Explore how fair-chance hiring can transform workplaces. From breaking down misconceptions about justice-impacted individuals to creating meaningful opportunities for reintegration, this conversation with Ken Oliver, CIO of The Just Trust, dives deep into how business leaders can redefine second chances at work — and why it’s a win-win for individuals, organizations, and communities.
Episode Guest
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Ken Oliver
Ken Oliver is a transformative leader and innovator driving social impact at the intersection of sports, business and entertainment. As Chief Innovation Officer at The Just Trust, and Managing Director of JUMP (the Justice & Upward Mobility Project), he leads an effort to leverage the power and influence of sports, business, and entertainment to reshape narratives and catalyze access to education, employment, and economic mobility to foster stronger, safer communities.
Before joining The Just Trust, Ken was Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at Checkr, Inc., and Executive Director of the Checkr Foundation. His work centers on innovation, narrative change, talent and leadership development, corporate training, inclusive hiring practices, and public policy.
Ken’s journey is a powerful testament to resilience. After spending 24 years in prison—almost a decade of which in solitary confinement—he challenged the conditions and circumstances of his confinement and won a landmark civil rights lawsuit in collaboration with Stanford University and Mayer Brown that secured an unprecedented settlement and release in 2019. Soon after, he was hired as paralegal at a public interest law firm, and quickly rose to become the organization’s state policy director. In 2020, he transitioned to becoming co-founder and Executive Director of a nonprofit organization that secured a historic $28.5M investment from California to build the nation’s first residentially based tech training campus for justice-impacted adults.
His thought leadership has been featured in Newsweek, World Economic Forum, Essence, Reuters, HR Daily Advisor, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Fast Company, Forbes, Fox News, CBS News, Scripps News, and Inc. Magazine.
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