Art Bilger, Founder of WorkingNation.com, Venture Capitalist and Philanthropist

The Caring Economy with Toby Usnik

Art Bilger, Founder & CEO, is a venture capitalist who started WorkingNation in 2016 to bring attention to structural unemployment issues, the future of work, the skills gap, and achievable solutions.

Art has been an investor in, and director of, various private companies, including Akamai Technologies, where he served as Vice Chairman. He was also president and COO of New World Communications Group; a Founding Partner of Apollo Advisors; and Executive Vice President, Co-head of Corporate Finance at Drexel Burnham Lambert. He serves on the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School Board of Overseers.

In addition, Art is Vice Chairman of the Skirball Cultural Center; a board member of Bet Tzedek; an advisory board member for the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging; and on the Executive Committee for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. He was an executive producer for the film 20 Feet from Stardom, which won the 2013 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Art earned an economics degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

First Job: “Runner at a small, but important, Wall Street firm when I was 16. I was the youngest runner by 50 years, but it led me to want to work on Wall Street which led to Wharton and UC, then joining Drexel Burnham as a young investment banker. This background is key to my focus at WorkingNation.”

Side Note: “I attended my first concert when I was 11 years old and heard a then-little-known band called The Beach Boys.”

Follow Art at LinkedIn.