Debbie Berger

Board Member

Ms. Debbie Berger was born and raised in Hawaiʻi although she spent much of her youth in Japan. After studying Economics and French at Smith College, Ms. Berger worked for JP Morgan in New York, Tokyo and then London during which time she ran interest rate derivatives trading books in a broad variety of markets.

Upon leaving JP Morgan Ms. Berger attended law school in London and subsequently spent several years in the non-profit world, first at Comic Relief (UK) and then at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development where she ran the Client Risk Management Group advising developing Eastern European countries on how to best manage their financial risks as they moved toward a free market system.

In 2004, Ms. Berger founded Unbound Philanthropy. Based in New York, the foundation promotes the ideal of self-determination by working to equalize the distribution of opportunities in refugee and immigrant populations worldwide. In 2007 she returned to Hawaiʻi and co-founded The Learning Coalition or TLC. TLC's goal is to assist Hawaiʻi's public schools by building and strengthening a grassroots movement around their transformation into world class institutions of 21st century learning.