Innovations In Social Investing Across The Finance Spectrum 6. Venture Capital Approaches In Emerging Markets

Speakers

• Michele Giddens

  Speaker

  Executive Director, Bridges Ventures

  Michele Giddens has over 15 years of international development and social finance experience. She was an Investment Officer with International Finance Corporation, the private sector financing arm of the World Bank Group in Eastern Europe in the early 1990’s, then spent 8 years with Shorebank Corporation, which was one of the leading community development banks in the USA. There she ran small business lending programmes in Russia , Central and Eastern Europe, advised on microfinance in Bangladesh, the Middle East and Mongolia and did research in the US community development finance sector. Michele is a founder and Executive Director of Bridges Ventures and focuses on strategy, investor relations, public relations and social impact assessment. Michele has a BA Honours in politics, philosophy & economics from Oxford University and an MBA from Georgetown University, Washington, DC. She is an adviser to the Social Investment Task Force, a Trustee of the Young Foundation and was Chair of the Community Development Finance Association (cdfa) 2003-2005

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• Gord McMillan

  Speaker

  , CARE Venture Fund

  Gordon McMillan has been a Canadian financial services industry entrepreneur for the past decade.  In 1995, Mr. McMillan founded Triax Capital Corp., a speciality investment management firm focused on retail investment funds.  Mr. McMillan and his partners sold Triax to First International Asset Management Inc., a consolidator of asset management firms in Canada, in 1998.  By the time he left in 2000, Triax had assets under management of approximately $1.5 billion (CAD).  In 2000, Mr. McMillan founded NGB Management Inc., a venture capital manager focused on investing in the Canadian life sciences industry.  That year, Mr. McMillan also founded Skylon Capital Corp., another speciality investment firm focused on structured investment products.  Mr. McMillan and his partners sold Skylon to CI Funds Management Inc., one of Canada's leading investment management firms, in 2003.  At the time of the sale, Skylon had assets under management of approximately $800 million.  Earlier this year, Mr. McMillan and his partners sold NGB Management, manager of $120 million in venture capital assets, to AMG Canada, a large US investment management industry player.  Mr. McMillan has served on the boards of a number of investment funds and investment management firms throughout his career.  He has also been active in the not-for-profit sector, serving as a director of his private family foundation, and serving on the board of Parteq Innovations, which has a mandate to commercialize research undertaken by faculty and students of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.  Mr. McMillan holds a bachelor of Laws degree from Queen's and is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada.

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