Jon Browning

Jon Browning (born 1966) is an American social entrepreneur and public speaker. In 2019, he became the chief executive officer (CEO) of nonprofit Global Mentorship Initiative (GMI).

Prior to his position, Browning partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to create the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition.

Early life and education
Jon Browning was born in Roseville, CA but spent much of his childhood living in several US states before moving to Washington state and graduating from Liberty High School in 1984. He graduated as a first-generation student from Central Washington University in 1990 with degrees in Finance and Accounting.

Career
After graduating from university, he joined Microsoft in 1990 and began a 24-year career in IT, Finance, and Customer Service. In 2013, a chance introduction to the Rockefeller Foundation altered the course of his life and career. He was invited to work on the new Digital Jobs Africa Initiative.

In 2014, he left Microsoft to join the Rockefeller Foundation as a grantee to build the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition to encourage the hiring of youth in underserved communities around the world and promote job creation in areas of high unemployment.

During his time with the foundation, he learned from job recruiters in Johannesburg, South Africa that the best jobs in high unemployment areas often weren't going to underrepresented but equally qualified youth.

Companies were often hiring more affluent graduates who already had a strong support network. They had business connections and sometimes even mentors. So, while underrepresented students were equally qualified for these jobs, sometimes they were less competitive in their job search because of this. Addressing this inequity gap led Browning to create Global Mentorship Initiative (GMI) in 2019, launching in March, 2020.

Launching Global Mentorship Initiative
Browning acknowledges that he failed at mentorship in both mentor and mentee roles during his time at Microsoft and attributed this to a lack of structure. GMI's goal was to enable almost anyone to be a great mentor regardless of geography or culture. A consistent quality experience for each mentee would require a highly structured mentorship approach. This would be necessary to achieve GMI's scalability goals.

As of 2024, GMI has provided mentorship to over 7,000 students in 100 countries who were nominated by their colleges and youth organizations. They were matched with over 6,000 business mentors in 127 countries to complete a short-term, online mentorship, structured to help them get their first job.

Mentorship for refugees
GMI partners with several refugee organizations including the UNHCR, ICTC, Southern New Hampshire University's GEM program, and RefugeeOne. As of 2024, 500 refugee students, many living in camps across the Middle East and Africa have completed the GMI program. 74% of GMI-mentored students worldwide have a job within six months of graduation.

Browning continues to be active in the promotion of Impact Sourcing across several industries and he chairs the IAOP Center for Social Responsibility for Business Process Outsourcing. He resides with his family in Bellevue, WA.