Michael Basch

Michael currently works at Renaissance Philanthropy as Director of Fund Strategy and Regional Innovation. He supports multiple family foundations, including The Shapiro Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, on investment and innovation-based work.

Prior to joining Renaissance Philanthropy, Michael spent eight years at the intersection of philanthropy and investment as a strategist, builder, and investor. After moving to Tulsa in 2018, he co-founded and launched Atento Capital, a venture capital and talent strategy firm, in partnership with the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF), a Tulsa-focused foundation with assets of over $6 billion.

Michael and his team at Atento, which grew to 30 people, invested in 66 companies, 31 venture funds, and 4 venture studios. One of Atento’s goals was to generate sustainable jobs in Tulsa. Of the 66 companies Atento invested in, about a quarter were based in or relocated to Tulsa, and many are still thriving and growing, including Bioeutectics, Boddle, Medefy, and Volt.

Alongside their investment work, Michael and his Atento colleagues partnered with GKFF to attract talent to Tulsa and develop local talent and entrepreneurial infrastructure. Atento identified gaps in the Tulsa market, then designed, developed, and launched initiatives to close them. Some of the largest initiatives include Tulsa Remote, Tulsa Innovation Labs, Tulsa Responds, and Build in Tulsa. Through Tulsa Remote, the most successful remote worker relocation program in the world, more than 5,000 people from across the US and 25 countries have moved to Tulsa since 2018. Thousands more have benefited from the workforce and entrepreneurial ecosystem initiatives Michael and Atento created, which continue to thrive in Tulsa.

Before moving to Tulsa, Michael worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as part of the Technology and Innovation Policy team and as a full-time organizer in Madison, Wisconsin. Before his pivot out of the private sector, he spent 15 years building companies across coffee shops, product manufacturing, and mobile advertising.

Michael has a B.A. and MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, and an MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is married to Romi, and they have three children together: Leo, Olivia, and Sofia.