Jacqueline M. Jenkins

Jacqueline M. Jenkins
Chief Operating Officer
Milligan & Co. L.L.C., Philadelphia, Penn.

Jacqueline M. Jenkins became fascinated with business as she observed her father’s entrepreneurial ventures. Today, the girl who organized her father’s files is the chief operating officer of Milligan & Co. L.L.C., Philadelphia’s largest minority-owned consulting and certified public accounting firm. She’s a visionary, she says, and joined the firm to help chart its future success. To that end, she is working with the senior management team to implement its five-year strategic plan.

Jenkins began her career as a commercial lender with First National Bank of Boston and subsequently held positions in finance at Ernst & Young L.L.P. and Ann Taylor Inc. In 2000, she founded Add Value Day 1, an advisory firm that created business strategies, secured capital and obtained contract opportunities for startup companies. She served as the chief financial officer for Black Cyberspace Online Inc., a technology company that worked to bridge the digital divide in urban communities, and as director of the Wharton Small Business Development Center, a consulting firm in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.

Beyond her professional accomplishments, Jenkins shares her talents with the community. She is a board member of the Greater Philadelphia Minority Business Strategic Alliance and serves, on a part-time basis as its interim executive director. She is the founder and lead organizer of a citywide business-plan competition for local youths, which is conducted in partnership with Pennsylvania State Senator LeAnna Washington. Declaring her belief in always moving ahead, she warns, “If you sit too long feeling excited about what you have accomplished or sad about not accomplishing something, you have wasted time … I’m a firm believer that the best is yet to come.”

Jenkins holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Spelman College and an MBA in finance from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.