User Profile

Founder & Chief Innovation Officer, Chicago Ideas

Kirsten Saenz Tobey is founder and chief impact officer for Revolution Foods. She founded Revolution Foods in 2006 with Kristin Groos Richmond, a former classmate at Berkeley's Haas School of Business, and continues to steward the mission and drive the vision and brand experience for the company, overseeing marketing communications and talent management, among other key aspects of the business. Prior to founding Revolution Foods, Kirsten's career spanned from leading experiential education programs in the United States and Ecuador to evaluating the scalability of school feeding programs with the United Nations Hunger Task Force in Ghana. Kirsten is an Ashoka Fellow, Aspen Institute Fellow, and a member of the Culinary Institute of America's Sustainable Business Council. With Revolution Foods co-founder Groos Richmond, she was named Entrepreneur of the Year by NewSchools Venture Fund in 2010, is one of TIME magazine's Education Activists of 2011, and is listed as one of Fortune's 40 under 40 for 2013. Kirsten's work centers around developing innovative, attainable solutions aimed at providing access to healthy food and education to all current and future generations. She currently is a member of the boards of directors for Net Impact, Global Citizen Year, and People's Community Market. Kirsten holds an AB from Brown University and an MBA from UC Berkeley. She lives in Berkeley with her husband and two daughters. Kirsten's past associations include being a member of the USF Presidential Commission for Health Professions and a mentor for the Women's Initiative Fellowship Program through the George W. Bush Institute. She is a Fellow of the second class of the Catto Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.