Laura Callanan founded Upstart Co-Lab to disrupt how creativity is funded by connecting impact investing to the creative economy. Before launching Upstart, Laura was senior deputy chairman of the US federal arts agency, the National Endowment for the Arts, overseeing all grant-making programs, operations, and research. As a consultant with McKinsey & Company’s Social Sector Office, Laura led work on social innovation, sustainable capitalism, and social impact assessment. She previously served as senior adviser at the United Nations, Development Programme executive director of the Prospect Hill Foundation and associate director at the Rockefeller Foundation where, in addition to her responsibilities managing the endowment, she co-led the Foundation’s first impact investments, included two in the creative economy: Smithsonian Folkways Records and netomat.

Laura is the immediate past board chair for the Global Giving Foundation, a board member of Upriver Studios, a public benefit LLCand a member of the British Council Policy and Evidence Centre for the Creative Industries – International Council. She has been a visiting fellow at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, a scholar in residence at UC-Berkeley/Haas School of Business, a visiting scholar to the American Academy in Rome, and the recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship.