What Does it Take to Raise and Execute on an Impact Fund Today?

Dawn Powell
Principal
Stepstone

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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.

Amie Patel
Partner
Elevar Equity

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Amie is Partner at Elevar and leads the firm’s organizational and operating functions. Her leadership responsibilities include organizational development, talent, strategy, business development and systems / processes. She also manages and cultivates Elevar’s global partnerships including LP and co-investor relations. 

Amie has over 20 years of experience working in a variety of organizations, with a focus on emerging market investing. Prior to Elevar, she was a Vice President with Goldman Sachs Asset Management which she joined through the acquisition of Imprint Capital. Amie focused on the firm’s Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) and Impact Investing capabilities within the emerging markets. Prior to Imprint she was with the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF) where she concentrated her efforts on early to growth stage investments. She managed SEDF’s investments in Haiti and worked on several other investment opportunities in Palestine, India and parts of East and West Africa.

Amie also worked with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation as a Presidential Management Fellow and Investment Funds Officer responsible for developing and evaluating top-quartile and first-time emerging market private equity fund managers. Amie began her career as an M&A analyst with Merrill Lynch and First Union Securities, covering the automotive, healthcare and telecommunications industries. She has volunteered in Nepal with Students Partnership Worldwide as a Program Manager working on environmental education and women’s issues.

Amie holds an MBA from Georgetown University and a BS in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She serves as the Finance Chair on the Board of Education Through Music, a New York based non-profit focused on music education. Amie likes to explore new places and hold dance parties with her two daughters.

José Luis Pano
Impact and Return Head
Vinci Partners

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Responsible for the Impact and Return area at Vinci Partners. From 2003 to 2008, he worked at UBS Pactual as responsible for managing the Nordeste Empreendedor fund – focused on small and medium-sized companies in the Northeast of Brazil – and the PCP I fund. He joined Vinci Partners in 2009 as a partner in the Private Equity strategy. He was a member of the Board of Directors of several da Vinci portfolio companies, such as Unidas and Burger King. From 2012 to 2016, he was CEO of Cecrisa. Previously, he was founder and CEO of Grupo LID, a venture capital company in South America and, for 6 years, he worked in the Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Singapore and Jakarta offices of Booz & Co. He also worked as a senior consultant at Accenture and analyst finance of Intel Corporation, in Oregon (USA). He has a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and an MBA from the University of Washington (Seattle, USA).