10 years,” Martin said. “And excitement because I share a conviction that Kiva can have an even greater depth and breadth of impact in the years to come. I’m proud to be a part of that. Why I am here, why it speaks to my soul, is that I believe in empowering people and building strong communities from the bottom up.”

As Kiva nears its 10th anniversary in October 2015, we are in a great place to continue to push the boundaries of that impact around the world, including reaching some of the most isolated regions, servicing those living in conflict zones, and crowdfunding more community-level impact loans.

Martin will pull from his past career experiences, starting at McKinsey and eventually eBay, where he developed a reputation as a problem solver, able to distill the best ideas from his teams into actionable plans for growth and improvement. He’s also participated in Save the Children’s Online Advisory Board in Germany.

One of Martin’s first priorities as CEO: start working directly in the field, meet borrowers and talk with Field Partners about what’s working.

“In Martin, Kiva has gained an authentic guide who possesses a rare combination of character, competence, integrity, and humility and is a consummate learner,” said Premal, Kiva's President and Co-founder. “We have much work ahead of us. Co-leading Kiva’s next chapter with Martin sets us, our community and entrepreneurs around the world, on the front lines of global economic progress and unity. We are looking forward to this critical next chapter and hope the Kiva community will join us in welcoming an incredible new member of the team.”