Joe Torres comes to us with almost 20 years of experience working across the globe building strong partnerships and teams in emerging markets across diverse cultures. He is skilled at identifying where organizations can best collaborate for impact, and passionate about driving solutions driven by local needs. He is experienced in mobilizing resources from public, private and philanthropic partners to support work for development and humanitarian assistance. His specialties are managing dynamic, high-performing teams, developing efficient processes to deliver impact, strengthening partnerships, developing fundraising strategies, working across cultures and languages, developing relationships in diverse communities. He is presently the Executive Director of Grand Challenges Canada Foundation.
Previously, Joe spent over 12 years as Program Manager and lead for the Grand Challenges initiative at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation managing all business, operations, and key partnerships on behalf the program. Joe helped to develop new Grand Challenge country-specific programs in India, Brazil, and a pan-African Grand Challenges platform based in Kenya. He is a strategic advisor for developing new innovation platforms for public, private and government sponsored initiatives through open-sourced innovation platforms and requests for proposals. During his time at the foundation, he served on the board of the Global Innovation Exchange, a platform connecting innovators to funding and key partnership opportunities.
Joe earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Comparative Literature from San Diego State University. In his free time, he enjoys travel, cycling, sampling coffee from around the world, and volunteering for local community organizations.