User Profile

Principal, Bold Works

Marcus Castain is the founder and CEO of Generation Water, an organization that focuses on restoring landscapes to their natural beauty while living within available water resources. Prior to founding Generation Water, Marcus founded and was the CEO of the Infrastructure Academy, a social entrepreneurial organization focused on building a pipeline of diverse, well-qualified young people for the career opportunities of the green economy. He most recently was associate director of education, youth, and families for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, where he worked to raise expectations and support for meaningful education reform in Los Angeles. He also served as the Mayor's liaison to the city's Department of Cultural Affairs. Previously, Marcus was an associate director at the Broad Foundation, a national venture philanthropic organization that concentrates on dramatically improving K-12 urban public education. At Broad he managed a $30 million investment portfolio focused on improving the management systems of large urban school districts. He also started The Broad Residency program, a highly competitive, two-year management development program that trains emerging leaders for senior management positions in urban school districts. Marcus has worked in product management for a Cisco Learning Partner and as a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He started his career in Washington, D.C., as a research analyst at an international affairs think tank. Marcus has an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and a BA in international political economy from University of California, Berkeley. He teaches a graduate course in social entrepreneurship at the UCLA School of Public Affairs. Marcus is a Marshall Memorial Fellow. He is a Fellow of the third class of The Aspen Institute-NewSchools Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.