Jennifer Thomas, Civic Innovation Lab

Jennifer Thomas has been director of the Civic Innovation Lab since it’s inception in 2003. From 2000 – 2003, Jennifer founded and was director of ClevelandClicks, a social networking company that showcased local high tech start-ups and organized panel discussions on entrepreneurship. Prior to Cleveland, Jennifer was in New York City as director of business planning at Sony Music, structuring deals between Sony Music and its artists such as Pearl Jam, Barbra Streisand, and Mariah Carey. Prior to Sony, Jennifer was a senior financial analyst at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.

Jennifer holds a BA from Denison University and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

About the Civic Innovation Lab

The Civic Innovation Lab supports “community entrepreneurship” and innovation by providing mentoring and funding of up to $30,000 for civic, social and business start-ups that contribute to economic revitalization of struggling economies. Community entrepreneurs come from varied socio-economic backgrounds to create innovative early stage companies that have local economic impact. Since 2003, the Lab has granted over $1.6MM to 55 start-ups, and offered communication and strategic coaching to more than 800 entrepreneurs. Included in the Lab’s successes are Rays’ Mountain Bike Park, the nation’s only indoor mountain bike park, E Prep School, a community school successfully educating urban youth, and Full Circle Fuels, Ohio’s only full service alternative fuel station.