Michelle Klassen Merrigan
Michelle Klassen Merrigan (“MK”) of MK Advisors, a member of ACE Health Foundation's ACE Global Leaders of Excellence Network, began her career in humanitarian aid, working frequently in resource-restricted environments. For the past decade, MK has worked to facilitate and accelerate the adoption of strategic solutions for resource equity needs, while also educating policymakers to support smart, affordable technologies that enable creative financial models.
MK created an innovative model that allows for emerging technologies to be fielded, and commercialized at scale, inside of the communities that need the solutions most. Knowledge transfer, female empowerment, economic development, and clean climate solutions are the very foundation of this vision.
Through these models, MK seeks to empower communities at the local level, giving access to an international toolkit of bankable, sustainable solutions, to harness economies of scale through aggregating a portfolio of projects.
Over the years, MK has worked with Department of Defense engineering research labs, industry, academia, and investors, focused on the mission of reducing carbon output through creative, clean, replicable solutions. Because of this international focus, and the rapidly evolving geo-political shifts taking place, the very focus of her work has been in national security and the intersection of community stabilization. MK has incubated Mana Pacific, Protect the Line and The Mana Boutique, and is currently working to expand this vision in Sub-Saharan Africa.