Laura Hoover serves as Chief Development Officer at Working Solutions CDFI, where she leads strategic fundraising initiatives, institutional partnerships, impact evaluation, communications, and branding. 

Laura joined Working Solutions in 2015 with a diverse background in fund development, microfinance, and international economic development. Prior to Working Solutions, Laura held leadership roles at the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland, the Alliance for Enterprise Development in Ukraine and Moldova, and in Russia for the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group. Laura was a volunteer member of the Working Solutions Loan Committee from 2005 until 2015. 

As a member of the Working Solutions Executive Team, Laura has supported significant growth in the organization’s capital deployment, asset size, and impact. Over the past 5 years, Working Solutions has tripled its all-time deployment from $20 million to $60 million while maintaining a focus on small-dollar loans and grants, with 99% of capital deployed to low-income and other historically marginalized entrepreneurs. Additionally, Working Solutions quadrupled its assets from $5 million to $20 million since 2013. Working Solutions recently expanded both its geographic footprint and loan size, now providing small business loans of up to $100,000 throughout the entire state of California. 

 Laura and her husband are co-owners of their own small business, Flywheel Wines, dedicated to the production of handcrafted wines from fruit grown in the Chalone region of Monterey County. In this capacity, Laura serves as Vice President of the Board of the International Wine & Food Society of Monterey County. Laura received her B.A. in Russian and Soviet Studies at U.C. San Diego and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude. She also holds diplomas from Leningrad State University in St. Petersburg and the Sorbonne University in Paris.