Nick O’Donohoe joined CDC as its chief executive in June 2017 and is also a member of CDC's board. He was previously a senior adviser to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he specialized in the use of blended finance models to support the work of the foundation. Prior to taking this role, Nick co-founded, with Sir Ronald Cohen, Big Society Capital, or BSC. He served as its chief executive officer from 2011 to December 2015. BSC is an independent financial institution established by the U.K. government as “the world’s first social investment bank” and is capitalized with unclaimed U.K. bank accounts and investment by the largest U.K. banks.