Date: 2024-08-16 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00014695
Economist Event in New York
Event information / Speakers
Economist Event in New York ... Event information / Speakers
Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
Speakers
Audrey Choi
Chief sustainability officer, Morgan Stanley
Audrey Choi
Chief sustainability officer, Morgan Stanley
Audrey Choi is Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer of Morgan Stanley. As Chief Marketing Officer, Audrey is responsible for stewarding the brand to reflect the firm's core values of leading with integrity and exceptional ideas across its businesses and geographies. As Chief Sustainability Officer, Audrey oversees the firm's efforts to promote global sustainability through the capital markets.
In a career spanning the public, private and nonprofit sectors, Audrey has become a thought leader on how finance can be harnessed to address community concerns and global challenges. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Audrey held senior policy positions in the Clinton Administration, including serving as Chief of Staff of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President.
Previously, Audrey was a foreign correspondent and bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal. She serves on the boards of several national nonprofits focused on sustainability, community development and social justice. Audrey is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.
James Lee Sorenson
Chairman, Sorenson Impact Foundation
James Lee Sorenson
Chairman, Sorenson Impact Foundation
A world-renowned entrepreneur, business leader and societal innovator, James Lee Sorenson has built highly successful companies in industries ranging from technology and life sciences to real estate and private equity investment. Jim enjoys combining innovative and worthwhile ideas with talented management teams to produce growing new enterprises. This successful combination has produced thousands of new jobs and vibrant companies. Throughout his career, Jim has helped establish highly impactful programs and organizations that improve the lives of the working poor, build regional business communities and train the next generation of entrepreneurial and investment leaders. In his philanthropic endeavors, Jim prefers self-sustaining charitable enterprises that can lift and empower large numbers of people. He actively donates time, money and energy to institutions that help individuals in poverty-stricken areas become self-sufficient.
Jim is a recognized leader in impact investing and provided the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah with a $13 million gift in 2013 to create the James Lee Sorenson Global Impact Investing Center (SGII Center). The Center seeks to emulate Jim’s philanthropic and business endeavors by providing students with real-world experience with social entrepreneurs and interaction with foundations and investors to facilitate impact investing to address a broad range of societal problems. In addition, Jim is the chairman of Village Capital, a nonprofit organization that uses the power of peer support to build enterprises that change the world.
Jim did not begin his career at the top, and managed several successful business enterprises while in college, He has helped develop several new industry categories, including digital compression software that played a role in ushering in the online video revolution at Sorenson Media, and video relay services that transformed opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing individuals at Sorenson Communications. In 2005, Sorenson Communications was acquired in the most lucrative private equity deal in Utah history up to that time, and one of the nation’s largest deals of the year. Early in his real estate experience, Jim developed the 120-acre Sorenson Research Park in the early 1980s. Today, he leads an investment group developing market-leading commercial and residential projects, including The Pointe, a mixed-used business park in Draper, Utah. In 2009, Jim led a team that acquired a $701 million structured portfolio of commercial real estate loans from the FDIC.
Jim co-founded Sorenson Capital, Utah’s leading mid-market private equity firm, which has raised more than $650 million to invest in U.S. companies. In 2001, Jim provided the seed money for the University Venture Fund (UVF) at University of Utah\'s David Eccles School of Business. Now the world’s largest student-run educational investment fund, UVF provides unrivaled hands-on experience in venture capital and entrepreneurship for students. In addition, Jim served as chairman of the board of MediConnect Global, a leader in medical record retrieval that sold to Verisk Analytics in 2012 for over $370 million.
Jim has served on many community service boards, including Mission Markets, University Venture Fund, Art Works for Kids, Gallaudet University, the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, the Utah Sports Commission and the Utah Governor\'s Office of Economic Development.
Evan Williams
Chief executive, Medium and co-founder, Twitter and Obvious Ventures
Evan Williams
Chief executive, Medium and co-founder, Twitter and Obvious Ventures
Evan Williams is founder and CEO at Medium. Previously, he co-founded Blogger, which was acquired by Google in 2003, and Twitter, where he was CEO and now serves on the board of directors.
In 2014, Evan co-founded Obvious Ventures to focus on a world-positive approach to investing. Its mission is to help startups build scalable solutions to big world challenges, in order to have sustainable, positive impact.
Evan grew up on a farm in Clarks, Nebraska and has been recognized as one of TIME’S 100 most influential people in the world.
Jean Case
Chief executive, Case Foundation
Jean Case
Chief executive, Case Foundation
Jean Case is an actively engaged philanthropist, impact investor, and a pioneer in the world of interactive technologies. The Case Foundation, created by she and her husband Steve, is recognized for catalyzing movements that drive transformational change by building alliances and investing in people, ideas and organizations that harness the best impulses of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and collaboration. Before co-founding the Case Foundation, she was a senior executive at America Online, Inc., where she directed the marketing and branding efforts and helped establish AOL as a household utility. She was an advisor to the U.S. National Advisory Board to the Social Impact Investing Task Force and currently serves on several boards including Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure, White House Historical Association and BrainScope Company, Inc. and the advisory boards of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society and Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation. Jean and Steve joined The Giving Pledge in 2010, and publicly reaffirmed their commitment to give away the majority of their wealth to fund worthy charitable causes. Jean was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016.
Robert G. Eccles
Visiting Professor of Management Practice, Saïd Business School, Oxford
Robert G. Eccles
Visiting Professor of Management Practice, Saïd Business School, Oxford
Robert G. Eccles is a Visiting Professor of Management Practice at the Said Business School, University of Oxford, where he is helping them start the Oxford Said Corporate Accounting and Reporting (OSCAR) Programme and conducting a joint research project with the Ford Foundation on creating more sustainable capital markets. Eccles has been a Visiting Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management and is a Berkeley Social Impact Fellow at the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley. He was a Professor at Harvard Business School and received tenure in 1989. He left in 1993 to work in the private sector and re-joined the Harvard faculty in 2007, from which he retired in 2016.
After receiving tenure, Professor Eccles started doing research on corporate reporting, a topic which remains of great interest to him from a research, managerial practice, and public policy perspective. He wrote the first book on integrated reporting, One Report: Integrated Reporting for a Sustainable Strategy, which was the winner of the 2010 PROSE award in the category of Business, Finance, & Management. His most recent book, published in November 2014, is The Integrated Reporting Movement: Meaning, Momentum, Motives, and Materiality.
Based on his work on integrated reporting, Eccles has broadened his research and practice activities to understand how companies and investors can generate superior returns by incorporating the material environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into their resource allocation decisions. He has written extensively on this topic, such as in his column on Forbes.com. Eccles has relationships with major companies, asset owners, and asset managers all over the world with whom he is working on both a research and practice perspective.
Eccles is a Senior Advisor to the BCG Henderson Institute, a member of the board of the Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets at the Stockholm School of Economics, and a member of the board of TruValue Labs, a big data sustainability vendor. He was he founding Chairman of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board and one of the founders of the International Integrated Reporting Council. In 2011, Dr. Eccles was selected as one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior – 2012 for his extensive, positive contribution to building trust in business. In 2013, he was named the first non-accountant Honorary Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), one of only nine since 1999.
Dr. Eccles received an S.B. in Mathematics and an S.B. in Humanities and Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an A.M. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University.
Michael Schlein
President and chief executive, Accion
Michael Schlein
President and chief executive, Accion
Michael Schlein is the President and CEO of Accion, a global nonprofit committed to creating a financially inclusive world, with a pioneering legacy in microfinance and fintech impact investing. Accion catalyzes financial service providers to deliver high-quality, affordable solutions at scale for the three billion people who are left out of – or poorly served by – the financial sector. For more than 50 years, Accion has helped tens of millions of people through its work with more than 90 partners in 40 countries. In addition, Accion provides early and seed stage venture capital to new companies that promote disruptive innovation in financial services at the base of the pyramid. Also, Accion created and supports the Center for Financial Inclusion, an outward-focused think tank dedicated to tackling industry-wide challenges. For example, the Smart Campaign is the first global consumer protection campaign focused on those living in poverty. Mr. Schlein brings nearly 30 years of extensive international banking, management and public service experience to his role as President and CEO of Accion. As President of Citigroup’s International Franchise Management, Mr. Schlein managed the bank’s network of 100 Chief Country Officers. Before that, he ran communications, philanthropy, government relations, branding and human resources for Citigroup. He served as Chief of Staff at the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the Clinton Administration and in New York’s City Hall in the Dinkins and Koch Administrations. He began his career in investment banking. In 2014, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Mr. Schlein to serve as the Chairman of the NYC Economic Development Corporation, which encourages economic growth throughout New York’s five boroughs and facilitates investments that build capacity, generate prosperity, and catalyze the economic vibrancy of city life as a whole. Mr. Schlein has graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
Ross Baird
Founder and chief executive, Village Capital
Ross Baird
Founder and chief executive, Village Capital
RossBaird is an entrepreneur and investor who is best known for finding, developing, and investing in entrepreneurs in places and industries where most people aren’t looking. He founded Village Capital in 2009 and has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs in over fifty countries since then. He has visited over a hundred cities in an effort to find new entrepreneurs and help people supporting them, and he and Village Capital have partnered with over twenty Fortune 500 companies to help large institutions uncover new innovations. He is the author of The Innovation Blind Spot: Why We're Backing the Wrong Ideas and What to Do About It
Matthew Bishop
Managing director, Rockefeller Foundation and former senior editor, The Economist
Matthew Bishop
Managing director, Rockefeller Foundation and former senior editor, The Economist
Matthew Bishop, Managing director, Rockefeller Foundation and former senior editor, The Economist, is an award-winning journalist whose roles at The Economist have included business editor, Wall Street editor, globalisation editor and New York bureau chief. He is the author of several books, including Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World (described as “important” by president Bill Clinton) and The Road From Ruin, which set out an agenda for the reform of capitalism after the 2008 crash. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Global Governance. He was the official report author of the G8 Taskforce on Social Impact Investment and a member of the advisors group of the UN International Year of Microcredit. He co-founded and advises the #givingtuesday campaign and the Social Progress Index.
Richard Robb
Chief executive, Christofferson, Robb and Company
Richard Robb
Chief executive, Christofferson, Robb and Company
RichardRobb is Chief Executive Officer of Christofferson, Robb & Company (CRC), an investment management firm in New York and London that he co-founded with Johan Christofferson in 2002. CRC transfers the risk of European banks’ small and medium enterprise loans to end investors outside of the banking system, enabling banks to improve their capital ratios and free up lines to make new loans. Prior to CRC, Richard was global head of the derivatives and securities businesses of The Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Ltd. He is Professor of Professional Practice in at Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs where he has taught since 2001. Richard has a PhD in Economics from The University of Chicago (1985) and a BA from Duke University (1981). Princeton University Press is scheduled to publish his book on economics and philosophy, Tricky Profit, in late 2018.
Zoe Schlag
Managing director, Techstars Impact
Zoe Schlag
Managing director, Techstars Impact
Zoe is an entrepreneur, investor and activist. She is the founding Managing Director of Techstars Impact, Techstars’ first initiative to back for-profit, mission-driven entrepreneurs building technologies to solve our most pressing social and environmental problems. Prior to Techstars, Zoe served as CEO of UnLtd USA, an organization providing seed funding and venture support to entrepreneurs tackling social and environmental problems, which she founded in 2014 and led to forces with Techstars in 2017 to launch Techstars Impact. Over the last decade, Zoe has worked with founders from idea through acquisition, in both developed and emerging markets, across multiple industries, and from a range of backgrounds, from ex-guerrilla fighters to corporate executives, from the mothers of child laborers to technologists. Zoe is an Aspen Ideas Scholar at the Aspen Institute and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.
Lisa Woll
Chief executive, US SIF
Lisa Woll
Chief executive, US SIF
Lisa Woll is CEO of US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment and the US SIF Foundation and leads the organizations’ overall direction. She has been responsible for strategic planning, developing a robust policy and media presence, expansion and diversification of funding, launching the national conference, creating the Center for Sustainable Investment Education and playing a lead role in creating the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA).
Prior to US SIF, Lisa was executive director of the International Women's Media Foundation, an organization focused on press freedom and expansion of women’s role in the media. During her tenure, the IWMF played a significant role in re-orienting the way journalism training was carried out on the issues of HIV-AIDS, malaria and TB in several African media organizations. Lisa also spent a decade working on children’s human rights. She was the director of the first international study to look at the impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and directed the Washington, DC office of Save the Children. She was a member of the Advisory Council of the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch.
Lisa's early career focused on domestic social policy and began in the New York City Human Resources Administration as an Urban Fellow and the US Congress as a legislative assistant. Lisa is the founder of Suited for Change, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization that provides professional clothing and ongoing career education to low-income women who have completed job training programs and are seeking employment. She was a founding board member and former president of the board of The Women's Alliance, a national membership organization of community organizations that increase the employability of low-income women. She was also Board President of Women’s Voices for the Earth, a national environmental health organization based in Montana. She has written and spoken widely on human rights and development, as well as leadership. She was a board member of the Children's Environmental Health Network and the founder, with her teenage son, of Advantage Ethiopia: Kids' Tennis and Education Initiative.
In 2001, Lisa was named a Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine in recognition of her pioneering role with Suited for Change. She has received numerous other awards and has volunteered on other nonprofit boards and commissions. Lisa holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in public policy and women's studies from George Washington University. She spent 1990 – 1991 in Melbourne, Australia, as a Fulbright Fellow.
Sonal Shah
Founding executive director, Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, Georgetown University
Sonal Shah
Founding executive director, Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, Georgetown University
Sonal is an economist and entrepreneur and has spent her career focused on economic policy and actionable innovation in the public and private sectors. She is a global leader on social innovation policy including impact investing, data and technology for social good, and civic engagement through government, business, philanthropy and civil society. She has led policy innovations at the White House for President Obama and the Treasury Department for President Clinton. She brings a unique and diverse background. An international economist she set up the central bank in Bosnia, worked post conflict reconstruction in Kosovo, and implemented poverty reduction strategies in Africa and financial crises in Asia and Latin America. In the private sector, she led technology for civic engagement and impact investing initiatives at Google, as the head of Global Development Initiatives and set up and ran the environmental strategy, including investing clean technologies at Goldman Sachs.
She served as Deputy Assistant to the President for President Obama and founded the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. She served on President Obama’s transition board leading the Technology, Innovation and Government Reform group. In the Administration, Sonal led the efforts to set up innovative finance mechanisms for service delivery, leveraging technology to better engage citizens in government, creating new public private partnerships and supported and trained leadership throughout government (political and civic service) to institutionalize innovative practices.
Sonal started her career at the U.S. Department of Treasury where she was an international economist working on timely development issues, including post-conflict development in Bosnia, Asian financial crisis, and poverty reduction in Africa.
One of Sonal’s most proud accomplishments is working with her siblings to create a non-profit, Indicorps, to build a new generation of socially conscious global leaders. They worked with some of the leading non-profit and social organizations throughout India working on issues of healthcare, education, farming, women’s development, etc. Indicorps created the service movement in India inspiring and incubating new social enterprises like Teach for India and Sarvajal.
She serves on the board of the Case Foundation, Oxfam America, Non Profit Finance Fund, the Urban Alliance. She serves as an adviser to the Democracy Fund and the Washington Area Women’s Foundation.
Saadia Madsbjerg
Managing director, The Rockefeller Foundation
Saadia Madsbjerg
Managing director, The Rockefeller Foundation
As Managing Director, Saadia leads the Foundation’s work on Innovative Finance, overseeing its ‘Zero Gap’ portfolio. Her responsibilities include developing next-generation finance mechanisms and large-scale blended finance funds that mobilize private sector capital towards the SDGs. Her work directly supports the foundation’s mission of promoting the well-being of humanity throughout the world.
Saadia has been featured in numerous publications/outlets such as the Financial Times, Bloomberg, BBC, and the Wall Street Journal Live, among others, and frequently speaks at industry and finance events to advance the idea of innovative finance as a mainstream instrument of social policy. She is a frequent author as well, having contributed pieces to the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Project Syndicate, Fortune.com, Business Insurance, and many other publications.
Before joining The Rockefeller Foundation, Saadia was senior vice president for Strategic Planning at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Prior to NYCEDC, she was an associate principal at McKinsey & Company
Debra Schwartz
Managing director, MacArthur Foundation
Debra Schwartz
Managing director, MacArthur Foundation
Debra serves on the Executive Leadership Team at MacArthur, which has dedicated $500 million of its assets to impact investing. Debra’s group serves as a Foundation-wide resource, and engages deeply with selected teams to help develop strategy and devise impact investments that advance key goals. A former investment banker, Debra also leads the creation of new impact investment products and platforms that foster easier, more efficient, and more productive connections among multiple impact investors and social sector organizations. She joined MacArthur in 1995, having worked at a Chicago-based child welfare agency. A frequent speaker and guest lecturer, Debra has also served on the United States Treasury Department Community Development Advisory Board and the founding board for the Mission Investors Exchange. She earned a Master's degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor's degree from Yale College, summa cum laude.
Helen Joyce
International editor, The Economist
Helen Joyce
International editor, The Economist
Helen Joyce became editor of The Economist's international section in January 2014. Until October 2009 she was international education editor. She then worked on a project for the editor-in-chief, looking at what The Economist should be doing with data, both in print and online. In July 2010 she moved to Brazil to become the paper's São Paulo bureau chief. Previous jobs include editor of Plus, an online magazine about maths published by the University of Cambridge, and founding editor for the Royal Statistical Society's quarterly magazine, Significance.
Eric Usher
Head, UNEP Finance Initiative
Eric Usher
Head, UNEP Finance Initiative
EricUsher brings twenty five years experience in the sustainable energy and finance sectors, including an entrepreneurial venture in Morocco, financial sector development across emerging markets and responsible investment uptake globally. Prior to heading the UNEP FI Secretariat in Geneva, Mr. Usher was responsible for a programme portfolio advancing new public/private instruments for financing cleaner energy infrastructure and improving energy access. He was seconded to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change for development of the Green Climate Fund, specifically the fund’s Private Sector Facility. Eric is co-editor and co-author of various studies examining the role of public and private finance in climate mitigation and was lead author for finance of the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources.
Before joining UNEP, Eric was General Manager of a solar rural electrification company based in Marrakech. He holds an MBA from INSEAD, France, and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University, Canada.
Andy Unanue
Managing partner, AUA Private Equity Partners
Andy Unanue
Managing partner, AUA Private Equity Partners
Andy Unanue is the Managing Partner of AUA Private Equity Partners, and is a member of AUA Equity’s Investment Committee. Prior to establishing AUA Private Equity, Mr. Unanue he held various positions with Goya Foods, Inc., including Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Unanue currently serves on several corporate boards including: Goya Foods, Inc., Opt-Intelligence, Inc., TRUFOODS, LLC, VStar Entertainment, LLC, Raymundos Food Group, LLC, Tijuana Flats Restaurants, LLC, and Associated Foods Holdings, LLC. Additionally Mr. Unanue serves on Columbia University Medical Center’s Board of Advisors, the University of Miami’s President Council and several not-for-profit boards including his family’s charitable foundation, The C&J Unanue Foundation, and the New America Alliance. Mr. Unanue received his M.B.A from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and his B.B.A. from the University of Miami.
Jim Bildner
Chief executive, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation
Jim Bildner
Chief executive, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation
Jim Bildner is the CEO of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation where he focuses on investing in nonprofits and social enterprises that are working to solve complex issues including systemic poverty, environmental and conservation issues, food insecurity, access to healthcare, homelessness, community development and second generation strategies to address these issues. Jim is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Senior Research Fellow at the Hauser Institute for Civil Society and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University. At the Kennedy School, his research interests include understanding the role of private capital in solving public problems, extending the capacity of foundations to solve complex societal issues and the sustainability of public and private systems when governments disinvest in these systems. His course load includes Social Entrepreneurship/Social Enterprises 101: How to Go From Start Up to End Up (MLD 836).
Among his board affiliations, he is a trustee of The Kresge Foundation, The Non Profit Finance Fund, The Public Citizen Foundation, the Health Foundation for the Americas, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, The Newport Festivals Foundation, Trustee Emeritus at Case Western Reserve University, an Overseer Emeritus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a member of the executive board of WBUR (Boston Public Radio) and an Overseer of WGBH Public TV and Radio. He also serves on the boards of ROCA, Inc., Baroo, Inc., Fox Islands Wind, LLC, the EBSF Loan Fund, the Island Institute and Coastal Innovation Loan Fund, Education SuperHighway, IDEO.org, SIRUM, the Earth Genome, CAST, OpenBiome, Service Year, Open Up Resources, Inc., Landed, Inc., the GroundTruth Project, the Empowerment Plan, UpTrust, and on the board of the Lizard Island Research Foundation in Australia. He is a member of Young Presidents/World Presidents Organization and a member of the Chief Executives Organization.
In his board service, Mr. Bildner serves on the Investment Committees of boards with aggregate endowments in excess of $4 B as well as a member of numerous finance, investment and/or audit committees of these boards. In 2010 he was named Chair of Kresge’s Social Innovative Capital Committee and in 2014 became Chair of Kresge’s Investment Committee.
Mr. Bildner is a nationally recognized lecturer, panelist, and speaker on nonprofit organizations, social enterprise, capitalization and the institutional role of philanthropy in solving complex societal issues. His prior experience includes 22 years in the private sector including as a consultant at Deloitte and serving as the CEO of two public companies. Mr. Bildner’s government service includes serving as a legislative aide and speechwriter in the United States Senate, a run for the NJ State Assembly, election to two terms as a Selectman in Manchester by the Sea and an appointment by the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services to the Advisory Panel on Medicare Education of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Mr. Bildner has written numerous articles, op-ed pieces and commentaries for newspapers, magazines and radio including NPR’s Morning Edition, The Boston Globe, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, Harvard Business Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Hampshire Daily Gazette, Inc. Magazine, as well as cases for the Harvard Business School (Education SuperHighway) and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (The Role of Philanthropy in Community Revitalization). A lifelong sailor and pilot, he has published two recent books, A Visual Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast, published by McGraw Hill in May of 2006, and A Visual Cruising Guide to Southern New England, published in November of 2009.
Mr. Bildner earned his AB from Dartmouth College, his MPA from Harvard, his J.D. from Case Western Reserve School of Law and an M.F.A. from Lesley University. He is a member of the Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In 2008, Mr. Bildner was awarded the Dartmouth Alumni Award for service to the College and to his community.
Andrew Palmer
Business affairs editor, The Economist
Andrew Palmer
Business affairs editor, The Economist
Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.
Terry Odendahl
President and chief executive, Global Greengrants Fund
Terry Odendahl
President and chief executive, Global Greengrants Fund
Terry has spent more than 40 years working to bridge the gap between our natural and human worlds. Prior to joining Global Greengrants in 2009, Terry helmed the National Network of Grantmakers for over a decade. She also worked to protect public lands in the western United States, as a program officer at the Wyss Foundation. An anthropologist by training, she has held faculty positions at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute; the University of California, San Diego; and Yale University. Terry is the co-author or editor of four books: Charity Begins at Home: Generosity and Self-Interest Among the Philanthropic Elite; America’s Wealthy and the Future of Foundations; Women and Power in the Nonprofit Sector; and Career Patterns in Philanthropy. She has authored Op-Eds for The Guardian, EcoWatch, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The New York Times, Alliance Magazine and other outlets. She is co-founder of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and the Institute for Collaborative Change in New Mexico. Terry is leading Global Greengrants to expand its support for women-led solutions to environmental issues.
Maya Chorengel
Senior partner, The Rise Fund
Maya Chorengel
Senior partner, The Rise Fund
Maya Chorengel is a senior partner at The Rise Fund based in San Francisco, and has been with TPG since 2017. Maya has over two decades of impact investing and private equity experience, and is a co-founder of Elevar Equity, a leading impact venture firm. Maya was earlier with Warburg Pincus in Hong Kong, Menlo Park, and New York. She is on the board of Globokasnet, Kiva, and Salish|Growth and is an advisor to several impact investing initiatives and organizations.
Scott Sleyster
Chief investment officer, Prudential Financial Inc.
Scott Sleyster
Chief investment officer, Prudential Financial Inc.
Scott Sleyster is senior vice president and chief investment officer for Prudential Financial, Inc., responsible for asset/liability management, portfolio construction and investment strategy for Prudential’s International and Domestic business operations. He also oversees the Company’s alternative asset investing and the hedging of variable annuity guarantees. Sleyster is a member of Prudential’s Senior Management Council and chairs the Senior Asset Liability Committee.
Since joining Prudential, Sleyster has served in a variety of leadership positions including his current role of chief investment officer, head of Prudential’s Full-Service Retirement business, president of Prudential’s Guaranteed Products business, and chief financial officer for Prudential’s Employee Benefits Division. Additionally, Sleyster has held roles in Prudential’s Treasury, Derivatives, and Investment Management units.
Sleyster has played an active role in the development of U.S. retirement policy and has supported legislative efforts to promote the formation of new retirement plans, expand coverage under existing plans and increase overall levels of retirement savings. He was appointed by President Bush and Congress as a delegate to the National Summit on Retirement Savings in 2002 and 2006. In October 2009, he testified before Congress on the Reform of the Over-the-Counter Derivative Market. In 2003, he testified to the Congressional Committee on Education and the Workforce at a public hearing on The Pension Security Act. In 2005, he was named a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging.
Sleyster currently serves as Prudential’s representative to the Institute for International Finance’s (IIF) Committee on Asset and Investment Management. In this capacity he has presented views on long term investing at several prominent international conferences including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s High Level Roundtables in May 2013 and June 2014 and the IIF’s G-20 Conference in February 2014.
He holds an MBA from Northwestern University and earned a finance degree, with distinction, from the University of Missouri. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of The New York Society of Security Analysts, Inc.
Frederick Hutson
Chief executive and founder, Pigeonly
Frederick Hutson
Chief executive and founder, Pigeonly
Frederick is the CEO and founder of Pigeonly, a platform that makes it easy for people to search, find and communicate with an incarcerated loved one.
A born entrepreneur, Frederick launched and sold his first business at the age of 19. His desire to attain the American dream on his terms took him down the wrong path and at 23, he was indicted for distributing 3,000 kg of marijuana. It was during this four-year federal prison sentence a new idea surfaced, one that would give him an opportunity to impact the lives of people no one else was paying attention to - inmates, Pigeonly was born.
Pigeonly's technology cuts the cost of expensive prison calls by 80% and allows people to send their inmate photos, greeting cards, and more right from a cell phone, tablet or computer. Although the company is still young, Hutson has grown Pigeonly to become one of the largest independent inmate service providers in the country.
Liesel Pritzker Simmons
Co-Founder and principal, Blue Haven Initiative
Liesel Pritzker Simmons
Co-Founder and principal, Blue Haven Initiative
Liesel Pritzker Simmons is Co-Founder and Principal of Blue Haven Initiative, where she oversees a portfolio structured to generate competitive financial returns and address social and environmental challenges. The portfolio spans asset classes, from traditional equities and direct investments to philanthropic programs.
Liesel co-founded Blue Haven with her husband, Ian Simmons. Their investment portfolios, restructured to be impact-driven, became the foundation of Blue Haven, one of the first family offices created with impact investing as its focus. In addition to working closely with entrepreneurs, nonprofits and co-investors on companies and initiatives that create social, environmental and financial value, Liesel develops strategic partnerships with organizations that support and advance more informed investing.
Amit Bouri
Chief executive and co-founder, GIIN
Amit Bouri
Chief executive and co-founder, GIIN
Amit Bouri is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the GIIN. His work in impact investing began when he was a strategy consultant with the Monitor Institute. At Monitor he was part of the team that produced the Investing for Social & Environmental Impact report, and he left Monitor to co-found the GIIN in 2009.
Amit's other projects at the Monitor Institute included strategic planning and organizational development work for nonprofit organizations and foundations. Amit previously worked in the private sector as a strategy consultant with Bain & Company. He left Bain to work in global health at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. He also worked in the corporate philanthropy units of Gap Inc. and Johnson & Johnson. Amit holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, an MPA from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Swarthmore College.
Matt Christensen
Global head of responsible investment, AXA Investment Managers
Matt Christensen
Global head of responsible investment, AXA Investment Managers
Matt joined AXA Investment Managers in 2011 and as Global Head of Responsible Investment is responsible for directing, implementing and overseeing the development of an impact investment programme and the integration of ESG criteria across asset classes and multi-asset solutions. Matthas been a leading voice in the field of responsible investment and was a member of the European commission's coordination committee to explore the future of sustainability policy and legislation in the EU, a position he held until joining AXA IM. Prior to AXA IM, Matt was a Founding Director at Eurosif, the leading European responsible investment think tank, where he worked for nine years. Before that, he was a Business Development Director at Motley Fool. Prior to that, Matt was a Strategy Consultant at both Braxton Associates and Deloitte Consulting. Matt has held Board positions with impact funds in the alternatives arena, including a listed private equity fund on the London Stock Exchange, and as Vice President of one of the largest microfinance funds .Matt holds an MBA and an MA in international political economy from the University of Pennsylvania – Wharton.
Scott Jacobs
Chief executive, Generate Capital
Scott Jacobs
Chief executive, Generate Capital
Scott Jacobs is the CEO and Co-Founder of Generate Capital, a specialty finance company focused on sustainable infrastructure. Scott has also served as a Managing Director and Co-Founder of EFW Partners, an investment firm focused on the world’s critical resources: energy, food and water. Generate Capital and EFW illustrate Scott’s long-standing emphasis on innovative approaches to thematic investing, focusing broadly on the “resource revolution.”
In 2007, Scott co-founded McKinsey & Company’s global CleanTech practice, advising companies, institutional investors, NGOs and several national and regional governments around the world. Before joining McKinsey, Scott spent over a decade in technology and venture capital, helping start and grow a number of companies, including PolyServe (acquired by HP) and Alliance Data Systems (acquired by FiServ).
Scott received his MBA with high distinction from Harvard Business School, where he was named a George F. Baker Scholar, and his BA cum laude from Dartmouth College. Scott also serves on the Board of Rare, a leading global conservation non-profit.
Jane Nelson
Director, corporate responsibility initiative, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Jane Nelson
Director, corporate responsibility initiative, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Jane Nelson is Director of the Corporate Responsibility Initiative at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She serves on the Boards of Directors of Newmont, the Abraaj Group, FSG, and Chevron's Niger Delta Partnership Initiative, and on advisory councils for the International Finance Corporation, Bank of America, Abbott, ExxonMobil, GE, Pearson, APCO Worldwide, the Center for Global Development and the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Stewardship Board on Food Security and Agriculture and WEF’s Global Future Council on International Governance, Public-Private Cooperation and Sustainable Development. She previously served on the Boards of SITA (now part of Suez Environnment), the World Environment Center and the International Council of Toy Industries CARE initiative. Nelson was a director and then senior advisor at the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum from 1993 to 2012, and a senior associate with the Institute for Sustainability Leadership at Cambridge University. In 2009, she was led the track on human capital for the Clinton Global Initiative, and in 2001, she worked with the United Nations Global Compact in the office of the UN Secretary-General preparing his report for the General Assembly on cooperation between the UN and the private sector. Prior to 1993, Nelson worked for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in Africa, for FUNDES in Latin America, and as a Vice President at Citibank working for the bank's Financial Institutions Group in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. She has co-authored five books and over 90 publications on the role of the private sector in sustainable development, and five of the World Economic Forum's Global Corporate Citizenship reports. She is a former Rhodes Scholar, and recipient of the Keystone Center's 2005 Leadership in Education Award and the Academy of Management’s 2015 Best Book Award for the Social Issues in Management Division.
Kesha Cash
Founder and general partner, Impact America Fund
Kesha Cash
Founder and general partner, Impact America Fund
Dubbed a “Top Five Gamechanger” by Forbes and a “Power Investor” by Essence , Kesha Cash is a General Partner at Impact America Fund (IAF), a $10M venture capital fund that harnesses market opportunities overlooked by traditional investors. IAF invests in technology driven companies with a mission to enhance the wellbeing of underserved communities in America.
In 2016, Stanford Graduate School of Business published a case study on IAF to teach students about the structure of an impact venture fund, and how to analyze the social and economic impact of high-growth technology investments. Kesha’s personal mission is to transform the economic livelihoods of marginalized communities in America. A Columbia MBA and applied mathematics student from UC Berkeley, Kesha spent the first
decade of her career as a mergers and acquisitions analyst at Merrill Lynch in NYC, an operational consultant to inner-city small businesses in Los Angeles, and an impact investments associate at Bridges Ventures in the UK. In 2010, Kesha co-founded a $5M initiative focused on investing in mission-driven entrepreneurs of color, Jalia Ventures, with serial impact investor, Josh Mailman. She also supported Josh with managing Serious Change, LP, at that time a $50 million global impact investment fund. Kesha took her vision to the next level by founding IAF.
Kesha grew up in economic hardship and is her family’s first college graduate. Her lived experience and abiding belief in human potential inspire her life’s work. Kesha tells Forbes her vision for the future: “We identify as one human race and deeply consider the impact of our actions on other human beings, the environment and future generations.”
Kesha shares her thought leadership and passion for investing in underserved communities as a national speaker, contributing writer for Women@Forbes, and lecturer for Frontier Market Scouts at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
Kurt Summers
Treasurer, Chicago
Kurt Summers
Treasurer, Chicago
Kurt Summers is Chicago’s 70th Treasurer. A native son of Chicago, Treasurer Summers manages the city’s $8 billion investment portfolio and is responsible for maintaining records and accounts of the city’s finances. He sits on four local pension boards with nearly $25 billion under management.
Since taking office in December 2014, Treasurer Summers has utilized his private and public sector experience to ensure that the Office of the City Treasurer maximizes its value for Chicago’s residents. From generating $57 million in excess investment returns for the city’s portfolio to developing a fund that will drive economic growth in all 77 neighborhoods, Treasurer Summers is focused on leveraging the office’s resources to increase investments in Chicago’s residents, workers, businesses, and neighborhoods. Treasurer Summers is also focused on empowering Chicagoans through small business support and financial education programs, giving them the tools and opportunities they need to fulfill their potential.
Prior to serving as Chicago’s Treasurer, Summers was a Senior Vice President at Grosvenor Capital Management and a member of the Office of the Chairman. In that role, Summers was a leader of the Emerging and Diverse Manager business, which invested over $2 billion in minority- and women-owned firms.
Prior to his time at Grosvenor, Summers served as Chief of Staff to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and as the appointed Trustee for the $9 billion Cook County Pension Fund. In that capacity, Summers led county-wide reforms to provide performance management in every department and to create a more sustainable health and hospital system. Summers also steered the closure of a $487 million budget deficit while keeping the administration’s promise to roll back the county sales tax, saving taxpayers more than $400 million a year.
Summers began his career at McKinsey & Company, a preeminent global strategy-consulting firm, and later served as Chief of Staff for Chicago 2016, the city’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Treasurer Summers is a lifelong Chicago resident and a graduate of Whitney Young High School. He received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Management Distinction High Honors from Washington University in St. Louis. He later earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He lives in Hyde Park with his wife. Helen, and their schnauzer, Boston.
Zack Rosenburg
Co-founder, SBP
Zack Rosenburg
Co-founder, SBP
Zack co-founded SBP in 2006 after spending two weeks volunteering in New Orleans six months after Hurricane Katrina. What he and his then girlfriend Liz, thought would be a one-time, two-week trip, led to a passion for direct impact and system change.
Zack’s realization that a delayed recovery causes extensive human impact and that too many survivors suffer unnecessarily, drove SBP’s mission of shrinking time between disaster and recovery. Today, Zack directs the strategic vision, marketing, partnership development, and fundraising for SBP.
Following disaster Zack plays a direct role in the advisement of local and state government officials, and has worked closely with elected officials from South Carolina, New York and West Virginia, as well as with appointed officials at HUD, helping them to craft effective long-term recovery programs. Among the innovative SBP programs that Zack has designed include: Opportunity Housing, an innovative blight eradicating/affordable housing program that turns blighted properties into well-built affordable housing; and Disaster Resilience and Recovery Lab, which among other things, shares SBP’s learnings and model with at-risk and disaster impacted communities.
Zack speaks nationally on a broad array of topics including disaster resilience and recovery policy, organizational culture development, high-impact innovation and leadership. His work has been featured in Newsweek, US News and World Report, Politico, The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.
Before founding SBP, Zack was an E. Barrett Prettyman Teaching Fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center and he ran an indigent criminal defense practice in Washington, DC. One of Zack's most meaningful victories was freeing a man who served 23 years for a murder that he did not commit.
For his work, Zack has been recognized as New Orleanian of the Year and Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project Champion of Justice, and he has received the Manhattan Institute Social Innovation Award.
Zack received a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University and a J.D. from the American University Washington School of Law. He has also received an Honorary Doctorate from Muhlenberg College, and a distinguished alumnus award from Washington College of Law.
Anne M. Finucane
Vice chairman, Bank of America
Anne M. Finucane
Vice chairman, Bank of America
Anne M. Finucane is vice chairman at Bank of America and a member of the company’s executive management team. She is responsible for the strategic positioning of Bank of America and leads the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts. As part of this, she focuses on the company's outreach to shareholders on social and governance issues, implementing innovative ways to deploy capital, such as the Catalytic Finance Initiative, and expanding on our environmental business opportunities in support of our responsible growth strategy. In addition, she oversees public policy, customer research and analytics, global marketing and communications.
Finucane chairs the global ESG Committee at Bank of America, which directs all of the company’s ESG efforts. She stewards Bank of America’s $125 billion environmental business initiative, including its $10 billion Catalytic Finance Initiative to mobilize market capital to deliver new investment into high-impact clean energy projects. She oversees the company’s $1.2 billion Community Development Financial Institution portfolio and chairs the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, including its 10-year, $2 billion charitable giving goal.
Active in the community, Finucane serves on both corporate and nonprofit boards of directors including Carnegie Hall, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the American Ireland Fund, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, CVS Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Partners Healthcare, and Special Olympics. She served on the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy board and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Finucane has won numerous professional and public service accolades. Most recently, she was named to Fortune’s Most Powerful Women List, Forbes Most Powerful Women List, and AdWeek’s 2016 Power List: Top 100 Leaders in Marketing, Media & Tech. In 2013, she received the New York Women in Communications Matrix Award and the International Women’s Media Foundation Leadership Award. She was named 2013 Advertising Woman of the Year by Advertising Women of New York, and American Banker magazine annually names her one of the “25 Most Powerful Women in Banking.”
Brace Young
Partner, Arabesque
Brace Young
Partner, Arabesque
Brace Young is a Partner at Arabesque, and the former Chief Executive Officer of Eclat Impact. Previously, Mr. Young was CEO and Partner at Mariner Investment Group from 2000 to 2015. He joined Mariner from Goldman Sachs, where he retired as a Partner after a 20-year career in
Fixed Income in New York, Tokyo, and London. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Social Finance Inc., a Boston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to mobilizing investment capital to drive social change. Brace is also on the board of the English charity, Grenada Schools, focused on tackling illiteracy through library provision in Grenadian primary schools. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Buckingham Browne & Nichols, a coeducational day school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.
9:00 AM
Prelude: Have we made an impact?
Matthew Bishop
Managing director, Rockefeller Foundation and former senior editor, The Economist
Matthew Bishop
Managing director, Rockefeller Foundation and former senior editor, The Economist
Matthew Bishop, Managing director, Rockefeller Foundation and former senior editor, The Economist, is an award-winning journalist whose roles at The Economist have included business editor, Wall Street editor, globalisation editor and New York bureau chief. He is the author of several books, including Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World (described as “important” by president Bill Clinton) and The Road From Ruin, which set out an agenda for the reform of capitalism after the 2008 crash. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Global Governance. He was the official report author of the G8 Taskforce on Social Impact Investment and a member of the advisors group of the UN International Year of Microcredit. He co-founded and advises the #givingtuesday campaign and the Social Progress Index.
Andrew Palmer
Business affairs editor, The Economist
Andrew Palmer
Business affairs editor, The Economist
Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.
Helen Joyce
International editor, The Economist
Helen Joyce
International editor, The Economist
Helen Joyce became editor of The Economist's international section in January 2014. Until October 2009 she was international education editor. She then worked on a project for the editor-in-chief, looking at what The Economist should be doing with data, both in print and online. In July 2010 she moved to Brazil to become the paper's São Paulo bureau chief. Previous jobs include editor of Plus, an online magazine about maths published by the University of Cambridge, and founding editor for the Royal Statistical Society's quarterly magazine, Significance.
9:15 AM
Opening plenary. The big picture: Where is the world headed, and how can capital change it for the better?
Our opening panel will set the scene by examining the broad trends that are pushing social and environmental impact to the top of the agenda in capital markets. The growing awareness of investors about the value to be found in understanding and engaging more constructively with the major forces shaping the world has been described with a range of terms, from ethical and ESG (environmental, social and governance) to long-termism and impact investing. Yet whilst this language has now been widely embraced by the investing mainstream, its effect so far has been mostly skin deep. The challenge now is to apply a sophisticated understanding of the relationship between risk, return and social and environmental impact in ways that transform how investment is done and this how it shapes the world.
Richard Robb
Chief executive, Christofferson, Robb and Company
Richard Robb
Chief executive, Christofferson, Robb and Company
RichardRobb is Chief Executive Officer of Christofferson, Robb & Company (CRC), an investment management firm in New York and London that he co-founded with Johan Christofferson in 2002. CRC transfers the risk of European banks’ small and medium enterprise loans to end investors outside of the banking system, enabling banks to improve their capital ratios and free up lines to make new loans. Prior to CRC, Richard was global head of the derivatives and securities businesses of The Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Ltd. He is Professor of Professional Practice in at Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs where he has taught since 2001. Richard has a PhD in Economics from The University of Chicago (1985) and a BA from Duke University (1981). Princeton University Press is scheduled to publish his book on economics and philosophy, Tricky Profit, in late 2018.
James Lee Sorenson
Chairman, Sorenson Impact Foundation
James Lee Sorenson
Chairman, Sorenson Impact Foundation
A world-renowned entrepreneur, business leader and societal innovator, James Lee Sorenson has built highly successful companies in industries ranging from technology and life sciences to real estate and private equity investment. Jim enjoys combining innovative and worthwhile ideas with talented management teams to produce growing new enterprises. This successful combination has produced thousands of new jobs and vibrant companies. Throughout his career, Jim has helped establish highly impactful programs and organizations that improve the lives of the working poor, build regional business communities and train the next generation of entrepreneurial and investment leaders. In his philanthropic endeavors, Jim prefers self-sustaining charitable enterprises that can lift and empower large numbers of people. He actively donates time, money and energy to institutions that help individuals in poverty-stricken areas become self-sufficient.
Jim is a recognized leader in impact investing and provided the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah with a $13 million gift in 2013 to create the James Lee Sorenson Global Impact Investing Center (SGII Center). The Center seeks to emulate Jim’s philanthropic and business endeavors by providing students with real-world experience with social entrepreneurs and interaction with foundations and investors to facilitate impact investing to address a broad range of societal problems. In addition, Jim is the chairman of Village Capital, a nonprofit organization that uses the power of peer support to build enterprises that change the world.
Jim did not begin his career at the top, and managed several successful business enterprises while in college, He has helped develop several new industry categories, including digital compression software that played a role in ushering in the online video revolution at Sorenson Media, and video relay services that transformed opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing individuals at Sorenson Communications. In 2005, Sorenson Communications was acquired in the most lucrative private equity deal in Utah history up to that time, and one of the nation’s largest deals of the year. Early in his real estate experience, Jim developed the 120-acre Sorenson Research Park in the early 1980s. Today, he leads an investment group developing market-leading commercial and residential projects, including The Pointe, a mixed-used business park in Draper, Utah. In 2009, Jim led a team that acquired a $701 million structured portfolio of commercial real estate loans from the FDIC.
Jim co-founded Sorenson Capital, Utah’s leading mid-market private equity firm, which has raised more than $650 million to invest in U.S. companies. In 2001, Jim provided the seed money for the University Venture Fund (UVF) at University of Utah\'s David Eccles School of Business. Now the world’s largest student-run educational investment fund, UVF provides unrivaled hands-on experience in venture capital and entrepreneurship for students. In addition, Jim served as chairman of the board of MediConnect Global, a leader in medical record retrieval that sold to Verisk Analytics in 2012 for over $370 million.
Jim has served on many community service boards, including Mission Markets, University Venture Fund, Art Works for Kids, Gallaudet University, the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, the Utah Sports Commission and the Utah Governor\'s Office of Economic Development.
Audrey Choi
Chief sustainability officer, Morgan Stanley
Audrey Choi
Chief sustainability officer, Morgan Stanley
Audrey Choi is Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer of Morgan Stanley. As Chief Marketing Officer, Audrey is responsible for stewarding the brand to reflect the firm's core values of leading with integrity and exceptional ideas across its businesses and geographies. As Chief Sustainability Officer, Audrey oversees the firm's efforts to promote global sustainability through the capital markets.
In a career spanning the public, private and nonprofit sectors, Audrey has become a thought leader on how finance can be harnessed to address community concerns and global challenges. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Audrey held senior policy positions in the Clinton Administration, including serving as Chief of Staff of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President.
Previously, Audrey was a foreign correspondent and bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal. She serves on the boards of several national nonprofits focused on sustainability, community development and social justice. Audrey is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.
Andrew Palmer
Business affairs editor, The Economist
Andrew Palmer
Business affairs editor, The Economist
Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.
10:00 AM
The next 15 years: Why and how can finance be a force for good? What will the world look like when capital not only counts more money, but makes more money count?
Amit Bouri
Chief executive and co-founder, GIIN
Amit Bouri
Chief executive and co-founder, GIIN
Amit Bouri is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the GIIN. His work in impact investing began when he was a strategy consultant with the Monitor Institute. At Monitor he was part of the team that produced the Investing for Social & Environmental Impact report, and he left Monitor to co-found the GIIN in 2009.
Amit's other projects at the Monitor Institute included strategic planning and organizational development work for nonprofit organizations and foundations. Amit previously worked in the private sector as a strategy consultant with Bain & Company. He left Bain to work in global health at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. He also worked in the corporate philanthropy units of Gap Inc. and Johnson & Johnson. Amit holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, an MPA from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Swarthmore College.
Helen Joyce
International editor, The Economist
Helen Joyce
International editor, The Economist
Helen Joyce became editor of The Economist's international section in January 2014. Until October 2009 she was international education editor. She then worked on a project for the editor-in-chief, looking at what The Economist should be doing with data, both in print and online. In July 2010 she moved to Brazil to become the paper's São Paulo bureau chief. Previous jobs include editor of Plus, an online magazine about maths published by the University of Cambridge, and founding editor for the Royal Statistical Society's quarterly magazine, Significance.
10:10 AM
Fireside chat: The view from the top
A conversation with a leading investor.
Evan Williams
Chief executive, Medium and co-founder, Twitter and Obvious Ventures
Evan Williams
Chief executive, Medium and co-founder, Twitter and Obvious Ventures
Evan Williams is founder and CEO at Medium. Previously, he co-founded Blogger, which was acquired by Google in 2003, and Twitter, where he was CEO and now serves on the board of directors.
In 2014, Evan co-founded Obvious Ventures to focus on a world-positive approach to investing. Its mission is to help startups build scalable solutions to big world challenges, in order to have sustainable, positive impact.
Evan grew up on a farm in Clarks, Nebraska and has been recognized as one of TIME’S 100 most influential people in the world.
Andrew Palmer
Business affairs editor, The Economist
Andrew Palmer
Business affairs editor, The Economist
Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.
10:30 AM
Morning break
11:00 AM
Risk, return, impact
A look at the evidence. A growing number of studies claim that incorporating environmental and social impact into investment decisions does not hurt financial returns over the long run, and may increase them. How robust are these studies, and what strategies are investors building on them? How is the latest research improving our understanding of the role of impact factors in a portfolio, whether as a source of alpha or as a risk-management tool?
Robert G. Eccles
Visiting Professor of Management Practice, Saïd Business School, Oxford
Robert G. Eccles
Visiting Professor of Management Practice, Saïd Business School, Oxford
Robert G. Eccles is a Visiting Professor of Management Practice at the Said Business School, University of Oxford, where he is helping them start the Oxford Said Corporate Accounting and Reporting (OSCAR) Programme and conducting a joint research project with the Ford Foundation on creating more sustainable capital markets. Eccles has been a Visiting Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management and is a Berkeley Social Impact Fellow at the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley. He was a Professor at Harvard Business School and received tenure in 1989. He left in 1993 to work in the private sector and re-joined the Harvard faculty in 2007, from which he retired in 2016.
After receiving tenure, Professor Eccles started doing research on corporate reporting, a topic which remains of great interest to him from a research, managerial practice, and public policy perspective. He wrote the first book on integrated reporting, One Report: Integrated Reporting for a Sustainable Strategy, which was the winner of the 2010 PROSE award in the category of Business, Finance, & Management. His most recent book, published in November 2014, is The Integrated Reporting Movement: Meaning, Momentum, Motives, and Materiality.
Based on his work on integrated reporting, Eccles has broadened his research and practice activities to understand how companies and investors can generate superior returns by incorporating the material environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into their resource allocation decisions. He has written extensively on this topic, such as in his column on Forbes.com. Eccles has relationships with major companies, asset owners, and asset managers all over the world with whom he is working on both a research and practice perspective.
Eccles is a Senior Advisor to the BCG Henderson Institute, a member of the board of the Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets at the Stockholm School of Economics, and a member of the board of TruValue Labs, a big data sustainability vendor. He was he founding Chairman of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board and one of the founders of the International Integrated Reporting Council. In 2011, Dr. Eccles was selected as one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior – 2012 for his extensive, positive contribution to building trust in business. In 2013, he was named the first non-accountant Honorary Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), one of only nine since 1999.
Dr. Eccles received an S.B. in Mathematics and an S.B. in Humanities and Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an A.M. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University.
Debra Schwartz
Managing director, MacArthur Foundation
Debra Schwartz
Managing director, MacArthur Foundation
Debra serves on the Executive Leadership Team at MacArthur, which has dedicated $500 million of its assets to impact investing. Debra’s group serves as a Foundation-wide resource, and engages deeply with selected teams to help develop strategy and devise impact investments that advance key goals. A former investment banker, Debra also leads the creation of new impact investment products and platforms that foster easier, more efficient, and more productive connections among multiple impact investors and social sector organizations. She joined MacArthur in 1995, having worked at a Chicago-based child welfare agency. A frequent speaker and guest lecturer, Debra has also served on the United States Treasury Department Community Development Advisory Board and the founding board for the Mission Investors Exchange. She earned a Master's degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor's degree from Yale College, summa cum laude.
Maya Chorengel
Senior partner, The Rise Fund
Maya Chorengel
Senior partner, The Rise Fund
Maya Chorengel is a senior partner at The Rise Fund based in San Francisco, and has been with TPG since 2017. Maya has over two decades of impact investing and private equity experience, and is a co-founder of Elevar Equity, a leading impact venture firm. Maya was earlier with Warburg Pincus in Hong Kong, Menlo Park, and New York. She is on the board of Globokasnet, Kiva, and Salish|Growth and is an advisor to several impact investing initiatives and organizations.
Scott Sleyster
Chief investment officer, Prudential Financial Inc.
Scott Sleyster
Chief investment officer, Prudential Financial Inc.
Scott Sleyster is senior vice president and chief investment officer for Prudential Financial, Inc., responsible for asset/liability management, portfolio construction and investment strategy for Prudential’s International and Domestic business operations. He also oversees the Company’s alternative asset investing and the hedging of variable annuity guarantees. Sleyster is a member of Prudential’s Senior Management Council and chairs the Senior Asset Liability Committee.
Since joining Prudential, Sleyster has served in a variety of leadership positions including his current role of chief investment officer, head of Prudential’s Full-Service Retirement business, president of Prudential’s Guaranteed Products business, and chief financial officer for Prudential’s Employee Benefits Division. Additionally, Sleyster has held roles in Prudential’s Treasury, Derivatives, and Investment Management units.
Sleyster has played an active role in the development of U.S. retirement policy and has supported legislative efforts to promote the formation of new retirement plans, expand coverage under existing plans and increase overall levels of retirement savings. He was appointed by President Bush and Congress as a delegate to the National Summit on Retirement Savings in 2002 and 2006. In October 2009, he testified before Congress on the Reform of the Over-the-Counter Derivative Market. In 2003, he testified to the Congressional Committee on Education and the Workforce at a public hearing on The Pension Security Act. In 2005, he was named a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging.
Sleyster currently serves as Prudential’s representative to the Institute for International Finance’s (IIF) Committee on Asset and Investment Management. In this capacity he has presented views on long term investing at several prominent international conferences including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s High Level Roundtables in May 2013 and June 2014 and the IIF’s G-20 Conference in February 2014.
He holds an MBA from Northwestern University and earned a finance degree, with distinction, from the University of Missouri. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of The New York Society of Security Analysts, Inc.
Helen Joyce
International editor, The Economist
Helen Joyce
International editor, The Economist
Helen Joyce became editor of The Economist's international section in January 2014. Until October 2009 she was international education editor. She then worked on a project for the editor-in-chief, looking at what The Economist should be doing with data, both in print and online. In July 2010 she moved to Brazil to become the paper's São Paulo bureau chief. Previous jobs include editor of Plus, an online magazine about maths published by the University of Cambridge, and founding editor for the Royal Statistical Society's quarterly magazine, Significance.
11:45 AM
Impact story
An entrepreneur grappling with a big global challenge tells their story and discusses how investors can help
Frederick Hutson
Chief executive and founder, Pigeonly
Frederick Hutson
Chief executive and founder, Pigeonly
Frederick is the CEO and founder of Pigeonly, a platform that makes it easy for people to search, find and communicate with an incarcerated loved one.
A born entrepreneur, Frederick launched and sold his first business at the age of 19. His desire to attain the American dream on his terms took him down the wrong path and at 23, he was indicted for distributing 3,000 kg of marijuana. It was during this four-year federal prison sentence a new idea surfaced, one that would give him an opportunity to impact the lives of people no one else was paying attention to - inmates, Pigeonly was born.
Pigeonly's technology cuts the cost of expensive prison calls by 80% and allows people to send their inmate photos, greeting cards, and more right from a cell phone, tablet or computer. Although the company is still young, Hutson has grown Pigeonly to become one of the largest independent inmate service providers in the country.
Helen Joyce
International editor, The Economist
Helen Joyce
International editor, The Economist
Helen Joyce became editor of The Economist's international section in January 2014. Until October 2009 she was international education editor. She then worked on a project for the editor-in-chief, looking at what The Economist should be doing with data, both in print and online. In July 2010 she moved to Brazil to become the paper's São Paulo bureau chief. Previous jobs include editor of Plus, an online magazine about maths published by the University of Cambridge, and founding editor for the Royal Statistical Society's quarterly magazine, Significance.
11:55 AM
Fighting, and adapting to, climate change
As government efforts falter, can investors take the lead? From the booming market in green bonds and the soaring share price of Tesla to the “divest from carbon” movement, private capital markets are increasingly seen as the brightest hope in the battle against climate change. What are the biggest climate change fighting opportunities for investors – and, to the extent that climate change is already unstoppable, what are the best strategies for investors looking to minimize the damage done by it?
Saadia Madsbjerg
Managing director, The Rockefeller Foundation
Saadia Madsbjerg
Managing director, The Rockefeller Foundation
As Managing Director, Saadia leads the Foundation’s work on Innovative Finance, overseeing its ‘Zero Gap’ portfolio. Her responsibilities include developing next-generation finance mechanisms and large-scale blended finance funds that mobilize private sector capital towards the SDGs. Her work directly supports the foundation’s mission of promoting the well-being of humanity throughout the world.
Saadia has been featured in numerous publications/outlets such as the Financial Times, Bloomberg, BBC, and the Wall Street Journal Live, among others, and frequently speaks at industry and finance events to advance the idea of innovative finance as a mainstream instrument of social policy. She is a frequent author as well, having contributed pieces to the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Project Syndicate, Fortune.com, Business Insurance, and many other publications.
Before joining The Rockefeller Foundation, Saadia was senior vice president for Strategic Planning at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Prior to NYCEDC, she was an associate principal at McKinsey & Company
Eric Usher
Head, UNEP Finance Initiative
Eric Usher
Head, UNEP Finance Initiative
EricUsher brings twenty five years experience in the sustainable energy and finance sectors, including an entrepreneurial venture in Morocco, financial sector development across emerging markets and responsible investment uptake globally. Prior to heading the UNEP FI Secretariat in Geneva, Mr. Usher was responsible for a programme portfolio advancing new public/private instruments for financing cleaner energy infrastructure and improving energy access. He was seconded to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change for development of the Green Climate Fund, specifically the fund’s Private Sector Facility. Eric is co-editor and co-author of various studies examining the role of public and private finance in climate mitigation and was lead author for finance of the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources.
Before joining UNEP, Eric was General Manager of a solar rural electrification company based in Marrakech. He holds an MBA from INSEAD, France, and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University, Canada.
Terry Odendahl
President and chief executive, Global Greengrants Fund
Terry Odendahl
President and chief executive, Global Greengrants Fund
Terry has spent more than 40 years working to bridge the gap between our natural and human worlds. Prior to joining Global Greengrants in 2009, Terry helmed the National Network of Grantmakers for over a decade. She also worked to protect public lands in the western United States, as a program officer at the Wyss Foundation. An anthropologist by training, she has held faculty positions at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute; the University of California, San Diego; and Yale University. Terry is the co-author or editor of four books: Charity Begins at Home: Generosity and Self-Interest Among the Philanthropic Elite; America’s Wealthy and the Future of Foundations; Women and Power in the Nonprofit Sector; and Career Patterns in Philanthropy. She has authored Op-Eds for The Guardian, EcoWatch, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The New York Times, Alliance Magazine and other outlets. She is co-founder of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and the Institute for Collaborative Change in New Mexico. Terry is leading Global Greengrants to expand its support for women-led solutions to environmental issues.
Helen Joyce
International editor, The Economist
Helen Joyce
International editor, The Economist
Helen Joyce became editor of The Economist's international section in January 2014. Until October 2009 she was international education editor. She then worked on a project for the editor-in-chief, looking at what The Economist should be doing with data, both in print and online. In July 2010 she moved to Brazil to become the paper's São Paulo bureau chief. Previous jobs include editor of Plus, an online magazine about maths published by the University of Cambridge, and founding editor for the Royal Statistical Society's quarterly magazine, Significance.