The field of impact investing has exploded in the last decade, with billions of dollars committed to various impact investment vehicles, and increasing research into financial and social returns. The consensus seems to be that impact investing is a powerful tool, producing both impressive social and financial returns. Are expectations of market rate returns unrealistic? How can we best assess impact? Four experts will share their evidence and argue the case. You’ll decide: has impact investing has been oversold, or will it live up to the hope?
Faculty Director, CASE at Duke, Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship
Cathy Clark is Faculty Director at the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Founding Director of the CASE i3 Initiative on Impact Investing. Cathy is globally recognized as a collaborative visionary and pioneering influencer in the fields of social entrepreneurship and impact investing. She has been named a B the Change Champion, Social Innovation Thought Leader of the Year in 2020 by the World Economic Forum, and one of the 2021 Agents of Impact by Impact Alpha. She has written hundreds of blogs, case studies and papers, co-authored a book called The Impact Investor, and has created two online courses reaching over 50,000 global learners. Previously, Cathy was an investor at Flatiron Partners, a philanthropist at the Markle Foundation, and policy convener at the Aspen Institute. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, and a BA from the University of Virginia.
Senior Advisor, Private Sector Department, Oxfam America
Mara has over 15 years of experience working in the fields of international development, emerging markets finance and business. Mara leads on Oxfam's work on shareholder advocacy directd at US corporations, as well as influencing work on impact investing. Mara is the global lead on the Women in Small Enterprise initiative, which includes Oxfam America’s first impact investing fund that focuses on women entrepreneurs in Latin America. Prior to Oxfam, Mara consulted with the Middle East Investment Initiative, a public-private partnership of the Aspen Institute, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the Palestinian Investment Fund, to develop a new form of small business insurance to help Palestinian exporters hindered by travel restrictions. Prior to that she worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as an emerging markets financial sector analyst. She has worked with various international finance and development organizations, including US Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the World Bank. She has an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and a Masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. Mara speaks fluent Latvian and basic Russian.
Lisa Kleissner is joyfully aligning her family capital with her business acumen to help make the world a better place. An impact investor since 2000, Lisa advocates, teaches, writes and muses about the impact experience.
Lisa co-founded the KL Felicitas Foundation (www.klfelicitasfoundation.org), and Toniic Institute (www.toniic.com). These organizations are building a movement to bring down the barriers to impact investing while transforming how we define and create wealth. Lisa co-founded Social-Impact International (www.social-impact.org) and Hawai’i Investment Ready (www.HIReady.net) to identify, capacity build and scale regional and indigenous social enterprise.
T100: Launch – Insights from the Frontier of Impact Investing
The Toniic E-Guide to Global Early-Stage Impact Investing
The Toniic E-Guide to Impact Measurement
Creating a Better Future Through Transparency
Noteworthy publications on the work of the KL Felicitas Foundation include:
Evolution of an Impact Portfolio: From Implementation to Results
Case Study: KL Felicitas Foundation
Julia has over 25 years of executive leadership experience in financial services as a portfolio manager, hedge fund manager, wealth advisor and CIO. Since 2008, she has been at the forefront of the impact investing field, working to build better environmental, social and corporate governance standards in businesses at all stages. She has been an advisor to and investor in a number of early stage companies, and teaches impact investing and sustainable finance at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
Julia serves on the board, audit and compensation committees of Cavco Industries (Nasdaq: CVCO), on the board of Thornburg Investment Management, and urban transport company Tern Bicycles. She also volunteers on the Investment Committee of the Santa Fe Community Foundation and on the board of the Amalgamated Bank Charitable Foundation.
Chris has a background in business and development. He is a co-founder of Sumerian Partners, and was the former Director of the Shell Foundation. Chris has a track record in applying an “enterprise-based” approach to philanthropy, being an early pioneer of “impact investing”. Through his leadership of Shell Foundation he supported the creation and scale-up of a portfolio of leading global social enterprises. He is the author of various reports including Shell Foundation’s Enterprise Solutions to Poverty (2005), Enterprise Solutions to Scale (2010) and Accelerating Access to Energy (2014). He received the World CSR award for “Social Innovation” in 2013.
Chris completed his Doctorate in Ecology at Oxford University and then set up a business in the environmental services sector. He then acted as senior environment adviser at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). He has worked with a variety of donors, governments, NGO’s and businesses in over 100 low and middle income countries and has lived in both West and East Africa.
