Private Markets
Impact & Transition Investor Summit North America 2024
12 - 13 November 2024,
The Westin Times Square, New York
The next generation of investments
The Impact & Transition Investor Summit: North America is the leading private market conference to discover the game-changing investable solutions in the transition to an environmentally sustainable and socially equitable world.
Join 350+ leading fund managers and allocators focused on transition, impact and sustainable outcomes investing for two-days of networking, insight-sharing and collaboration.
The agenda will address transition investing trends such as electrification, energy efficiency, food systems resilience and productivity, hydrogen, carbon capture and sequestration, climate adaptation, circularity, biotech, industrial decarbonisation solutions and more.
Hear from leaders on strategies, challenges and allocation approaches to impact investing so you are equipped to make informed decisions in this growing market.
2023 speakers included
What can you expect at the Impact & Transition Investor Summit?
Event content with value
The Summit will explore transition investing trends and impact models that are addressing urgent societal inequality and social issues. The agenda will cover topics including the future of healthcare and education, electrification, energy efficiency, food systems resilience and productivity, climate adaptation, biotech, industrial decarbonisation solutions, employee ownership, DE&I investing, affordable housing, aging populations, to name a few.
Build a valuable network
Connect with industry participants in all aspects of transition, impact and sustainable investment and elevate your network with the expansive global community. Network in-person at interactive workshops, networking breaks, evening drinks reception, roundtable discussions and invite-only breakfasts. Build lasting relationships and compare best practices with your peers.
Meet institutional investors
Hear from institutional investors who are looking to increase their exposure to impact funds and learn their priorities when investing into impact and sustainable funds. Investors who attended in 2023 included APG Asset Management, CDPQ, Foundation for the Carolinas, Keller Family Office, Kirchner Impact Foundation, Manulife, QIC, United Nations, William Casper Graustein Memorial Fund, and many more.
Testimonials from attendees
Operating Principles for Impact Management
Diane Damskey, Head of Secretariat
The event gathered some of the top names in impact investing and covered key topics to promote the understanding and growth of this market. The organization and…
SV Health Investors
Hannah Maunder, Investor Relations and Communications Associate
The Impact Investor Global Summit provided a huge amount of clarity on all things impact investing and did so in an engaging and enjoyable way.
FSN Capital Partners
Pål Dale, Senior Director, Business Development
All in all, the event provided a rich and detailed snapshot of the state of the impact investment industry, as of 2021.
Pre-Event Resources
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Before proceeding, please review our terms and conditions and privacy notice
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Select which of the following you might be interested in:
Before proceeding, please review our terms and conditions and privacy notice
Request Download
Select which of the following you might be interested in:
Before proceeding, please review our terms and conditions and privacy notice
What to expect at the summit?
The Impact & Transition Investor Summit provides a leading platform for institutional investors and allocators focused on transition, impact and sustainable outcomes investing to connect with their peers, discover new opportunities and share best practices.
Past investor attendees include Align Impact, Alpha Square Group, AlTi Tiedemann Global, APG Asset Management, Archer Private Investments, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Caprock, CDPQ, J.P. Morgan Private Bank, Keller Enterprises, MassMutual, New York State Common Retirement Fund, QIC, Rockefeller Foundation, and many more.
What to expect at the Summit:
- Meet with the best and biggest impact funds globally – network and arrange one-to-one meetings with leading impact managers
- Networking with peers and other institutional investors – build your network of peers, understand their strategies, challenges and allocation approach to impact
- Get insight on the latest innovations and transition investing trends – take advantage of world-class speaking faculty to stay aligned with developments in the market
- Find investment opportunities across the market’s thematic sub-asset classes from climate, healthcare, social, education and many more
Apply for a complimentary Institutional Investor pass
A limited number of complimentary passes are available for impact LPs, allocators and institutional investors to join the event.
Complimentary investor passes are limited to foundations, endowments, trusts, insurance companies, single family offices, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds who are actively making fund commitments and do not engage in third-party fundraising activities or collect fees for advisory/consulting services.
Apply for a complimentary pass and a member of our team will follow up with you to confirm your eligibility.
Impact & Transition Investor Summit
Our leading advisory board in 2023 included
Andrew Lee
Managing Director, Global Head of Sustainable and Impact Investing, UBS Global Wealth Management
Liz Roberts
Head of Impact Investing – Investment Management, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company
Chavon Sutton
Senior Investment Director, Sustainable and Impact Investing Research, Cambridge Associates
The Impact & Transition Investor Summit will take place on 12-13 November 2024.
For more information on the agenda, please contact Boris Petrovic.
boris.p@pei.group | +44 (0)204 548 4494
Network with the global transition investment industry
The Impact & Transition Investor Summit is one of the highest-quality networking meetings for fund managers and allocators focused on transition, impact and sustainable outcomes investing. Join 350+ attendees in New York for two days of networking at the must-attend event for sustainable investment professionals.
The in-person networking experience
Meet investors focused on transition, impact and sustainable outcomes investing
Network with active investors in the industry. Benefit from our expansive global investor community who will be in attendance throughout the summit.
Network in-person in New York
Connect with your peers at interactive workshops, networking breaks, evening drinks reception, roundtable discussions and invite-only breakfasts.
Build new connections
Past attendees include Align Impact, APG, Apollo Global Management, Bain Capital Double Impact, Blackcorn Ventures, Caprock, Carlyle, CDPQ, Closed Loop Partners, Energy Impact Partners, Glenmede, Global Endowment Managment, Keller Family Office, Manulife, North Sky Capital, QIC, Stepstone Group, UBS Global Wealth Management and many more.
Testimonials from attendees
Operating Principles for Impact Management
Diane Damskey, Head of Secretariat
The event gathered some of the top names in impact investing and covered key topics to promote the understanding and growth of this market. The organization and…
SV Health Investors
Hannah Maunder, Investor Relations and Communications Associate
The Impact Investor Global Summit provided a huge amount of clarity on all things impact investing and did so in an engaging and enjoyable way.
FSN Capital Partners
Pål Dale, Senior Director, Business Development
All in all, the event provided a rich and detailed snapshot of the state of the impact investment industry, as of 2021.
The Impact & Transition Investor Summit will take place on 12-13 November 2024.
For more information on speaking in 2024, please contact Boris Petrovic.
boris.p@pei.group | +44 (0)204 548 4494
Sponsorship opportunities
Position your business with an authoritative content-led event portfolio focused on ESG & diversity and be recognised as a go-to solution provider for senior private markets professionals and institutional investors.
Sponsorship gives you the opportunity to:
- Network with senior power players and private market investors as you address the most impeding social and environmental challenges through impact investing.
- Present how your impact fund solutions deliver measurable ESG credentials to align with a strong financial performance to enable fundraising across a global investor base.
- Discover brand opportunities to position your sustainable funds to aid capital raising to a global ESG community.
For more information on available sponsorship opportunities please contact tyler.m@pei.group | +1 646 795 3279
2023 sponsors included:
Diane Damskey
Secretariat Emeritus, Operating Principles for Impact Management
Diane Damskey is Secretariat Emeritus and Advisor to the Operating Principles for Impact Management, the global standard for impact investors. She spearheaded the growth of the Impact Principles, launched in 2019, to more than 180 signatories from 40 countries managing more than half of the estimated impact assets globally. She is also Founder of DC Damskey Global Consulting, providing strategic advice to asset managers, asset owners, foundations and family offices on their impact and sustainability practices. Prior to this, Diane was a senior member of the IFC team that developed the Impact Principles. She joined IFC after serving as an Adviser to the Chief Financial Officer of the World Bank Group, where she led initiatives to promote private sector investment in emerging markets.
Diane joined the World Bank following more than 25 years’ experience with private sector financial institutions and has held several senior roles with institutional and private client investment managers, including Credit Suisse Asset Management, Northern Trust, UBS International Private Bank, and JPMorgan. She holds a B.S. in Foreign Service, cum laude, from Georgetown University and M.P.A. from the Harvard Kennedy School and is a CFA charterholder.
Operating Principles for Impact Management
The Impact Principles are the global standard for impact investors, providing a framework to ensure that impact is incorporated throughout the life of an investment. DC Damskey Global Consulting provides strategic advice to asset managers, asset owners and allocators, family offices, foundations and corporations on their sustainability and impact practices.
Andrew Lee
Managing Director, Global Head of Sustainable and Impact Investing, UBS Global Wealth Management
Andrew joined UBS Global Wealth Management's Chief Investment Office in July 2012 and is Head of Sustainable and Impact Investing. He and his team support clients globally with advice, strategy and thought leadership on incorporating sustainability considerations into investments. Andrew also oversees the Americas thematic investing team. Prior to his current role, he was Deputy Global Head of the CIO Ultra High Net Worth / Alternatives / Sustainable and Impact Investing group, with specific responsibility for the impact investing and private markets teams. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has been quoted in various publications including Barron’s, Bloomberg, Reuters, the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Andrew represents UBS on the Advisory Board for the Operating Principles for Impact Management. Andrew is a Managing Director based in New York.
Prior to joining UBS, Andrew was Managing Director overseeing investments for a private New York based single family office. In this capacity, he was responsible for managing asset allocation, theme development, due diligence and execution of all direct and indirect investments for the family investment vehicles. Previously, Andrew was part of a long/short equity hedge fund team at Deutsche Asset Management. Before this, he worked at Lazard in the generalist banking (M&A) and real estate private equity groups.
Andrew has a MBA from the Wharton School and an AB from Harvard College.
Jessica Pan
Senior Portfolio Manager, APG Asset Management
Jessica Pan is a Senior Portfolio Manager in the Global Private Equity group of APG Asset Management based in New York.
Jessica joined APG in 2014, a year after the firm’s launch of an in-house private equity program. As a senior member of the investment team, Jessica focuses on making primary investments in private equity funds, primarily in the US and Europe. Her role encompasses manager selection, due diligence, and the monitoring of investments. Prior to that, Jessica worked in investment banking at JPMorgan, focused on providing high-yield and investment grade debt financing to consumer, retail, and healthcare companies.
Ms. Pan holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago.
APG is one of the world’s largest pension investors. At the end of December 2023, the assets managed for APG’s pension funds and their 4.8 million participants in total represented a value of approximately 569 billion Euros.
Roraj Pradhananga
Partner and Director of Impact Investment Research, Veris Wealth Partners
Roraj is a Partner and the Managing Director of Research at Veris Wealth Partners. He leads the Investment Research team and is a voting member of the Investment Committee. He is responsible for sourcing, due diligence and monitoring of investments across asset classes, thematic research, capital markets analysis, and impact measurement and management. Roraj chairs the firm’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Committee and Investment Working Group.
He seeks to drive systems level change and positive environmental and social impact through financial markets, build partnerships, identify impactful investment opportunities for clients, and contribute to the advancement of the impact investing industry.
Roraj has fifteen years of experience in the US and Switzerland across Wealth Management, Asset Management, Banking and Insurance in various functions and roles. Prior to joining Veris, Roraj was a Sustainability Investing Analyst at RobecoSAM in Zurich, Switzerland, where he developed and implemented sustainability, ESG and impact investing solutions across core, thematic, and impact investment strategies and covered the consumer discretionary and telecoms sectors. Before RobecoSAM, he was a Vice President in Debt Capital Markets at Citigroup in New York. He started his career at KPMG in New York in the Insurance and Asset Management practices.
Roraj holds an MBA (Honors) from IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting (Magna Cum Laude) from SUNY Binghamton. He is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He lives with his family in NY.
Liz Roberts
Head of Impact Investing – Investment Management, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company
Ms. Liz Roberts is the Head of Impact Investing for MassMutual. In this role, she directs impact investing’s strategy, oversees the MassMutual Catalyst Funds (MMCF) and First Fund Initiative, and guides a team focused on investing capital for market-rate financial returns while generating positive, measurable social and environmental impact.
She joined MassMutual in 2021, bringing 20 years of startup industry and innovation experience as an accomplished entrepreneur, investor, strategist, and DEI advocate. In 2015 she built and led the VVM startup Accelerator in Springfield, MA. In four years, the initiative launched 150 startups(60% owned by women and people of color), generated 600 jobs, $51 million in revenue & investment. Previously, as Chief Strategy Officer of SX2 Media Labs, she was instrumental in the transformation of the company to a digital platform, leading to its acquisition by Great Hill Partners. Prior, Liz led operations and strategy for Distance Learning Co., acquired by Sterling Partners.
Liz is a seasoned advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion, and access to, seed and earlystage capital for underrepresented entrepreneurs to further meaningful innovation. In 2016 she worked with the Obama White House Presidential Innovation Fellows, and Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship to increase access to capital for rural and diverse communities.
She holds a B.A. in Studio Art and Economics from Smith College.
Robert Schultz
Partner, Capricorn
Robert Schultz is a Partner of Capricorn Investment Group. Prior to Capricorn, he was the Co-Founder and Partner of Greentech Capital Advisors, an investment bank and asset management firm focused on creating a more efficient and sustainable global infrastructure, which was sold to Nomura in April 2020. Prior to Greentech, he was a Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Morgan Stanley Fund Services and before that was a Managing Director and Head of Alternative Fund Services, North America for HSBC. Rob is a Chartered Accountant and received his Bachelor of Commerce, with Honors, from Queen’s University in Canada. He is a Director of Help for Children which is global foundation for the prevention and treatment of child abuse.
Capricorn Investment Group
Capricorn Investment Group is one of the largest mission-aligned investment firms in the world managing approximately $9B in assets for families, foundations, and institutional investors. For over 20 years, we have sought to revolutionize how capital is invested to address such urgent challenges as climate change, resource scarcity, and economic inequality. We believe sustainable investment practices can enhance risk-adjusted returns, and that huge investment potential resides in breakthrough commercial solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.
Fran Seegull
President, U.S. Impact Investing Alliance
Fran Seegull is President of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance which works to increase awareness of impact investing in the U.S., foster deployment of impact capital across asset classes globally, and partner with stakeholders, including government, to build the impact investing ecosystem. She also serves as Executive Director of the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing—a donor collaborative focused on growing the field.
Previously, Seegull was the Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director at ImpactAssets where she headed investment management for The Giving Fund—now a $2B impact investing donor-advised fund.
Seegull has a BS in Economics from Barnard and an MBA from Harvard. She serves on the Investment Committee of Align Impact and the Advisory Boards of SOCAP and the CASE i3 Initiative at Duke. She tweets at @franseegull.
Laurie J Spengler
President and CEO, Courageous Capital Advisors
Laurie J. Spengler is an impact investment banker, board member and active contributor to the impact investing industry. Among current board engagements, Laurie serves as a non-executive director of the CDC Group (the UK DFI), the UK Impact Investing Institute, Lendable and Bridges Insights. Laurie serves as Global Ambassador to the Global Steering Group on Impact Investing, is Senior Fellow and Advisory Council member of Casei3 at the Fuqua Business School and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Laurie is CEO of Courageous Capital Advisors. Previously, Laurie was CEO of Enclude Ltd. and Enclude Capital UK Limited. Prior to building Enclude Capital, Laurie was founder and CEO of Central European Advisory Group and also worked as an attorney with the New York, Brussels and Prague offices of White & Case. Laurie has a JD from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree from Stanford University.
Chavon Sutton
Senior Investment Director, Sustainable and Impact Investing Research, Cambridge Associates
Chavon is a member of Cambridge Associates’ Sustainable & Impact Investing team, where she is responsible for conducting manager research across asset classes and working with institutional clients to build sustainability- and impact-focused portfolios.
Prior to joining Cambridge Associates, Chavon was the City of New York’s inaugural Director of Emerging Manager Strategy for NYC’s Bureau of Asset Management, the investment advisor to each of the city’s five retirement systems. There, she led the Bureau’s growth strategy for investment in small, diverse, and women-owned managers across all asset classes, created its first blueprint for the integration of diversity factors in its investment process, and supported the investment staff's sourcing and due diligence efforts.
Previously, Chavon was a Vice President at J.P. Morgan where she constructed and managed portfolios for families, endowments, and foundations. She began her career in corporate finance roles at Bank of America and RBC, underwriting debt transactions for Fortune 100 financial institutions.
Chavon earned her MBA in Finance and MA in Journalism from New York University. She earned her BA in Economics, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.
Bhavika Vyas
Managing Director, Stepstone
Ms. Vyas is a member of the responsible investing team at StepStone, with a focus on impact investing. She is also involved in the Firm’s responsible investing initiative. Prior to StepStone, Ms. Vyas was a managing director at East Rock Capital, a multi-family office, and focused on private equity co-investing. Before that, Ms. Vyas was a vice president on the private equity and co-investment teams at Goldman Sachs Investment Management and Siguler Guff, covering a wide range of strategies, including impact investing, energy and infrastructure, emerging markets private equity, distressed and traditional buyouts. Ms. Vyas also spent time as a portfolio manager at the Acumen Fund, an impact investment manager, focused on emerging market water and sanitation issues, and was a founder of Velocitas Partners, a responsible investing advisory firm. Ms. Vyas received an MBA from Stanford Business School and a BSE from Duke University.
John Ancona
Head of Private Equity Due Diligence, J.P. Morgan Private Bank
John Ancona is the Head of Private Equity for JPMorgan Private Bank’s Private Investments Due Diligence team, which is responsible for manager selection and the ongoing monitoring of various private equity, credit, and real asset funds representing over $100bn of capital commitments. He has been a member of the Private Investments Due Diligence team since 2009. John also sits on JPM’s Private Equity Advisory Council, which sets portfolio construction for the bank’s annual Vintage fund program and thematic healthcare and impact vehicles.
Prior to joining the Private Bank, John worked in the Financial Institutions Group at JPMorgan’s investment bank, providing advice on M&A and capital market offerings to specialty finance companies and asset managers. He received his Bachelor of Arts cum laude in History from Amherst College. John serves as a board member of the York College Foundation.
Kunle Apampa
Head of Client Solutions, Capricorn Investment Group
Kunle Apampa is Head of Client Solutions at Capricorn Investment Group, one of the largest mission- aligned investment firms globally managing $9B+ in assets on behalf of families, foundations, and institutional investors. Kunle is responsible for the institutional growth of Capricorn as a purpose-built Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO).
Prior to joining Capricorn, Kunle was Vice President at Goldman Sachs Imprint, an ESG & Impact Investment platform within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Kunle spent over a decade at Goldman Sachs, holding several leadership roles within the firm’s Global Markets division as well as the Finance division. Kunle holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering, specializing in Energy, Environment & Economics, from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Kunle is based in New York City.
Kunle serves on the steering committee of Intentional Endowment Network, the membership committee of Confluence Philanthropy and works with some of the most active venture funds in Africa.
Charles Avery
Reporter, New Private Markets
Charles is a reporter for New Private Markets, PEI Group’s publication focused on sustainability, ESG and impact investing in private markets. He works across private equity, venture capital, private debt, infrastructure and real assets. He covers topics including investors’ allocations and policies; managers’ investment strategies and ESG and diversity credentials; new regulatory measures; and ways to measure, report and compare sustainability issues and initiatives.
Thomas Belazis
Director of Innovative Finance, The Rockefeller Foundation
Thomas Belazis serves as a Director of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Innovative Finance team where he oversees global climate investments. Since joining Rockefeller in 2017, Thomas has led investments across various sectors and geographies, spearheading equity, mezzanine and other structured transactions. During this time, Thomas managed investments within the Foundation’s global distributed energy strategy, which scaled into a $1 billion+ clean energy transition platform. He also launched and co-managed the Zero Gap Fund, Rockefeller’s first impact fund leveraging third-party capital. Throughout his tenure, Thomas has served as a board member and advisor to various private companies and fund managers.
Before joining the Foundation, Thomas was a growth equity investor at TAU Investment Management, a private equity firm focused on improving the social and environmental sustainability of global supply chains. Prior to TAU, he was an investment analyst at the GEM Group, a $3.4 billion alternative investment firm focused on private and public equity investing in the US and emerging markets.
In his early career, Thomas was a management consultant based in Rio de Janeiro where he led international expansion projects for multinational clients, working across the Americas and Asia Pacific regions. Thomas holds a master’s degree in development economics and energy from Columbia University and a BS in finance from Miami University.
Mark Berryman
Managing Director of Impact Investing, Caprock
Mark Berryman is a Managing Director at Caprock where he leads Caprock’s impact and sustainable investment portfolio and supports the management of impact-focused clients. Mark is the inaugural Chair of the Impact Capital Managers LP Council and a member of the Impact Assets 50 Investment Review Committee. In addition to other select investment advisory boards, Mark is currently an Adjunct Professor of Impact Investing at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Mark has twenty years of experience in impact investing and emerging markets finance. Before joining Caprock, Mark spent over a decade as a Lead Investment Officer with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group where he focused on investing in financial institutions and funds (private equity, venture capital, and private debt) operating in emerging markets. While at the IFC, he was field-based in Turkey, China, Mali, and Washington DC. Mark also co-led Deutsche Bank’s Global Social Investment Funds Group launching and managing global structured debt funds for financial inclusion and social enterprises. Mark began his career over two decades ago as a three-year Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali, West Africa, and has held other positions at firms including, the Multi-lateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), eBay, and the Microfinance Information Exchange. Mark holds an MBA and Masters in International Affairs from Georgetown University and a BA in Accounting from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He speaks French and is conversational in two native African dialects.
Preeti Bhattacharji
Head of Sustainable Investing, US Private Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Preeti is the Head of Sustainable Investing for J.P. Morgan’s US Private Bank. In this role, she works with advisors and their clients to incorporate sustainability into their investment portfolios, develops thought leadership, and works with portfolio managers and due diligence colleagues to expand the Private Bank’s sustainable investing platform.
Preeti has a decade of experience stewarding Sustainable Investments across asset classes and return profiles. Prior to JP Morgan, Preeti worked on post-investment engagement at Calvert Research & Management. Before that, she served as a Vice President of Integrated Capitals at the F.B. Heron Foundation, working to better align the foundation’s endowment with its mission, informing Heron’s long-term strategic direction, and helping to steward its investments across asset classes. Preeti has also served as the assistant director for the Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing and a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she reported on global issues that included the global financial crisis and climate change. Preeti earned a B.A. from Columbia University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Andrea Biernat
Principal, Impact Investing, Apollo Global Management
Andrea Biernat joined Apollo in 2021 in Private Equity and is a Principal in Impact Investing. Andrea Biernat serves on the board of directors of ScionHealth and Supplemental Healthcare. She is also on Apollo’s Citizenship Advisory Council helping to lead Apollo’s philanthropic, volunteering and diversity initiatives. Prior to that time, Ms. Biernat was a Vice President at A&M Capital Partners from 2013 to 2021. Prior to that, she was an Associate at Greenbriar Equity and began her career in Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan. Ms. Biernat previously served on the boards of directors of CNSI, Gabes and PatientCare EMS Solutions.
Ms. Biernat is a member of the Green Team and Coastal Cleanup for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerome Fisher Management & Technology Program, where she received a BS from the Wharton School and a BAS from the School of Engineering & Applied Science as well as a Minor in the History of Art.
Katy Boettcher
Principal, Ara Partners
Katy Boettcher is a Principal at Ara and is involved with all aspects of the firm’s investment process.
Prior to joining Ara, Katy served as a Vice President at White Deer, a private equity firm focused on industrials and infrastructure, where she was responsible for origination, structuring, due diligence, execution and monitoring of investments. Prior to joining White Deer, she was an Associate in Evercore’s investment banking group.
Katy holds a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University, where she graduated magna cum laude. She received a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Tynesia Boyea-Robinson
President, and CEO, CapEQ
As an entrepreneur, Six Sigma blackbelt, and technologist, Tynesia helps businesses achieve their true potential through social impact. She has been religiously leading and writing about enterprises that “do well and do good” for over a decade.
As President and CEO of CapEQ™ (formerly Reliance Methods), which she founded in 2011, she demonstrated how business and community goals can align towards mutual outcomes, helping Fortune 500 clients like the Carlyle Group, Marriott, and others change the way the world does business. In her previous role as Chief Impact Officer of Living Cities, Tynesia was responsible for ensuring $100M of investment produced outcomes that improved the lives of people across the country.
Tynesia has published articles featured in the Washington Post, Forbes and more, and her most recent book is The Social Impact Advantage: Win Customers and Talent By Harnessing Your Business For Good.
Tynesia leveraged effective cross-sector partnerships to help establish the Social Innovation Fund and the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act. As founding Executive Director of Year Up National Capital Region (NCR) she raised $20M, was recognized by President Obama, and supported the organization to ensure thousands of low-income young adults are hired in careers with family-sustaining wages.
Tynesia has been a featured speaker at events ranging from South by Southwest to the White House Council for Community Solutions. Her work was highlighted in the New York Times bestseller A Year Up.
Tynesia received her MBA from Harvard Business School and has a dual degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Duke University. She and her college sweetheart, Keith, are committed to indoctrinating their children, Dylan and Sydney, with a love of Duke basketball and all things geeky and sci-fi.
CapEQ™ is an Impact Investment & Advisory Firm that helps investors and businesses achieve superior financial returns through social impact. Our team is uniquely positioned with a wealth of expertise, vision and experience, and is led by President and CEO Tynesia Boyea-Robinson. Tynesia has helped Fortune 500 clients like the Carlyle Group, Marriott, and others change the way they do business – and has been religiously leading, speaking and writing about enterprises that “do well and do good” for over a decade
Deepa Chakrapani
Manager -- Development Impact Reporting & Evaluation, International Finance Corporation
Deepa leads IFC’s Corporate Impact Reporting and Evaluation team. In this role, she leads several aspects of IFC's reporting on development results, including the overall development and implementation of the our Results Measurement architecture ex-ante and ex-post for Investment and Advisory including AIMM, supporting the teams in IFC working on sustainability on metrics, coordinating IFC’s impact evaluation program, and leading IFC's engagements with MDBs and other DFI partners on results measurement. Deepa has previously managed the Development Impact team covering IFC Manufacturing, Agribusiness, and Services. Her other experience includes working in IBRD's Financial and Private Sector Development department and at the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group.
Deepa holds an MBA with a dual major in Finance and Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, India. She also holds an MS in Finance from American University in Washington D.C.
Outside of her professional endeavors, Deepa is an active volunteer for her local town's small business committee. She also has a passion for Carnatic classical vocal music and enjoys solving cryptic crosswords in her free time.
Dani Chen
Senior Investment Manager, Climate Innovation Fund, Microsoft
Dani Chen is a senior investment manager of Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, a $1B fund to innovate and accelerate the climate solutions needed to meet net zero and beyond. She has led numerous deals across venture capital and project finance, including financing first-of-a-kind projects in sustainable aviation fuel and direct air capture carbon removal. Dani’s responsibilities at Microsoft span investment strategy, due diligence, deal execution, and portfolio management. Her work serves the dual purpose of catalyzing climate impact broadly as well as creating opportunities for Microsoft to become an early adopter of the technologies needed to meet the company’s carbon-negative, zero-waste, water-positive, and ecosystem protection commitments. Previously, Dani has held various institutional asset management and financial analysis roles. She holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and is currently pursuing a M.S. in Sustainability Management at Columbia University.
Régine Clément
President and Chief Executive Officer, CREO Syndicate
Régine Clément joined CREO in 2016 as its inaugural CEO to catalyze capital into Clean, Renewable and Environmental Opportunities. Through her leadership, CREO is helping build the climate & sustainability investment marketplace by partnering with family offices, family foundations and other asset owners to deploy capital into solutions that advance positive outcomes across all asset classes. Prior to joining CREO, Régine was Trade Commissioner and Head of Energy & Environment at the Canadian Consulate General in NYC; Co-Founder of the Canadian Technology Accelerator for Cleantech; Executive Director of SENS Production, a NYC-based site-specific dance company; Trade Policy Analyst with the Global Affairs Canada, and a trade & environmental policy analyst with Fundación Futuro Latino Americano in Ecuador. Régine obtained her MSc in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics and her Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Ottawa.
Todd Cook
Managing Partner, Bain Capital Double Impact
Mr. Cook joined Bain Capital in 2017 as a Partner on the Bain Capital Double Impact team after having been a member of the Bain Capital Private Equity team since 1996. He serves as Managing Partner of Bain Capital Double Impact.
Prior to his current role, he was a leader on the North American Private Equity team in the Industrial & Energy Vertical.
Prior to joining Bain Capital, Mr. Cook was a consultant at Bain & Company.
Mr. Cook received an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He graduated summa cum laude with a BE in electrical engineering and a BA in economics from Dartmouth College.
François Crémet
Senior Director, Sustainability, CDPQ
François Crémet holds the position of Senior Director, Sustainability. In this role, he leads the activities for measuring impact and ESG (environmental, social and governance matters) performance throughout CDPQ’s portfolio, and pilots the associated multi-year digital roadmap. He is also responsible for CDPQ’s initiatives to create value through ESG in portfolio companies, with a focus on private equity and infrastructure investments. He also supervises CDPQ’s external strategy on equity, diversity and inclusion and represents the organization on the Diversity in Investment Committee of the Investor Leadership Network (ILN), a group of the world’s leading institutional investors committed to sustainable growth, as well as on Canadian chapter of the 30% Club. Before joining CDPQ in 2017, Mr. Crémet worked for over 10 years in strategy and management consulting, at SECOR Consulting, then at KPMG in Montréal and in Paris. He supported leading organizations, mostly in the financial services industry, in strategic projects related to business strategy and transformation, customer strategy, leadership development, operating model design, stakeholder management and cultural evolution. Mr. Crémet holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from HEC Montréal and is a CFA Charterholder. He is also a graduate of the Global Village for Future Leaders of Business and Industry program at the Iacocca Institute of Lehigh University.
Daniel D'Ambrosio
Partner – ESG & Impact, Kirkland & Ellis
Dan D’Ambrosio is a partner in the ESG & Impact team at Kirkland & Ellis International LLP.
Dan advises some of the world’s most sophisticated private equity firms and strategics on sustainability matters across a range of corporate, fund formation, sustainable finance transactions and regulatory compliance matters. Dan supports private equity clients globally to navigate emerging sustainability disclosure frameworks across the UK, Europe and US and translate requirements into governance, policies and risk management processes, downstream M&A transactions and portfolio company engagement. He also works with sponsors’ portfolio companies on a range of ESG compliance matters.
Dan has significant experience advising on human rights matters and supporting clients to develop compliance policies and risk management programmes aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, incorporate human rights considerations into transaction diligence and contracts and respond to cross-border human rights crises and disputes.
Anna Dayn
Managing Director, New End
Anna Dayn is a Managing Director and US head of New End, a family-office-anchored strategic advisory and capital formation firm in private markets. At New End, Anna partners and invests in high-growth companies, sponsors and investment platforms to provide business development and access to institutional capital.
Anna has over 20 years' experience in funding, designing and implementing private equity investment programs. Before New End, Anna established the North American platform of XTP, a leading cost analysis platform serving institutional investors. Anna previously served as the head of Private Equity at Cardano, a UK pension consultancy, where she oversaw a private equity program spanning $2bn of invested capital. Prior to that, Anna worked at Capital Dynamics and NM Rothschild.
Anna has served on the limited partner advisory boards of several private equity funds across North America and Europe, is a published author, media commentator, and a frequently featured speaker at investment industry conferences. She sits on the Executive Board of WAVE, the Women’s Association for Venture and Equity, and serves on the New York Steering Committee for PEWIN, the Private Equity Women’s Investor Network.
Anna received an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA in Economics from the College of Arts and Sciences, both at the University of Pennsylvania.
New End is a global institution that underwrites and invests principal capital in the opportunities originated by the team. Core activities extend to private equity, private debt, and real assets. New End partners and invests alongside asset managers, providing valuable support on strategic initiatives, including new step-out offerings and capital raising. New End has helped launch numerous first-time teams and supports emerging and established managers with capital formation and business development.
New End is headquartered in London with offices in New York, Montreal, Zurich, Paris, and Milan.
Lucas de Breed, PhD MBA
Director, Investments, BrightEdge
Dr. de Breed has close to 20 years of experience in Oncology, as a scientist, strategy consultant, VC and entrepreneur.
Previously, as a Manager at Deallus, a global strategy consulting firm for large biopharma clients, he led the Oncology business unit and founded the firm’s East Coast office. As an Investment Director at INKEF Capital, a leading European VC firm, Lucas led the allocation of $120 million in US and European therapeutics start-ups, served on the respective Boards, and realized a number of exits. At INKEF, he was instrumental in setting the investment strategy, building out the investment team and in expanding assets under management to $600 million. He is also the Founder of August Care, developing outcomes-based financial solutions for high-cost precision medicine.
Dr. de Breed holds a PhD in Molecular Oncology from University College London and an MBA from Stanford University. He has also co-authored several scientific papers. He is a Director at Quantum Leap Healthcare, a 501c(3)charitable organization integrating high-impact clinical research with patient care to improve and save lives; a member of the Scientific Advisory Board or Promontory Therapeutics, a clinical stage oncology company
Jessie Duncan
Lead Program Officer, Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing
Jessie Duncan oversees all strategy and grantmaking at the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing (TPF). The TPF is a donor collaborative supported by leading US philanthropic actors whose mission is to promote the growth, with integrity, of the impact and ESG investing sectors.
Prior to her work with the TPF, Jessie was a Principal and Expert with Boston Consulting Group (BCG)’s social impact practice. She was also previously Head of Strategy and Senior Portfolio Manager for Medtronic Labs, an impact and innovation lab within Medtronic where she oversaw investments across emerging markets.
Michael Eisenberg
Partner, ESG Integration & Impact Investing Lead, ERM
Michael is a Partner in ERM’s ESG Advisory Services business where he leads the ESG integration practice for private markets investor clients in North America and co-leads the firm’s impact investing practice globally. Prior to joining ERM, he most recently worked at the New York State Common Retirement Fund where he was Head of ESG Integration with a particular focus on private equity, infrastructure, private credit, and special situations asset classes. In addition to working closely with the Fund’s investment teams on ESG and impact due diligence and post-investment monitoring, he was also responsible for the development and execution of the Fund’s net zero by 2040 strategy for private markets.
ERM
At ERM, sustainability is our business.
As the largest global pure play sustainability consultancy, we partner with the world’s leading organizations, creating innovative solutions to sustainability challenges and unlocking commercial opportunities that meet the needs of today while preserving opportunity for future generations.
Our diverse team of world-class experts supports clients across the breadth of their organizations to operationalize sustainability, underpinned by our deep technical expertise in addressing their environmental, health, safety, risk and social issues. We call this capability our “boots to boardroom” approach for its comprehensive service model that allows ERM to develop strategic and technical solutions that advance objectives on the ground or at the executive level.
Temple Fennell
Principal, Keller Family Office
Temple Fennell has more than 20 years of experience as a company founder, investor, and fund manager. Temple is a family member of Keller Enterprises, a single-family office active Renewable Energy, Clean Tech, Regenerative Agriculture, Racial Justice, and seeks to support underrepresented Fund Manager. Keller was one of the early families of the CREO Syndicate that now has ~200 families from around the world that invest in Clean Renewable Energy Opportunities (CREO). Temple founded and operated three companies that were funded by private investors and institutional investors (New Enterprise Associates, Oak Investment Partners, Pearson Education and others). Temple most recently served as a full-time strategic advisor for Flagship Ventures, a technology firm that develops technology companies to solve global problems and transform large markets in the energy, water, food and human health sectors. Temple is the co-founder and co-director of the “Impact Investing for the Next Generation” program created in 2015 at the Kennedy’s Center for Public Leaderships to train Next Gen family office members to implement impact investing into their family’s investment strategy. Temple began his career as a Management Consultant at KMPG in New York and as an analyst for leveraged buy-out firm, Clinton Capital Corporation. Mr. Fennell holds a B.S. in Systems Engineering, University of Virginia, an MBA as a MIT Sloan Fellow at the MIT Sloan School of Management and is a senior fellow at the University of Zurich.
Melanie Fornes
Climate Change Investment Specialist, Glenmede
Melanie Fornes is a Climate Change Investment Specialist at Glenmede Trust. She is responsible for supporting the development of thematic investment solutions within Glenmede’s Sustainable and Impact Investing platform.
Prior to Glenmede, Melanie has helped lead ESG efforts in the asset management industry, designing integrated and thematic investment strategies across asset classes. She has also held fellowships in carbon pricing research at the University of California and climate change policy in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Meanie holds a Master of Science degree in Environmental Economics & Climate Change from the London School of Economics and Political Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and Environmental Studies from the University of California.
Peter Fox-Penner
Chief Impact Officer, Energy Impact Partners
Peter Fox-Penner is Partner and the Chief Impact Officer of Energy Impact Partners. In this capacity he directs all ESG and impact measurement and reporting, works with EIP’s portfolio companies to improve their ESG performance, and collaborates with EIP’s limited partners to accelerate their clean energy transitions. As a member of EIP’s founding team, he originally served as Chief Strategy Officer. He is also a founding member of the steering committee of Project Frame, a coalition of leading PE firms developing impact reporting guidelines, and co-founder and senior fellow of the Boston University IMAP program, a collaboration between industry and academia to improve ESG metrics.
Prior to EIP, Peter served for over two decades as Principal and Chairman of The Brattle Group, a leading energy consultancy, as a Professor at the BU Questrom School of Business, and as founder and director of the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy. He also previously served as a Senior Advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. He has served on the boards and advisory boards of numerous companies, including EOS Energy Storage (EOSE), Gridpoint, the Global Energy Group (GHG), and Lighting Retrofit, Inc (now Envocore).
Peter now serves on the global leadership council of the World Resources Institute and on the advisory boards of Mobility Impact Partners, the National Regulatory Research Institute’s Training Initiative. His is a Distinguished Associate of the Energy Futures Initiative. He is also affiliated with the Energy Futures Initiative and an invited participant in the World Economic Forum’s Chief Strategy Officer energy group.
Peter is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer on clean energy and ESG topics and the author of numerous published articles and books, including the highly acclaimed Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities (Island Press, 2010) and its sequel Power After Carbon: Building a Clean, Resilient Grid (Harvard University Press, 2020). His research has been widely cited, including in one Supreme Court decision.
Peter holds degrees in Electrical Engineering (BA, 1976) and Mechanical Engineering (MS, 1978) and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (1987).
Energy Impact Partners
Energy Impact Partners, LP (EIP) is a global venture capital firm leading the transition to a sustainable future. EIP brings together entrepreneurs and the world's most forward-looking energy and industrial companies to advance innovation. With over $2 billion in assets under management, EIP invests globally across venture, growth, credit, and infrastructure – and has a team of nearly 60 professionals based in its offices in New York, San Francisco, Palm Beach, London, Cologne, and Oslo.
Mark Hays
Managing Director, Director of Sustainable & Impact Investing, Glenmede
Mark Hays is a Managing Director and Director of Sustainable & Impact Investing at Glenmede. In this role, he provides strategic leadership of Glenmede’s sustainable and impact investing efforts. Mark and his team are responsible for the development of new investment capabilities, the creation and delivery of innovative thought leadership, and the deepening of relationships with clients and industry partners.
Previously, Mr. Hays served as Vice President of Sustainable Investing for J.P. Morgan Asset Management. In this role, he dev eloped an enhanced ESG integration framework and led its implementation for more than 25 investment teams and over $1 trillion in assets, while helping to create and launch three sustainable investment strategies. Before this role, he served as Vice President of Impact Investments for Flat World Partners, where he oversaw a team responsible for sourcing, investment due diligence, impact analysis, and recommendation of opportunities for sustainable thematic portfolios representing over $1 billion in institutional capital.
Mark started his career at Cambridge Associates, serving endowments and foundations on portfolio construction.
Mark is a Board Member & Treasurer for Believe in Students, a national charity, a member of the Sustainable Investing Leadership Team for the CFA Society, and an Advisory Board Member of the Journal of Wealth Management.
Mr. Hays holds an M.B.A. from London Business School and a
B.S. from Wake Forest University, and was recently selected as a member of Harvard University's 2023 Sustainability Leaders cohort.
Steve Hellman
Managing Partner, Mobility Impact Partners
Mr. Steven Hellman created Mobility Impact Partners as a collaborative strategic investment platform for the emerging mobility ecosystem after co-founding Energy Impact Partners, a leading private equity firm for the new energy economy. He also founded several businesses: Eos Energy Storage (Nasdaq: EOSE), which sells advanced batteries for stationary storage applications; Convergent Energy & Power, an energy storage asset developer; and Enernet Global, a developer of microgrid solutions. Mr. Hellman also built and exited a multi-billion-dollar energy trading company, a large shipping company, a SaaS platform that global commodities companies use to manage information and transactions, and a $150 million commercial real estate business. Earlier in his career, he built two oil production companies and four oil refining ventures that were acquired by a French oil major. In 2006-7 he acted as an Advisor to the U.S. State Department working with Heads of State and Senior Ministers throughout Eurasia to resolve energy conflicts and to develop a strategy for oil and gas infrastructure development. He speaks Russian and Chinese, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and holds an MA (Industrial Engineering) and a BS (Political Science, Slavic Languages) from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa, 1987).
Mobility Impact Partners
Mobility Impact Partners (MIP) is a private equity firm focused on transportation mobility technologies. MIP brings together the leading stakeholders in the mobility ecosystem — auto companies, parts suppliers, energy companies, fleet operators, logistics providers, technology and communications companies, financial and insurance companies as well as cities and municipalities— to identify common challenges, find solutions, invest in those solutions, and then bring those innovations back into our partners’ operating businesses. The multisectoral collaboration among the partners provides global 360 degree intelligence on the transportation ecosystem and an actionable ESG lens on the largest single source of emissions. MIP helps its partners adapt their core strategy to the changing mobility landscape and de-risk innovation in the sector.
Jonathan Hirschtritt
Managing Director, Sustainability, GCM Grosvenor
Mr. Hirschtritt leads our firmwide ESG and Impact strategy, adoption of evolving industry best practices, and ESG and Impact integration within our investment teams and across GCM Grosvenor. As a member of the Office of the Chief Investment Officer, he works in close partnership with our Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Investment Officer to increase coordination and implementation of ESG and Impact best practices across our firm. In this capacity, he represents the firm as we promote ESG and Impact themes in partnership with top industry organizations. Specifically, he actively participates on behalf of the firm on the ESG Data Convergence Project, a private investment industry group working to further standardization of ESG and Impact metrics and reporting. Mr. Hirschtritt also serves as a member of the GCM Grosvenor ESG & Impact Committee and Valuation Committee. Mr. Hirschtritt holds an ESG Certificate from the CFA Institute and a certificate from the Sustainable Finance & Investment Program at the Yale School of Management. Previously, Mr. Hirschtritt oversaw strategic planning for organic and inorganic product and capability development, investment process enhancement and firm-wide strategic initiatives, such as the GCM Grosvenor initial public offering, as Deputy to the Chief Operating Officer at GCM Grosvenor. Prior to joining GCM Grosvenor, Mr. Hirschtritt was a Partner at Sheffield Asset Management, LLC, where he served as a senior investment professional and was actively involved in the firm’s day to day management. Prior to joining Sheffield Asset Management, Mr. Hirschtritt was an Associate at Davidson Kempner Capital Management, where he worked as an investment professional on their Event Driven Equities fund. Mr. Hirschtritt began his career as an Investment Banking Analyst at Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. He graduated summa cum laude with his Bachelor of Arts in Diplomatic History from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar.
Michael Hokenson
Partner, Community Investment Management (CIM)
Michael Hokenson serves as Partner of CIM and leads business development for the firm. He was co-founder of Minlam Asset Management and served as Managing Director from 2005 to 2012, where he developed an extensive network of global institutional and individual investors for Minlam Microfinance Fund. Mr. Hokenson served as a member of the fund's Investment Committee and performed credit analysis including on-site due diligence and monitoring of active investments. Following Minlam's acquisition, he joined TriLinc Global LLC as Director of Sales to launch the first SEC-registered impact investment fund in June 2013 focused on emerging market SME private credit.
Mr. Hokenson has published case studies on the profitability of MSME lenders in The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by Professor C.K. Prahalad. Mr. Hokenson graduated from the Erb Institute of Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, earning a M.B.A. at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and a M.S. at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. He received his B.A. from St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Community Investment Management (CIM) is an institutional impact investment manager that provides strategic debt capital to demonstrate and scale responsible innovation in lending for underserved communities. CIM's capital seeks to advance financial inclusion, promotes economic development and drives widespread adoption of such responsible innovation by the financial mainstream.
Ali Humphrey
Managing Partner, Arna
Ali is the Managing Partner at Arna, a private capital and sustainability advisory group, primarily focused on direct investments and fund strategy. She combines her unique experiences as a former sustainability investor, Fortune 500 operator and investment advisor to provide growth and capital raising strategy to sustainability technology companies and private asset managers.
Previously at PJT Partners and Park Hill, Ali advised alternative asset managers on new fund formation and ESG strategies and led global strategy for climate capital raising. Ali also previously led Sustainability and ESG for TPG where she developed an integrated, value-centric ESG approach across the investment cycle. During her time, she led ESG-related business building with over 200 portfolio companies, many from pre-investment to successful exit.
Ali spent her early career as an operator, leading sustainability strategies and advising companies like Apple, McDonalds, Bank of America and The Gates Foundation. She has advised top executives at >10 multinational companies with a combined market cap of over $2.3 trillion to enhance exposure to ESG-linked growth and capital.
Kent Insley
Head of Portfolio Construction, Wealth Management, AlTi Tiedemann Global
As the Head of Portfolio Construction, Kent is responsible for overseeing all functions of the investment process related to asset allocation and implementation for both traditional and impact investments.
Prior to joining Tiedemann in 2004, Kent worked as a fixed-income specialist with Millennium Partners LP, a New York-based hedge fund, with more than $4 billion in assets under management at the time. Kent’s responsibilities included financing high-grade, high-yield and international fixed-income portfolios, generating risk and profit/loss reports on derivatives portfolios, and various other aspects of Millennium’s daily business operations. Kent also served as a client representative at MFS Investment Management in Boston, Massachusetts.
Kent earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently resides in Larchmont, New York, with his wife and children.
Brad Jakeman
Founding Managing Partner, Rethink Food
Brad Jakeman is the Founding Managing Partner of Rethink Food and the former president of PepsiCo’s Global Beverage Group, accounting for more than $20BN in revenue. Brad was instrumental in driving financial returns while re-tooling the beverage portfolio for the future. Through marketing, innovation, M&A and product reformulation Brad significantly reshaped the PepsiCo beverage portfolio toward healthier, more nutritious options.
During his seven-year tenure, PepsiCo’s market cap increased by 52% outpacing the principal competitor by 24%, ROIC grew from 9.5% to 24.8% and PepsiCo returned over $45BN to shareholders, all while making significant progress toward a more sustainable future for the company and society.
Brad implemented one of the largest reformulation efforts in packaged good history to remove one third of added sugar from over 600+ beverage SKUs. He created double-digit growth in PepsiCo’s water portfolio, including one of the most successful launches in packaged good history with LifeWTR ($250MM Retail Sales in year one) and drove Aquafina to the #1 packaged water brand globally. He also spear-headed key M&A efforts, notably SodaStream, the world’s largest carbonated water brand that alone is expected to eliminate 67 billion single-use plastic packages by 2025.
Brad is considered one of the world’s leading branding thought leaders and has been named one of the top 5 ‘Most Indispensable Executives in Tech, Media and Marketing’ for two years in a row by Adweek.
Semiray Kasoolu
Head of Impact Solutions, Y Analytics
Semi’s background is in helping governments, international organizations, and investors translate evidence-based research into more effective economic policies and capital allocation decisions. Prior to joining Y Analytics, Semi was a Research Manager at the Growth Lab at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, where she managed research projects focused on achieving sustainable and inclusive growth in a number of countries. Her areas of research focus include labor market frictions and women’s economic inclusion in the Middle East. Semi holds a B.S. in Economics and Accounting from Saint Peter’s University and a MPA in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Jennifer Kenning
CEO and Co-founder, Align Impact
Jenn Kenning is a trailblazer, collaborator and change-maker who has quickly risen to become one of the most recognized voices in impact investing. In 2014 Jenn co-founded Align, an independent fiduciary and impact specialist that works alongside financial advisors, institutions, foundations and directly with individual clients and family offices, helping integrate impact strategies and investments into the broader wealth management strategy.
A frequent speaker, moderator and guest lecturer, Jenn is committed to building the impact investing ecosystem while leading Align. Jenn was named on the “40 under 40” list by Investment News in 2014, selected for Private Asset Management’s “50 Most Influential Women in Private Wealth” in 2016, and chosen as Investment News Icon and Innovator in 2017.
Jenn began her career in 2002 as a wealth manager at Aspiriant where she served also on the Board of Directions and was a partner of the firm, and left to launch Align.
Brian Kernohan
Chief Sustainability Officer, Private Markets, Manulife Investment Management
As Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Managing Director of Environment and Policy, Brian is responsible for sustainability & responsible investing strategy and public policy engagement across forestry, agriculture, real estate, infrastructure, and private equity & credit. In this role, Brian directs Manulife’s Private Markets and Hancock Natural Resource Group’s global sustainability programs, develops policies and environmental compliance mechanisms, and is responsible for government relations concerning business and environmental strategies, specific to forestry and agriculture. Brian also overseas environmental stewardship support for Hancock’s forestry and farming operations in North America while supporting ecosystem services revenue development and conservation transactions.
Previously, Brian was Director of Policy and Environmental Advocacy for Hancock. Prior to joining Hancock in 2012, Brian was the Director of Policy at Forest Capital Partners where he was responsible for a variety of programs including forest certification, forest policy, government affairs, public relations, conservation transactions, and ecology support. Brian is a director of PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) International. Brian is a certified wildlife biologist and holds a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology from Michigan State University and an M.S. in Wildlife Management from South Dakota State University.
Micah Kotch
Partner, Blackhorn Ventures
Micah Kotch is a Partner at Blackhorn Ventures. He was previously part of the BMW Group, where he served as Managing Director of URBAN-X; the platform for startups reimagining city life. Micah is a Founding Partner of C3, an AngelList syndicate backing companies working to reduce emissions, mitigate the worst effects of climate change, and help humanity adapt to a changing world.
Micah served as Strategic Advisor for Innovation at NYSERDA where he led NY Prize; a $40M community microgrid initiative focused on energy resilience and evolution of the utility business model. At the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Micah served as Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, where he launched NYC’s first sponsored tech incubator and the Urban Future Lab – helping emerging companies capitalize on the clean energy transition. He is a core national faculty member for the National Science Foundation’s I-CORPS program which helps commercialize federally-funded research and ‘tough tech’.
Micah graduated Colgate University with a degree in China studies and started his first company putting games on phones in China in 1998. He is a Brooklyn native (where he lives with his family) and a proud board member for Green City Force, an Americorps program that engages young adults from low-income communities in national service related to the environment. Micah is a Next City Vanguard Fellow and a member of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network.
Maria Kozloski
Senior Vice President of Innovative Finance, The Rockefeller Foundation
Maria Kozloski is the Senior Vice President of the Foundation’s Innovative Finance team, which makes impact investments aimed at unlocking private capital flows for global good, with a focus on climate finance. She also leads the Foundation’s Economic Equity team, which uses strategic grantmaking to advance public policies benefiting America’s working families and promote partnerships that spur greater investment in underserved communities across the country.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Maria was the Global Head and Chief Investment Officer of Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds at IFC (International Finance Corporation). Prior to that, she held leadership positions at Lockheed Martin Investment Management Company and The World Bank.
Maria has a bachelor’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School, and a master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Diane Kulju
Associate Director of IMM and Research, Impact Capital Managers
Diane is the Associate Director of IMM and Research at Impact Capital Managers, which has the joint mission of advancing member performance and scaling the impact investing marketplace with integrity and authenticity. Diane leads ICM’s work on impact measurement and management, supporting and working alongside ICM’s 115+ members—all private capital funds investing for market-rate return and meaningful impact—to advance best practices in the field and help funds not only prove but also improve the impact of their work. Additionally, Diane directs the research initiatives of the affiliated ICM Institute, which publishes industry-leading studies and reports including the Alpha in Impact, Legal Innovation in Impact Investing, What’s Next for Fund Administration, and Strengthening Outcomes: Impact and Financial Return at Exit. Diane also leads partnerships with external stakeholders to promote shared priorities in the advancement of the IMM practice, such as ICM and Impact Frontiers’ partnership on the “Impact for Decision-Making” online curriculum, which provides guidance on impact-financial integration.
Diane brings a rich and diverse history of impact measurement expertise from a variety of industries and sectors. Before beginning her tenure at ICM, Diane led impact measurement at Pyxera Global, a nonprofit that leads ESG and CSR programs for Fortune 500 companies around the world. Prior to that, Diane served as a Senior Consulting Researcher at the think tank Arqaam, where she contributed to project evaluations and impact measurement system design, including for an EU-funded $40M+ multi-country climate change mitigation project. Diane also spent several years at Samuel Hall, a think tank based in Kenya that specializes in research in conflict and post-conflict environments, where she designed and led customized impact measurement and research projects for UN, INGO, government, and corporate clients across Africa, Europe, and Asia.
Diane holds a Master of Global Business Administration from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, where she concentrated on sustainable finance. She also holds a BA, summa cum laude, in International Studies from the University of Washington.
Christina Leijonhufvud
CEO, BlueMark & Co-Founder, Tideline
As CEO of BlueMark, Christina guides all aspects of the business strategy, new product development, and external relations. In just two years, Christina established BlueMark as the leading provider of impact verification and a pioneer in establishing benchmarks for best practice impact management and reporting. She has been a thought leader in the impact investing market since its beginnings, publishing numerous influential reports. Christina is an active member of the G7 Impact Taskforce, where she works in collaboration with global leaders in business, impact investing, and public policy to improve “Impact Transparency, Integrity and Reporting.” Prior to Tideline, Christina was a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan where she created and led the firm’s Social Finance division, a novel merchant banking business. Christina holds a MSc from the London School of Economics, MA from George Washington University, and a BA from UCLA.
BlueMark is the leading provider of independent impact verification and intelligence for the impact and sustainable investing market.
BlueMark® was created to meet the need for expert, third-party verification of impact claims and practices. Market actors increasingly recognize the importance of impact transparency and accountability to scale the amount of capital needed to address our shared sustainability challenges.
With decades of experience in the impact investing industry, the BlueMark team brings unrivaled knowledge and capabilities in providing a range of specialized impact assessment services. An independent assessment from BlueMark is designed to support investors in their impact investing journeys — whether helping asset managers to understand their degree of alignment to industry standards and financial regulations, or enabling asset allocators to optimize their engagement with portfolio companies and managers.
BlueMark’s diagnostic and verification services are structured around two key pillars of accountability for impact performance – impact management (IM) practice and impact reporting.
Cassidy Leventhal
Principal, Achieve Partners
Cassidy Leventhal is a Principal at Achieve Partners and was formerly a Vice President at University Ventures where she was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Education. Cassidy is a Director of Ro Health, Optimum Healthcare IT and Freedom Learning Group, and is regularly featured in outlets focused on the future of healthcare education and work, including Staffing Industry Analysts, ASU GSV, Talent Tech Labs, and Techstars.
Outside Achieve, Cassidy co-founded alternativestocollege.com and serves as co-chair for Talent & Diversity at Impact Capital Managers. Prior to Achieve and UV, Cassidy was a consultant and Digital Product Owner at McKinsey and graduated summa cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University.
Brandon Lewis
Director, Sustainability, Timberland, and Agriculture, Manulife Investment Management
Brandon is responsible for implementing the sustainability and responsible investing program of the firm’s timberland and agriculture businesses by working to integrate sustainability considerations throughout all aspects of their operations globally, including corporate policy, investor communications and reporting, acquisition due diligence, product development, and operations. Prior to joining the firm, Brandon held various technical and consulting roles in environmental finance, renewable energy, and mining.
Education: B.Sc., Geology, Wheaton College; M.Sc., Geology, Colorado School of Mines; M.P.A., International Development, Princeton University
Joined the company: 2019
Began career: 2008
Matthew Lobach
Partner, Decarbonization, ERM
Matthew joins ERM as Partner, Decarbonization, bringing a distinguished background in sustainability consulting within financial services. Notably, his tenure as Senior Director of Sustainability & Finance at HHM Hotels showcased his adeptness in developing comprehensive sustainability programs for expansive portfolios, comprising hundreds of hotels, corporate offices, and thousands of employees. Matthew's collaborative engagement with investment and operational teams underscored his capacity to seamlessly integrate ESG criteria into decision-making processes, fostering value creation and operational streamlining. His expertise in regulatory compliance, benchmarking, and navigating diverse sustainability aspects helps client achieve their decarbonization ambitions.
Alexandra Lunt
Principal, Armonia
Alexandra Lunt is part of the team at Armonia, a family office investing in the regeneration of soil, soul, and society. Her current focus is on reshaping consumers’ relationships with the food system in order to promote better practices for the health of people, land, and animals. She has backgrounds in investment banking, hospitality, and digital marketing.
David Lynn
Co-Founder & CEO, Mission Driven Finance
David Lynn has been working in the financial and philanthropic sectors for over 25 years. He found a way to blend those two worlds in 2016 as the co-founder and CEO of Mission Driven Finance, an impact asset management firm dedicated to getting capital to flow where it normally doesn’t, but should. Mission Driven Finance manages multiple private funds that provide inclusive commercial financing to small businesses, social enterprises, and
nonprofits, all with the goal to close capital gaps that close opportunity gaps. Prior to focusing on impact investing, David specialized in family office investment portfolios including both private investments and risk management through derivatives. Most recently, David has been the Investment Manager for the Price Group, a family office and charitable foundation environment, including directly running an actively managed equity derivatives portfolio and serving as a director with the Price Philanthropies Foundation. With a long dedication to community involvement, David has served in a board leadership capacity for a variety of nonprofit and philanthropic initiatives, including San Diego Grantmakers, San Diego Impact Investors Network, Education Synergy Alliance, Mission Edge San Diego, San Diego Social Venture Partners, and San Diego Humane Society.
David is a San Diego native with a Bachelors in Mathematics from Whitman College. When not working or volunteering, he's likely to be found adventuring in the mountains with the
dogs or other crazy people.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidalynn
Salome Makharadze
Managing Director, Alternatives Capital Markets and Strategy Group, Goldman Sachs
Bio coming soon...
Anne Matusewicz
Co-Head of ESG & Impact Strategy, Cority
Anne is the Co-Head of ESG & Impact Strategy at Cority, working with North America and UK-based private markets investors to help them reach their sustainability goals. She drives ESG strategy across the investment lifecycle, informing ESG due diligence, overseeing the analysis and integration of ESG data, partnering with portfolio company management teams, setting targets, crafting ESG/CSR/impact reports, and managing carbon footprinting.
Previously, Anne spent over a decade working in asset management focused on ESG and thematic strategies. Most recently, she was a Sustainable Product Strategist at BlackRock. She also held various roles at Calvert Research and Management, helping integrate ESG at Calvert’s parent company, Eaton Vance (now part of Morgan Stanley), and launching the Calvert Institute for Responsible Investing where she served as Director. Earlier in her career, she worked in portfolio strategy and business development at Fidelity and Boston Trust Walden, respectively. She has an MBA from University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business with a focus on Sustainability and Finance and holds a BA from Brown University in Economics and Architectural Studies. She is also a CAIA charterholder.
Mike McCreless
Founder and Executive Director, Impact Frontiers
Mike is Founder and Executive Director of Impact Frontiers, a peer learning and market-building collaboration supporting investors in pioneering new ways to integrate impact alongside financial risk and return in investment practices. In 2020, he led the investors participating in the first Impact Frontiers cohort to co-author the article “How Investors Can Integrate Social Impact With Financial Performance to Improve Both” in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, as well as an accompanying Investor Handbook. Most recently, he co-authored the chapters on impact management and investor contribution for the forthcoming Certificate on Impact Investing from the CFA Society of the UK.
Mike served concurrently as Head of Investor Collaboration at the Impact Management Project from 2019 to 2021. Prior to that, Mike was Head of Impact at Root Capital, where his article “Toward the Efficient Impact Frontier” was featured in the Winter 2017 issue of SSIR. He holds an MBA and an MPA in International Development from Harvard University, as well as a BA from Yale University.
Impact Frontiers
Impact Frontiers is a learning and market-building collaboration for investors seeking to manage their social and environmental impacts and incorporate impact into investment decision-making. Impact Frontiers stewards the norms and consensus-building practices pioneered by the Impact Management Project, using practitioner experiences to jump-start consensus-building in areas of practice where standards and guidance do not yet exist, and synthesizing and sharing the results of these collaborations with the field at large. In 2024, Impact Frontiers published the Impact Performance Reporting Norms, establishing shared expectations for the reporting of impact results by asset managers in private markets. These Norms are the result of an 18-month public consultation among more than 350 asset managers, asset owners and allocators, consultants, and assurance and verification providers.
Toby Mitchenall
Senior Editor, ESG & Sustainability, New Private Markets, PEI Group
Toby Mitchenall has been covering private markets for 15 years; his current focus is on ESG, sustainability and impact investing.
Toby joined PEI Group in London in 2008 to report on capital flows in European private equity for Private Equity International. After a four-year break from journalism, during which Toby advised private equity market participants on their marketing and PR strategies, he returned to PEI to oversee the group’s private equity content, then comprising Private Equity International, Private Funds CFO and Secondaries Investor.
In his current role of Senior Editor, ESG & Sustainability, Toby is responsible for New Private Markets, an information product that covers the spectrum of sustainable investment – from ESG to impact investment – within private markets. His areas of interest include the integration of impact investing into mainstream private markets; mechanisms for aligning sustainability with financial incentives; and the role that private capital will play in combating the climate crisis.
Jennie Morawetz
Partner, ESG & Impact, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Jennie Morawetz is the strategy and operations partner for Kirkland’s ESG & Impact practice, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the practice to ensure it delivers on its promise of integrating cutting-edge legal and strategic counseling on ESG & impact topics into all aspects of Kirkland’s top-tier transactional practice. Her responsibilities include tracking ESG market and regulatory trends (including leveraging data generated by Kirkland’s transactional practice), training, substantive client outreach, and development of innovative service offerings. Jennie also represents clients on complex ESG and climate issues at all stages of the investment and operational life cycles. Prior to starting her career at Kirkland in 2015, Jennie served as a law clerk to the Hon. Sharon L. Gleason on the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska and the Hon. Morgan B. Christen on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Kirkland & Ellis
For more than a century, Kirkland has been a steadfast partner to clients around the world in their most complex corporate, litigation, tax, intellectual property and restructuring matters. With each of our core practice groups ranked at the top of its industry, Kirkland is uniquely positioned to provide the highest-quality legal advice across disciplines — delivering tailored, seamless service and exceptional results to our clients and helping their businesses succeed. Kirkland’s Investment Funds Group addresses the legal, regulatory, tax and commercial challenges facing a diverse group of investment fund clients, ranging from some of the world’s largest alternative-asset managers and financial institutions to independent boutiques and first-time fund sponsors. As the largest, most active investment funds practice of any law firm in the world, we are uniquely positioned to provide sophisticated market intelligence and cutting-edge solutions to investment funds and their general partner sponsors in today’s market. We offer a deep regulatory bench with a wealth of global experience. Several of our attorneys have held senior, policy-making and enforcement positions in the key regulatory agencies governing the industry. This on-the-ground experience allows us to help clients implement customized, practical strategies. We also offer clients the security of a highly stable team with an extraordinarily low rate of turnover among our partners. This longevity of tenure allows us to create long-term partnerships with clients that endure throughout the life cycle of their fund.
Jack Moriarty
Executive Director, Lafayette Square Foundation
Jack Moriarty is the Founder and Executive Director of Ownership America, a non-profit public policy organization committed to accelerating the growth of employee ownership. Ownership America is building a movement for employee ownership through policy development at the state and federal levels along with organizing and mobilizing grassroots advocates across the United States. Jack has led successful state legislative efforts in Massachusetts and California has advised members of the House and Senate in both parties on active congressional legislation designed to mobilize private investment into employee ownership focused investment funds.
Prior to Ownership America, Jack held a number of strategy and operations roles at early-stage healthcare delivery and technology companies. He received his MBA from the Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management and holds BA & MA in Political Science from Boston University. Jack is an AmeriCorps alumnus and is the inaugural Policy Institute Analysis Fellow at the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing.
Matt Onek
Chief Executive Officer, Mission Investors Exchange
Matt is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Mission Investors Exchange, the leading impact investing network for foundations, philanthropic asset owners, and their partners. He brings unique perspective to the organization’s work to grow the impact investing field, having championed mission investing within foundations, federal and local government, and in the private sector.
Matt has developed mission investing strategies for foundations and intermediaries, including the Walton Family Foundation, the Helmsley Charitable Trust, and the Aspen Institute. As Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Matt coordinated a range of policy priorities in the Obama administration. Among them, he helped establish the White House Office of Social Innovation & Civic Participation and advanced policies supporting the impact investing movement. At Citigroup, Matt advised the Citi Foundation and designed investment partnerships between the private sector and philanthropy.
Earlier in his career, Matt served as Senior Counselor to the New York City Schools Chancellor under Mayor Bloomberg and as the first Director of the San Francisco Youth Commission.
Matt received his J.D. from Yale Law School and his B.A. from Stanford University.
Priya Parrish
Partner and Chief Investment Office, Impact Engine
Priya Parrish is Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Impact Engine, an institutional venture capital and private equity investor driving positive impact in the areas of economic opportunity, environmental sustainability and health equity. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Strategy and Impact Investor in Residence at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and serves as an adviser to investment firms developing and managing impact investment strategies. Prior to joining Impact Engine, Priya served as Chief Investment Officer at Schwartz Capital Group, a single-family office investing across global markets. Previously, she was Strategy Head at Aurora Investment Management, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund, and managed development of investment products that incorporated environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) at Northern Trust Asset Management and KLD Research & Analytics. Priya holds a B.S. in Business Management from Babson College and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Genevieve Pinto
Partner, Renewal Funds
Renewal Funds is an impact venture capital fund investing in sustainable food systems, climate and zero waste solutions. Genevieve joined the investment team at Renewal Funds in 2017. Prior to Renewal, Genevieve was a Partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, with legal expertise in venture capital, M&A and capital markets transactions. Genevieve was a co-founder of the Raise Collective, an organization dedicated to the development and support of women investors and entrepreneurs, and was named to the Women’s Executive Network 2018 Canada’s Top 100 as an Emerging Leader. Genevieve represents Renewal on the Board of Fresh Prep, Rebellyous (observer), Tru Earth and Caboo, and is also active in non-profit and community initiatives, including previously serving on the Board of Directors of the BC Women’s Health Foundation, YWCA Metro Vancouver and the Canadian Digital Technology Supercluster.
Dawn Powell
Principal, StepStone
Ms. Powell is a member of the responsible investing team at StepStone, focusing on ESG integration and impact investing across asset classes and investment strategies. She is also a member of the private equity team, focusing on venture capital and growth equity.
Prior to joining StepStone, Ms. Powell was an Investor Relations Officer and member of the ESG team at Capital Group Private Markets, where she managed ESG factors across a portfolio of emerging markets private equity investments. Previously, she worked for Global Equity Administradora de Recursos, a Brazilian private equity firm, and performed research in Brazil on a Fulbright scholarship.
Ms. Powell received an MBA with honors from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in International Relations from the University of Southern California. She is a CAIA Charterholder.
Edward Powers
Managing Director, HarbourVest Partners
Edward Powers is a member of HarbourVest’s primary investment team, where he focuses on small, emerging and diverse managers. He also works closely with the firm’s Custom Solutions Group, with a focus on Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs). Ed joined HarbourVest in 2016 as part of the Firm’s acquisition of the BAML Capital Access Funds business.
Ed began making private equity investments in 1997, and started his career making investments in various community development equity products.
Ed received a BA in English and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA and MA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago.
Jennifer Pryce
President and CEO, Calvert Impact
Jennifer Pryce is President and CEO of Calvert Impact, a global nonprofit investment firm. Over the past decade, Jenn has shaped the strategic direction of Calvert Impact to focus on innovation, sustainability, and scale. Under her leadership the organization has tripled the size of its flagship product, broadened the organization’s mission to focus on equitable climate solutions, expanded the corporate structure to support the development of new products and services and has industry-wide efforts on how to scale impact with integrity.
The infrastructure she has built has led to the launch of two new financial products – the Cut Carbon Note, an asset-backed security driving building decarbonization, and the Mission Driven Bank Fund, a growth capital fund for MDI and CDFI banks focused on addressing the racial wealth gap. As well as the development of a consortium, Climate United, to compete for the mandate to manage the $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund, a component of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) passed in the Inflation Reduction Act and multiple small business liquidity funds that has directed over $500MM of capital to the smallest of businesses with a design to scale to reach more businesses.
Jenn began her career in the Peace Corps before working for NeubergerBerman, the investment banking team in Morgan Stanley’s London office, and Nonprofit Finance Fund, a Community Development Financial Institution. Jenn studied engineering at Union College and holds an MBA from Columbia University. She currently serves as a Forbes contributor and a lecturer at Oxford Saïd School of Business. She is a board member of UNICEF USA Impact Fund for Children and a member of the Advisory Board of Ecofin and the Operating Principles for Impact Management
Philip Reeves
Founding Partner, Apis & Heritage Capital Partners
Philip Reeves is a Founding Partner at Apis & Heritage Capital Partners, a mezzanine debt private equity fund that preserves legacies for founders, delivers impact and returns for investors, and builds wealth for workers of color using employee ownership. He is a seasoned entrepreneur and business leader with a background in business development, mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance and executive management.
Previously, Philip partnered with 1863 Ventures, where he led an industry-agnostic program focused on scaling New Majority businesses through operational improvements, sustainable sales processes, human capital best practices and financial management. Philip’s background includes serving as the Manager of Small Business Technology and Innovation for the Government of the District of Columbia and working in corporate development for a growing government contractor, where he was responsible for mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships and business development. Philip began his career in private equity at Lehman Brothers.
He is the former President (Curator) of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Washington, DC Hub and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College.
Megan Reilly Cayten
Senior Investment Manager, Climate Asset Management
Megan Reilly Cayten is a Senior Investment Manager at Climate Asset Management, where she is responsible for investments in carbon and other ecosystem services markets and the impact lead for CAM’s Natural Capital Fund. She has 20+ years’ experience in real asset development, project finance and investment management on five continents. She previously developed power projects for AES Corporation in Central America and the Caribbean, financed infrastructure and energy projects for Citi in South and Southeast Asia, and co-developed a large wind farm in the Caribbean with Javelin Capital. She also served as blue carbon lead for Oceans 2050, a foundation created by Alexandra Cousteau, where she launched and ran a science-led project to create a new voluntary carbon methodology for seaweed farming. Ms. Cayten is a board member of the Fondo Nacional para la Conservacion de la Naturaleza (Mexico) and is on the National Council of World Wildlife Fund.
Mike Reynolds
Managing Director, Ultra Capital
Founded in 2015, Ultra Capital is a fund management firm, investing in energy transition and sustainable infrastructure, focusing on the accelerating trend toward decarbonization. Ultra invests in companies with demonstrated management teams, providing both growth equity and project capital. With decades of experience in asset management, renewables, finance and engineering, the Ultra Capital team shares a single goal: driving a more sustainable foundation for our future.
Abrielle Rosenthal
Chief Sustainability Officer, TowerBrook
Ms. Rosenthal is a Managing Director and Chief Sustainability Officer of TowerBrook, and co-Chair of the Responsible Ownership Committee and the DE&I Committee.
Prior to joining TowerBrook, Ms. Rosenthal was a partner in the London office of Kirkland & Ellis advising U.S. and European private equity clients. Ms. Rosenthal received a B.S. from the Wharton School (finance) and a B.A. (psychology) from the University of Pennsylvania, a J.D. from Columbia University Law School and an M.Phil. from Queen’s College, Cambridge. Ms. Rosenthal acts as the firm’s Chief Compliance Officer and holds the Series 7, 24, 63, 79 and 99 licenses. Ms. Rosenthal is on the board of The Opportunity Network and the Columbia Law School Board of Visitors, and a member of the Steering Committee of the ESG Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI).
TowerBrook
TowerBrook Capital Partners is a purpose-driven investment management firm co-headquartered in London and New York. The firm has raised in excess of $21.1 billion to date and invests in private equity, structured opportunities and impact strategies. As a disciplined investor with a commitment to fundamental value, the firm seeks to deliver superior, risk-adjusted returns to investors on a consistent and responsible basis. TowerBrook is the first mainstream private equity firm to be certified as a B Corporation. B Corporation certification is administered by the non-profit B Lab organization and is awarded to companies that demonstrate leadership in their commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards and responsible business practices.
Delilah Rothenberg
Co-Founding Partner and Executive Director, The Predistribution Initiative (PDI)
Delilah Rothenberg is a Co-Founding Partner and the Executive Director of the Predistribution Initiative (PDI), a multi-stakeholder non-profit organization designed to support investors in aligning their investment governance, financial analysis, and asset allocation practices with the principles of system-level investing and systematic stewardship. Delilah brings nearly two decades of experience in finance across asset classes – particularly private capital markets – having worked with private equity investors, lenders, and project developers on growth financing, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) integration, and impact strategy for over 12 years. Prior to private capital markets, Delilah worked in sell side equities with Bear Stearns and investment research with Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG). Delilah serves on the Council of Institutional Investors (CII) Markets Advisory Group; is on the Advisory Panel for the Capitals Coalition; is an Advisor to For the Long Term (public treasurers focused on ESG); was an advisor to New York City Comptroller-elect Brad Lander’s campaign; and, is a former Open Society Foundations Fellow. She has served on various committees, advisory groups, and working groups for the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), among others.
The Predistribution Initiative (PDI)
The Predistribution Initiative (PDI) is a multi-stakeholder non-profit organization designed to support investors in aligning their investment governance, financial analysis, and asset allocation practices with the principles of system-level investing and systematic stewardship.
Gabrielle Rubenstein
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Manna Tree Partners
Gabrielle "Ellie" Rubenstein has over 10 years of experience in asset management, including as a Partner with a well-known, high net worth individual in Los Angeles, as Co-Founder of Pt Holdings, an arctic asset manager headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska, and as a founding investor of the Alaska Angel Investment Network. As a member of a prominent family of asset managers, Ellie has been involved and mentored in the industry since a young age.
Ellie holds a MS-MBA in Food and Agribusiness Management, a dual degree program that awards an MS in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University and an MBA from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. While studying
at Indiana University, she was honored to be accepted into the Tobias Leadership Fellows program. Ellie attended Harvard University where she received a BA in Sociology with an honors thesis on Philanthropy and was a Varsity Ski Ra cer. Having experienced the healing power of food and the outdoors in her own life, she also earned a graduate certificate in Mind-Body-Wellness from UCLA's Center for East-West Medicine, and the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.
Ellie's role as CEO includes driving a strong culture toward the firms billion-dollar vision to revolutionize the food supply chain. She leads the firms fundraising efforts and is a member of the Investment Committee. Her expertise of global food systems and international network creates meaningful value for Manna Tree Partners Fund investors.
An active philanthropist, Ellie was awarded a Presidential Volunteerism Medal, currently serves on the American Red Cross as Lead Volunteer Advisor for Service to Armed Forces at its national headquarters, and as Board Member of the Mission and Outreach Committee at the American Red Cross of Alaska. Ellie also serves on various local boards and initiatives focused on the Military, Public Policy, Health, and Education.
Ellie is an avid hunter and fisher and spends much of her free time on the shores or in the woods pursuing protein sources. A self-described 'foodie', Ellie enjoys nothing more than sharing the nutritious food she has harvested with family and friends.
Jason Scott
Entrepreneur In Residence, Spring Lane Capital
Jason has long-term and broad experience in climate and sustainability focused initiatives and investing. He is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Spring Lane Capital, a private equity firm investing in sustainable and renewable infrastructure, and is a senior advisor to Renewable Resource Group, an asset manager focused on sustainable agriculture, water resources, renewables, and other natural resources. He is also co-chair of the CREO Syndicate, a non-profit that supports family offices to catalyze investments at scale into climate and sustainability solutions.
Jason previously co-founded and is on the board of Encourage Capital, a climate and sustainability focused asset management and advisory firm formed through the merger of EKO and Wolfensohn Fund Management. Prior to EKO, Jason was a founding director and investment analyst at Generation Investment Management, co-founded by David Blood and former Vice President Al Gore, Jr. Jason helped build the firm and its first and second products, investing in global listed equities and climate-change solutions, respectively. He has previously also worked with Acumen Fund, Flatiron Future Fund/Foundation, and New Philanthropy Capital.
Jason is a board member of Clean Energy for America and was a founder of the national service non-profit Public Allies. He earned a BA from Duke University, cum laude, and an MBA, with honors, jointly from Columbia Business School and London Business School. Jason is an Executive in Residence in the Economics Department at Duke University in 2023 where he will teach a class on private market investing in climate solutions.
Fran Seegull
President, U.S. Impact Investing Alliance
Fran Seegull is President of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, which works to increase awareness of impact investing in the United States, foster deployment of impact capital across asset classes globally, and partner with stakeholders, including government, to build the impact investing ecosystem. She also serves as Executive Director of the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing—a donor collaborative focused on growing the field.
Previously, Seegull was the Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director at ImpactAssets where she headed investment management for The Giving Fund—now a $1.5B impact investing donor-advised fund.
Seegull has a BS in Economics from Barnard and an MBA from Harvard. She serves on the Investment Committee of Align Impact and the Advisory Boards of SOCAP and the CASE i3 Initiative at Duke. She tweets at @franseegull.
Snehal Shah
Reporter, New Private Markets, PEI Group
Snehal Shah is a reporter for New Private Markets, PEI Group’s publication for climate, sustainability, ESG, impact investing and diversity in private markets. She works across private equity, venture capital, private debt, infrastructure and real assets. She covers topics such as investors’ allocations and policies; managers’ investment strategies and ESG and diversity credentials; new regulatory measures; and ways to measure, report and compare sustainability issues and initiatives.
Greg Shell
Head of Inclusive Growth Strategy, Goldman Sachs
Greg A. Shell is a partner in Sustainable Investing within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and serves as head of the Inclusive Growth strategy. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2022 as a partner.
Previously, Greg served as a managing director at Bain Capital, co-founding the Double Impact Fund, Bain Capital’s private equity fund focused on social impact. Prior to joining Bain Capital, he was a portfolio manager at Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo (GMO), and a senior equity analyst in the Global Equity Research group at Columbia Management Group.
Greg has served on the boards of several nonprofits, including the New England Advisory Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Point32 Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, The Boston Foundation and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston.
Greg earned a BS in Political Science with a concentration in Economics from MIT in 1997 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2001.
Andrew Siwo
Director of Sustainable Investments and Climate Solutions, New York State Common Retirement Fund
Andrew Siwo is the Director of Sustainable Investments and Climate Solutions at the New York State Common Retirement Fund. He is charged with providing leadership and oversight of sustainable investment efforts across the Fund’s $260 billion portfolio. Previously, Siwo was an Investment Director and Head of Mission-Related Investments at Crewcial Partners, an investment consultancy to over 150 leading foundations and endowments.
Prior to joining Crewcial Partners, Siwo was a manager at the Global Impact Investing Networking (GIIN). In his capacity there, he was responsible for the operation, sourcing, and development of ImpactBase, the largest platform of impact investment funds globally, which he grew by north of $10 billion and approved more than 100 prospective impact funds targeting a financial return as well as social/environmental benefits. He also educated and fostered institutional investors seeking exposure to sustainable investments.
Prior to joining the GIIN, Siwo spent five years in the investment banking division at JP Morgan—most recently in the Global Special Opportunities Group, a $3 billion proprietary portfolio of principal investments in private equity, debt, mezzanine, infrastructure, and real estate. He also held roles on the Rates Desk executing fixed income financing transactions as well as the Securitized Products Group valuing collateralized mortgage obligations.
Before JP Morgan, Siwo was a member of the Corporate Finance and Real Estate Strategy Group at Victoria's Secret where he oversaw capital budgeting. He began his career at E*Trade Financial managing a team of investment representatives serving active traders and high net-worth investors. His investment articles have been printed in various industry publications.
Siwo completed an MPA in Finance and Fiscal Policy at Cornell University and holds a BA in Accounting from Morehouse College. He has held FINRA Series 7, 63, and 24 licenses. He teaches an ESG course at The Wagner Graduate of Public Service at NYU where he is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service. Siwo also serves on the Board of New York Professional Advisors to Community Entrepreneurs (NYPACE).
The New York State Common Retirement Fund is one of the largest public pension funds in the United States. The Fund holds and invests the assets of the New York State and Local Retirement System on behalf of more than one million state and local government employees and retirees and their beneficiaries. It has consistently been ranked as one of the best managed and best funded plans in the nation.
Tazia Smith
Chief Operating Officer & Head of Capital Partnerships, Closed Loop Partners
Tazia Smith, CFA© is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) & Head of Capital Partnerships at Closed Loop Partners, responsible for capital formation, investor relations and stakeholder management across the firm.
Prior to joining Closed Loop Partners, Tazia was a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank, where she was a relationship manager for institutional family offices. Tazia helped establish Deutsche Bank’s Key Client Partners business, which provided private market opportunities, structured lending and trading capabilities to qualified private clients. Before she joined Deutsche Bank in 2011, Tazia spent 7 years at Goldman Sachs providing institutional cross-asset sales coverage for private clients, and she began her career in Citigroup’s private bank. In addition to her recent roles, Tazia has worked to advance the integration of ESG, impact and sustainable finance into the capital markets. In 2019, she co-founded the IMP+ACT Alliance, an independent nonprofit technology and data initiative with the purpose of advancing market participants’ assessment of impact investments, now part of The Global Impact Investing Network (The GIIN).
Tazia proudly represents Closed Loop Partners’ membership with Impact Capital Managers (ICM), and she personally serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for StreetWise Partners, a New York based non-profit that provides low-income individuals with training and mentoring to help them achieve sustainable careers.
Tazia holds her Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. She graduated magna cum laude with her B.A. degree in Environmental Science & Policy from Duke University.
Marieke Spence
Executive Director, Impact Capital Managers
Marieke Spence is founding Executive Director of Impact Capital Managers and the affiliated ICM Institute, with the joint mission of advancing member performance and scaling the impact investing marketplace with integrity and authenticity. During her tenure she has grown ICM membership from 20 to over 115 members, initially representing $5B to now over $80B in collective AUM; overseen the development of the network’s standards on impact measurement and management; with legal partner Morrison Foerster, published landmark industry reports on legal innovation in impact and financial returns and impact on exit; launched the Mosaic Fellowship, which has to date placed 65 high performing graduate students from diverse backgrounds at ICM member funds as summer associates; and with Daniel Pianko, launched the Better Money, Better World podcast. This summer, with Mark Berryman of Caprock, Spence launched the ICM LP Advisory Council.
Prior to joining ICM Marieke was at Synergos where she served as the Director of the Global Philanthropists Circle, a peer learning community of 400+ philanthropists and social investors, and launched affinity groups focused on impact investing and sustainable food systems. Prior to Synergos Marieke was a Senior Consultant at TCC Group, a social impact consulting firm. She has studied impact investing as a Summer Fellow at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and her thought leadership has been published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Foundation Review, and GrantCraft. She is co-author with Jacob Harold, Joshua Spitzer, and Jed Emerson of “Environmental Impact Investing: Co-Managing the Ecological and Economic Household,” published in Social Finance (Oxford University Press, 2016). Marieke was formerly Director of Corporate Communication and Strategy at The Kessler Group; producer of On Point, a nationally-syndicated news program on National Public Radio; and Assistant Director of Communications at the Council on Foreign Relations. Marieke holds a MALD in International Business and Communication from The Fletcher School at Tufts University and a BA from Brown University. She is an alumna of the inaugural Impact Investing Programme at Oxford University’s Said Business School.
Impact Capital Managers
The Impact Capital Managers mission is to accelerate the performance of its members and to scale the private capital impact investing marketplace with integrity and authenticity. ICM accomplishes this through its global membership association, which includes 100+ best-in-class funds representing more than $80B in impact-focused capital, and through field-building initiatives and research supported by the affiliated ICM Institute. As part of its commitment to grow the marketplace with integrity, association members must meet certain criteria including standards on impact measurement and management. ICM is a proud organizer of the Mosaic Fellowship – which has graduated over 65 top performing students from diverse backgrounds - and with Achieve Partners, producer of the Better Money, Better World podcast. For more information or membership queries, visit www.impactcapitalmanagers.com.
Megan Starr
Global Head of Impact, The Carlyle Group
Megan Starr is a Partner and the Global Head of Impact at Carlyle. She is based in New York. In her role, Ms. Starr works to design and execute Carlyle's cohesive, long-term impact strategy. She also oversees the dedicated ESG team, which leads the firm's investment diligence and portfolio company engagement work on material ESG issues.
Prior to joining Carlyle, Ms. Starr was within Goldman Sachs' Investment Management Division, where she helped build the ESG and impact investing business. Previously, Ms. Starr served in roles at The JPB Foundation, a $3.8B private family foundation based in New York City.
Ms. Starr received an M.B.A. and a Certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, where she was an Arbuckle Leadership Fellow, and an A.B. in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, where she graduated magna cum laude with highest honors in field of concentration.
Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. With $276 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2021, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. Carlyle employs nearly 1,800 people in 27 offices across five continents. Further information is available at carlyle.com. Follow Carlyle on Twitter @OneCarlyle.
Sheena Strawter-Anthony
Director of Impact Investment Strategy, William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund
Sheena has worked across financial services in asset and wealth management, investment banking, and insurance in North America and Europe. She embarked on a career in finance because she always knew that if utilized responsibly, it can help solve socioeconomic problems. She is the Director of Impact Investment Strategy at the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, and founder of Feel Good Investments, an investment advisory firm. She is driven to utilize the knowledge and skills that she has obtained throughout her career in finance and her lived experiences to inspire generational wealth through responsible investing. Sheena is also a proud graduate of Hampton University and Edhec Business School.
Chris Walker
Senior Advisor, Sustainable Retirements, Intentional Endowments Network
Chris has over 20 years’ experience galvanizing action with a record of working to identify, finance, and execute innovative sustainability solutions. Forte in financial sector sustainability innovation. Extensive climate tech, decarbonization strategies, SDG/ESG integration/reporting, and carbon markets experience focused on innovation, education and partnership cultivation.
Currently, Chris has an active sustainability consulting practice where he leads the Sustainable Retirements initiative for the Intentional Endowments Network which addresses barriers to climate/ESG integration in ERISA retirement plan offerings for higher education/foundations. In addition, Chris is leading Sales/Business Development for Carbon Capture and Storage pioneer Carbon GeoCapture using coal to permanently store CO2 at scale.
Additional experience:
• Director, North America, WBCSD where he led initiatives for Multinational business engagement on Low Carbon Technology Partnerships, ESG reporting/disclosure.
• EY’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services
• Executive Director at The Climate Group (North America) where he originated Climate Week
• Managing Director at Swiss Re where he operationalized Swiss Re’s climate insights, leading global cross functional strategic roadmap for the integration of climate change into underwriting, proprietary investments, and third-party Asset Management
• Environmental attorney litigating asbestos/toxic waste clean-up.
• He has BA and JD from St. John’s University.
Amy Wang
Managing Director, Head of Private Credit, Blue Earth Capital
Amy Wang leads BlueEarth’s private credit strategy and sits on the firm’s Executive Committee. Prior to joining Blue Earth Capital she worked at Deutsche Bank’s Sustainable Investments group where she led the group’s clean energy and South/Southeast Asian financial services social enterprise investing activities. Prior to Deutsche Bank, Amy worked at Grassroots Business Fund, Centinela Capital Partners and Citigroup Corporate Investment Bank. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in International Affairs from the Lauder Institute from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Blue Earth Capital AG is an independent global impact investment firm, headquartered in Baar, Switzerland with operations in New York, London and Singapore. It manages investment strategies for professional investors who are seeking investment solutions that offer market-rate returns, while also helping to address pressing social or environmental challenges. Initiated in 2015 by Urs Wietlisbach and backed by the Ursimone Wietlisbach Foundation, Blue Earth Capital AG has been incubated and built-up with the support of Partners Group, leveraging its experience as a leading global private markets firm.
Nate Wong
Partner, The Bridgespan Group
Nate Wong is a partner at The Bridgespan Group. He is a dedicated advocate for equity-based power shifting in communities. Nate has launched three social impact units at Deloitte Consulting, Boston Consulting Group’s Centre for Public Impact, and at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation. Previously, he has worked at Obama Foundation, Acumen, Endeavor, and TechnoServe. With a broad cross-sector background spanning over 10 countries, Nate has pushed for innovative models that intersect with capital, policy, and systems change, collaborating with clients like Visa, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, United Nations on leading impact strategies. Nate earned his BS from University of Virginia and his MBA from Yale School of Management. He holds a certification in executive leadership coaching from Georgetown University.
Katie Wu
Associate Director, Sustainable Investing, Private Markets, Manulife Investment Management
Katie is Associate Director, Sustainable Investing, Private Markets at Manulife Investment Management. Her role focuses on sustainable investing activities within the private equity, credit, and infrastructure businesses, as well as providing leverage to the wider private markets sustainability team. Prior to joining the firm, she was part of the sustainable investing team at CPP Investments, where she worked with investment teams on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integration and asset management across global public and private portfolio companies. Her experience includes performing ESG due diligence and partnering with investment teams through the investment lifecycle, stewardship and engagement with company board and management to advance ESG initiatives. She’s been an active member in industry groups such as the 30% Club, Principles for Responsible Investment, and numerous collaborative engagement groups. Katie also has a background working in risk management and project management in capital markets, including a short stint in China. She has an HBA from Ivey Business School and is a CFA charterholder.
Brandon Zeigler
Director of Impact Investments, Global Endowment Management
Brandon Zeigler is a Director on the Impact Investment Team at Global Endowment Management (GEM). In this role, Brandon helps lead the firm’s impact platform by supporting the integration of impact considerations in client strategy, operations, communications, and the investment process. He is responsible for engaging internal and external stakeholders to raise brand awareness, serving as a subject matter expert on impact investing and the intersection of impact and philanthropy, and developing the Impact Investment Team for leadership roles at the firm and in the impact investing industry. Prior to joining GEM in 2021, he spent five years as a Program Officer on the K-12 Education team at the Walton Family Foundation. Prior to that, he was a Senior Administrator and Director of Admission at Church Farm School. Brandon is a Board Member for America Succeeds and Freedom School Partners, and is a Board Member and Treasurer for the SchermCo Foundation. Brandon received a B.S. in Psychology from Davidson College and an Ed.M. from Harvard University.
Danny Zouber
Managing Director, North Sky Capital
Danny is a member of North Sky Capital’s management committee and co-heads the firm’s Impact Secondary strategy. Danny has been a part of North Sky Capital’s Impact investing team since 2006. Previously, Danny was a vice president at Deephaven Capital Management, a multi-strategy hedge fund where he was a member of the long-short team. In prior roles, Danny invested in emerging medical device companies at Sightline Partners (fka Piper Jaffray Ventures) and was a member of Piper Jaffray’s medical device investment banking team. Danny graduated with a BBA majoring in finance, investment and banking from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.