Jeroo Billimoria

Jeroo Billimoria is a social entrepreneur known for her work in child rights, financial literacy, and youth empowerment. She is the founder of nine social ventures, including MelJol, Childline India, Child Helpline International, Aflatoun International, and Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI). Billimoria holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Mumbai, a Master of Arts degree in social work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and a Master of Science degree in nonprofit management from the New School for Social Research in New York.

Billimoria's early achievements include the creation of Childline India, the country's first 24-hour emergency telephone service providing police assistance and healthcare for homeless children. Staffed by street children, Childline combined emergency telephone services with follow-up support. The free service expanded to more than 50 Indian cities and later to 143 countries. Billimoria also led the formation of the Credibility Alliance, a consortium of nonprofits developing performance standards in India, and founded Child Helpline International in Amsterdam.

Recognizing the need for financial education, Billimoria established Aflatoun, a nonprofit organization focused on social and financial education for children. Aflatoun International has worked with global partners to provide education to more than one million children in 100 countries. CYFI created a global network advancing financial inclusion and economic citizenship education for young people in over 160 countries. Billimoria established CYFI as a systems change organization focused on financial literacy and inclusion policies and programs for youth, working with thousands of partners worldwide.

Billimoria is also the founder of One Family Foundation, a private foundation that incubates social innovations and applies systems change methodology to help organizations scale. She is a founding member of the Catalyst 2030 movement, later renamed Catalyst Now, which works toward accelerating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and systems change. Her work has been featured in literature on social innovation, including David Bornstein's "How to Change the World" and John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan's "The Power of Unreasonable People."

Billimoria has received recognition including being named an Ashoka Fellow, a Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum, and receiving a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. She was appointed Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau by the King of the Netherlands for her service to society. Billimoria is a speaker and advocate for child rights and economic empowerment, addressing audiences at the World Economic Forum, the Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship, and at global corporations and universities.