Ken Oliver
Ken Oliver is Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at Checkr, Inc., and the Executive Director of the Checkr Foundation, Checkr’s 501(c)(3) corporate foundation. Checkr’s mission is Building a Fairer Future of Work by designing technology for all, while its foundation seeks to reshape the narrative and provide pathways to sustainable employment for the 80M Americans who suffer from an arrest and conviction record. Ken's professional expertise spans the landscape of philanthropy, DE&I, Clean Slate, talent development, change management, and public policy. His proximate leadership is informed by lived experience after having been sentenced to life in prison for joyriding. With the support of Stanford University and corporate law firm Mayer Brown, Mr. Oliver successfully litigated a civil rights lawsuit against California, which led to his release in 2019. Upon his release, Mr. Oliver quickly established himself in the legal field, first as a paralegal at a public interest law firm and later as a state policy director. In 2020, he co-founded and became the Executive Director of a nonprofit organization where he designed an innovative reentry model focused on providing justice-impacted individuals with career pathways in tech and the knowledge-based economy. He then led an effort that secured a $28.5 million investment from the State of California to build the first of its kind residentially based tech training campus in the country.
