Gisel Kordestani joined Mercy Corps’ Board of Directors after first meeting team members in Gaza in 2008. She had been trying to set up a Google Hackathon, a software programming competition, and found Mercy Corps to be the only team there that could achieve it. Today, Gisel serves as co-chair.

With Mercy Corps, Gisel values being part of meaningful and important work that makes a positive impact on individual lives and large, complicated problems around the world.

She is a founding member and on the steering and investor committees of the Leadership Now Project, a membership organisation of business and thought leaders taking action to fix American Democracy. Gisel is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, she was the co-founder and CEO of Crowdpac, a political platform that enables everyday citizens to engage in politics which was sold to new owners in 2019. Prior to that, Gisel spent eight years at Google and held several senior roles as Director in both Finance and New Business Development. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from the American University in Paris and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Gisel was born and raised in France but currently lives in Silicon Valley. In her free time, she loves to ski, golf, and chase her three young children.