Market Based Solutions for Impact Investing

An EMPEA Professional Development Webcast

Join EMPEA’s panel of experienced investors from Accion, J.P. Morgan, Leapfrog Investments, Siguler Guff and TriLinc Global as we discuss how impact investing grows sustainable, scalable businesses that generate attractive financial returns, while creating social and environmental benefits for local communities. This webcast explores the motivations behind impact investing, and the current and future prospects for this unique asset class:

What is driving the impact investing thesis?
How are fund managers with impact mandates positioning themselves in the market?
Where does impact investing fit in a balanced portfolio?
What has been achieved to date and what is the current state of the impact market (i.e. size, players, opportunities, challenges)?
How are impact players creating innovative models and planning for the future of the asset class?
What are the key challenges that must be addressed and what is the 3-5 year outlook for the impact investing space?

Please note this webcast lasts 1 hour and 15 minutes.

CFA Institute has approved this webcast for 1 CE credit hour. If you are a CFA Institute member, please contact us at events@EMPEA.net so that we can facilitate your CE credit.

To learn more about Impact Investing, visit our Impact Investing Resources page »

Panelists include

Patricia Dinneen
Managing Director, Siguler Guff

Patricia M. Dinneen has focused on Emerging Markets for most of her 36-year career. She is currently a Managing Director at Siguler Guff & Company, a global private equity investment firm with over $10 billion in assets under management. Dr. Dinneen joined the Firm in 2004 to build and manage the BRIC private equity business, focusing on Brazil, Russia, India, China and select frontier markets. She has also held positions at Cambridge Associates, British Telecommunications, Hughes Communications, RAND Corporation and the White House. Dr. Dinneen holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (B.A.), London School of Economics (M.Sc.) and MIT (Ph.D.). She is involved in several volunteer activities focusing on impact investing, primarily in Africa, and global entrepreneurship.

Amy Bell
Executive Director, Social Finance, J.P. Morgan

Amy Bell is an Executive Director and Head of Principal Investments for J.P. Morgan’s Social Finance business unit, which provides financial services to the growing market for impact investments, meaning those investments made with intent to generate impact alongside a financial return. Amy manages the group’s principal investment portfolio, which seeks to earn a reasonable rate of return alongside of achieving positive impact on low-income and excluded populations around the world. Deals completed to date include investments in MicroVest II, the LeapFrog Financial Inclusion Fund, IGNIA, the Bridges Social Entrepreneurs Fund, and the African Agricultural Capital Fund.

Prior to joining Social Finance, Amy worked in J.P. Morgan’s Investment Bank in the Mergers and Acquisitions group and the Consumer/Retail Coverage group. In addition, she worked in Financial Advisory Services for Deloitte where she specialized in forensic accounting.

Amy holds a Bachelors of Business Administration and Masters in Professional Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin.

Monica Brand
Principal Director, Frontier Investments Group, Accion

Monica Brand is the founding principal director of Accion’s Frontier Investments Group. Monica has spent her career in the financial services and social enterprise sectors, expanding and enhancing the value offered to the majority. Prior to assuming this role, Monica launched and managed Accion’s Marketing & Product Development Unit, where she oversaw the creation of new financial services to move the industry beyond microcredit, and worked in Mexico with Compartamos Bank, the largest MFI in Latin America. Before joining Accion, Monica worked with Anthuri Ventures- an early stage equity fund based in Cape Town, South Africa – and founded Anthuri Catalysts to help prepare potential portfolio companies for investment. Monica also worked at Calvert Ventures, the early stage equity arm of the Calvert Foundation. Monica began her career in financial services in California as a commercial loan officer of a green fund, and separately helped launch a $50 million multi-bank lending intermediary to finance small businesses and community facilities.

Monica holds an MBA and Master of Education from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Williams College, where she graduated with honors. She currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at John Hopkins School SAIS, teaching a graduate-level course on impact investing. Monica serves on numerous boards including GloboKasNet, Paralife, Shubham Housing co. and Mobile Transactions International (MTI- Zoona). Monica chairs the Investor Representative Committee of LeapFrog Investments, the first microinsurance fund. Monica is based in Washington D.C. and travels often to her home country of Peru.

Andrew Kuper
Founder and President, LeapFrog Investments

Andy is an impact entrepreneur and investor in emerging markets. He founded LeapFrog in 2007, now the largest dedicated investor worldwide in insurance and related financial services to emerging consumers. LeapFrog’s high-growth companies across 11 countries serve 23.7 million people in Africa and Asia, most of whom are low-income and accessing financial safety nets for the first time.

For his work as a pioneer of profit-with-purpose business, Andy won the 2012 Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year award, and the 2012 SEN Leadership Award from among the 20,000 chief executive members of the Young Presidents’ Organisation. According to The Economist Ideas Economy Innovation Summit, “By pioneering a new asset class and raising over $100m for it amid the global financial crisis, Mr Kuper has sought to change the way we invest as individuals, institutions and societies.”

Born and raised in South Africa, Andy was educated at Cambridge, Harvard and the University of the Witwatersrand. He holds a PhD from Cambridge, where he was supervised by economics Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and ethicist Baroness Onora O’Neill.

Andy is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. He is also a member of the WEF Working Group on Impact Investing, of the Clinton Global Initiative, and of the Young Presidents’ Organization. President Clinton has hailed Andy as “the Insurer to the Poor” and LeapFrog as “opening up new frontiers for alternative investment”.

Watch Dr. Andrew Kuper discuss his “Profit with Purpose” investment strategy with Privcap »
There are profits to be made by investing in companies that serve the needs of some two billion consumers coming into the middle class in emerging markets, says Dr. Andrew Kuper, Founder & President of LeapFrog Investments, who argues that his firm’s “Profit with Purpose” investment strategy in insurance and related financial services can change lives as well as deliver returns.

Gloria Nelund
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, TriLinc Global

Gloria spent 30 years on Wall Street as one of the most successful and visible executives in the international investment management industry. After retiring from Deutsche Bank as CEO of their $50 billion North America Private Wealth Management division, she co-founded TriLinc Global; a private investment company dedicated to creating impact investment products that will attract significant private capital to help solve some of the world’s most critical issues.

Gloria has significant expertise in the creation, management and distribution of investment products for institutional, high net worth and retail investors and, throughout her career, has been a pioneer in the development of socially responsible and impact investment products.

In addition to her activities with TriLinc, Gloria is Chairman and Independent Trustee for RS Investments, a mutual fund complex with more than $20 billion in assets under management. She is also a life-long supporter of development-oriented philanthropic causes. Gloria currently sits on the board of multiple not-for-profit organizations and actively supports entrepreneurship research and education. She is an active speaker, and guest lecturer on Impact Investing and Ethical Leadership at conferences and several top business schools, including Columbia, Wheaton, Kellogg, MIT and Georgetown.