Mr. Palmer’s focus at Palm Ventures has been to invest in and start-up companies which have a positive and transformative impact on society. During his career, Mr. Palmer has acquired or started more than 50 companies in education, business software and services, energy, human resources, manufacturing, robotics, health care, wellness and affordable housing. In the education sector, Palm Ventures has acquired and started companies in inquiry-based STEM curriculum for K-12 public schools, education technology and career oriented colleges and universities.

Palm Ventures newest initiative, which Mr. Palmer is leading, involves opening venture studios in 9 U.S. cities in economically disadvantaged communities and launching impact business from those studios which seek to solve some of societies most vexing problems while creating good paying jobs.

Previously, Mr. Palmer was a Senior Associate with James D. Wolfensohn, Inc., an investment firm where he worked for Jim Wolfensohn and Paul Volcker on strategy and acquisitions for Fortune 100 clients. Mr. Palmer began his career as an entrepreneur, starting a business in the Midwest as a college student which he sold successfully.

In addition to Project Drawdown, Mr. Palmer currently serves or has previously served on the boards of numerous private companies and charitable organizations including Save the Children, Education Development Center, the Kelley School of Business, the Millennium Development Goals Health Alliance and the Maritime Aquarium.

Mr. Palmer served for 18 years on the US Save the Children board and in 2009 was appointed to the founding board of Save the Children International (“SCI”) where as Chair of the Governance Committee he moved to London for 3 years and successfully negotiated the merger of 29 independent Save the Children national organizations into one operating entity based in Geneva and London. Mr. Palmer led the SCI board nominations committee that recruited the first CEO and senior management team of the newly formed SCI and he was actively engaged in the initial planning with the new management team, BCG and Egon Zehnder in the operational merger of the 29 country organizations that formed a +$2 billion annual organization operating in 120 countries. During his Board tenure, Mr. Palmer has visited and volunteered in Save the Children programs in about 25 countries including war zones. In 2017, Mr. Palmer reached his terms limits on the Save the Children board and rotated off.

Over the past year, Mr. Palmer has delegated day to day management of Palm Ventures in order to focus his time on Project Drawdown and climate change initiatives, affordable housing and work force training to bridge the skills gap and improve incomes of disenfranchised portions of the U.S. population.