Caroline Mak

Caroline Mak is the program director for Big Ideas Ventures accelerator in NY. As a former food entrepreneur, Caroline Mak is committed to advocating for innovative entrepreneurs. She co-founded and ran a beverage company, Brooklyn Soda Works for seven years and the successes plus the failures of her first company led her to become invested in learning more about what supports are necessary to ensure companies are able to grow sustainably and thrive. Prior to joining BIV she worked as program director at the New York based social enterprise Hot Bread Kitchen where she oversaw the sales of their bakery, then moved to overseeing the small business incubator program; she was most recently at the impact agency NationSwell where she oversaw community engagement programming. She sits on the advisory board of non-profit organization WEALF, where she mentors and supports women entrepreneurs, and has taught social entrepreneurship at the School of the Visual Art’s Design for Social Innovation department.

Caroline grew up in Hong Kong, received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford University and a Master’s of Fine Art from the University of Chicago.