Impact on Record

Andrea Armeni is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Transform Finance. He brings to Transform Finance a combination of expertise in corporate law and finance, social justice work, and nonprofit management. A lawyer by training, Andrea was previously the Executive Director of the Gaia Amazon Fund, an organization advocating for the rights of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest and for its environmental protection. His direct experience with the impact of outsider-led projects on Amazon communities led him to rethink the priorities of investments and social entrepreneurship through a community-focused lens. Andrea was a longtime correspondent for Emerging Markets magazine, with a focus on Latin America. He has taught sustainable development at Université Paris-Dauphine (France) and was a lecturer at the Yale Law School on the connections between law, power, and democracy. Andrea is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and the BMW Responsible Leaders Network. He is a graduate of Columbia University, the Yale Law School, and the United World College of the Atlantic.

Nancy E. Pfund is Founder and Man­ag­ing Part­ner of DBL Part­ners, a ven­ture cap­i­tal firm whose goal is to com­bine top-​​tier finan­cial returns with mean­ing­ful social, envi­ron­men­tal and eco­nomic returns in the regions and sec­tors in which it invests. Nancy is also the Founder of DBL Investors. As a lead­ing player in the grow­ing field of impact invest­ing, DBL has helped to reveal the power of ven­ture cap­i­tal to pro­mote social change and envi­ron­men­tal improve­ment, and Ms. Pfund writes and speaks fre­quently of impact investing. Ms. Pfund cur­rently spon­sors or sits on the board of direc­tors of sev­eral com­pa­nies, includ­ing; Farm­ers Busi­ness Net­work, The Muse, Advanced Micro­grid Solu­tions, Off-​​Grid Elec­tric, Primus Power, and, prior to their pub­lic offer­ings, Tesla Motors and Pan­dora. She also served on the board of SolarCity from 2008 until its acqui­si­tion by Tesla in Decem­ber 2016, on both the audit and com­pen­sa­tion com­mit­tees, and chair­ing its cor­po­rate gov­er­nance com­mit­tee; Prior to found­ing DBL Investors, Ms. Pfund was a Man­ag­ing Direc­tor in Ven­ture Cap­i­tal at JPMor­gan, hav­ing started her invest­ment career at Ham­brecht & Quist in 1984. Pre­vi­ously, Ms. Pfund worked at Intel Cor­po­ra­tion, the State of Cal­i­for­nia, Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity and the Sierra Club. Ms. Pfund was fea­tured #17 in the 2014 FORTUNE Inau­gural World’s Top 25 Eco-​​Innovators; and appeared on Fast Company’s 2016 List of Most Cre­ative Peo­ple in Busi­ness. She serves on the Advi­sory Coun­cil of the Bill Lane Cen­ter for the Amer­i­can West at Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity; the Advi­sory Board of the Lawrence Berke­ley National Lab­o­ra­tory (Berke­ley Lab); the UC Davis Cen­ter for Energy Effi­ciency, and co-​​chairs the Yale School of Man­age­ment Pro­gram on Entre­pre­neur­ship. Ms. Pfund is also a Trustee of the National Geo­graphic Soci­ety. She has been a Lec­turer in Man­age­ment at the Stan­ford Grad­u­ate School of Busi­ness and the Yale School of Man­age­ment; and is a C3E Ambas­sador to the U.S. Clean Energy Edu­ca­tion and Empow­er­ment Pro­gram, led by the U.S. Depart­ment of Energy. She is also a found­ing offi­cer and direc­tor of ABC2, a foun­da­tion aimed at accel­er­at­ing a cure for brain cancer. Ms. Pfund is the author, along with Ben­jamin Healey of the widely cited report on the his­tory of U.S. energy sub­si­dies enti­tled, “What Would Jef­fer­son Do? The His­tor­i­cal Role of Fed­eral Sub­si­dies in Shap­ing America’s Energy Future”, co-​​authored with Michael Lazar, “Red, White & Green: The True Col­ors of America’s Clean Tech Jobs”, co-​​authored with Noah Walker, “Ask Saint Onofrio: Find­ing What Has Been Lost in A Tale of Two Energy Sources”, co-​​authored with Anand Chhabra, “Renew­ables Are Dri­ving Up Elec­tric­ity Prices: Wait, What?”, and co-​​authored with Kristofer Holz, “The 2017 Inau­gu­ra­tion: Empow­er­ing a Clean Energy Nation”. Ms. Pfund received her BA and MA in anthro­pol­ogy from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity, and her MBAfrom the Yale School of Management

Mr. Daniel Goldfarb is a Co-Founder of Lendable, Inc. since 2014 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Goldfarb was partner at Greenstart, where his investment focus was on the intersection of data, finance and energy. Before Greenstart, he was the program director at Americans for Energy Leadership, where he led market analysis and research on solar energy for the developing world.

Donald Hinkle-Brown, President and CEO, leads a staff of 80 highly skilled financial experts, research analysts, and other professionals at Reinvestment Fund, a catalyst for change in low-income communities. Reinvestment Fund integrates data, policy and strategic investments to improve the quality of life in low-income towns and cities. Mr. Hinkle-Brown is widely recognized as an expert in mission investing and capacity building through his work developing new programmatic initiatives, raising capital and creating new products that improve opportunity, equity and health for underserved people and places. Under his leadership, Reinvestment Fund launched ReFresh, the nation’s first practitioner network of community lenders committed to improving access to healthy food for all Americans. He has also been instrumental in shaping strategies that leverage efforts at the intersection of health and community development to build thriving communities, including Reinvestment Fund’s pioneering multi-sector initiative in partnership with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Invest Health. Mr. Hinkle-Brown provides his expertise to many community development loan funds, community organizations, and students, demonstrating a strong personal commitment to building the capacity of peer organizations, community partners, and the next generation of community development professionals. Closer to home, he also serves as board member to Reinvestment Fund affiliate PolicyMap. Mr. Hinkle-Brown has served as adjunct faculty at Temple University’s Geography and Urban Studies program and the University of Pennsylvania’s City Planning department. He holds an M.B.A. from the Fox School at Temple University in Real Estate and Urban Planning as well as a B.A. in Economics.

Brian Dixon focuses on identifying and evaluating early-stage investments along with helping portfolio companies grow effectively. Brian joined Kapor Capital in 2011 after spending two summers as an MBA intern, and was promoted to partner in November 2015. He is committed to making sure entrepreneurs of all backgrounds have access to advice and capital in order to make their business succeed. Brian holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer and Information Science from Northeastern University and an MBA from F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College and has been selected as a Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) Fellow, Babson Fellow, and Springworks Scholar. Prior to business school, Brian started his career as a software engineer at Citigroup through their selective IT analyst training program and has worked as a product and project manager at Education First and Babyzone (Acquired by Disney Inc.). He has founded multiple technology start-up companies and enjoys working with founders and accelerator programs

Dubbed a “Top Five Gamechanger” by Forbes and a “Power Investor” by Essence, Kesha Cash founded Impact America Fund (IAF) to harness market opportunities overlooked by traditional investors. In 2016, Stanford Graduate School of Business published a case study on IAF to teach students about the structure of an impact venture fund, and how to analyze the social and economic impact of high-growth technology investments. Kesha’s personal mission is to transform the economic livelihoods of marginalized communities in America. A Columbia MBA and applied mathematics student from UC Berkeley, Kesha spent the first decade of her career as a mergers and acquisitions analyst at Merrill Lynch in NYC, an operational consultant to inner-city small businesses in Los Angeles, and an impact investments associate at Bridges Ventures in the UK. In 2010, Kesha co-founded a$5M initiative focused on investing in mission-driven entrepreneurs of color, Jalia Ventures, with serial impact investor, Josh Mailman. She also supported Josh with managing Serious Change, LP. Kesha took her vision to the next level by founding IAF. Kesha grew up in economic hardship and is her family’s first college graduate. Her lived experience and abiding belief in human potential inspire her life’s work. Kesha tells Forbes her vision for the future: “We identify as one human race and deeply consider the impact of our actions on other human beings, the environment and future generations.” Kesha shares her thought leadership and passion for investing in underserved communities as a national speaker, contributing writer for Women@Forbes, and lecturer for Frontier Market Scouts at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

Rehana joined the Case Foundation in 2016 as part of the Social Innovation team. Rehana serves as Vice President of Social Innovation, focusing specifically on the Foundation’s efforts around Impact Investing. Originally from Canada , Rehana is a self-identifying New Yorker. She worked at the Bank of New York Mellon to help design the firm’s Social Finance program. She worked closely with the Wealth Management business to build internal expertise around Social Finance, and engage clients on this topic. While at BNY Mellon, Rehana also created a prototype for the firm’s first Impact Investment Fund. Prior to BNY Mellon, Rehana was a program associate at The Rockefeller Foundation, helping to manage the grantmaking and thought leadership efforts around Impact Investing and Innovative Finance. After graduating from the Whitehead School of Diplomacy at Seton Hall University with an M.A. in Development Economics and Foreign Policy, Rehana joined the UN Capital Development Fund, frequently travelling to East Africa to explore innovative financing solutions. Rehana currently serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor on topics related to impact investing and global development at Georgetown University.

Adam Wolfensohn is a Co-Managing Partner at Encourage Capital. Before the merger, Adam was Managing Director at Wolfensohn Fund Management and also managed the Wolfensohn family office cleantech and environmental markets strategies. From 2003 to 2006, he produced the climate change documentary, “Everything’s Cool,” that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. From 2002 to 2003, he worked with Conservation International to help various rock groups and music festivals offset their carbon emissions through avoided deforestation projects. Prior to 2002, Adam composed music for numerous films, television commercials and theater productions, and he was founder and CEO of “Red Ramona,” an award winning music and sound design studio in New York City. He is a Trustee of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Yad Hanadiv, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the Harmony Institute and Bang on a Can. He is a member of the investment committee of Rockefeller Brothers Fund and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Adam earned a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.E.M. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Dr. Moka Lantum is co-founder of MicroClinic Technologies, a Nairobi based company, commercializing ZiDi, Africa’s first enterprise health management solution for BoP clinics/hospitals provided as a hardware-software utility service through partnerships with both public and private institutions across Africa. As a social entrepreneur, he is committed to also create youth employment opportunities in Health IT and improve last mile access to safe affordable drugs. Dr. Lantum has over 20 years experience in health delivery and health care management with multiple executive roles in a Fortune 500 health-related manufacturing company. He was director of business process improvement for a $6 billion New York-based health insurance company, prior to founding MicroClinic Technologies. Dr. Lantum obtained his Doctor of Medicine training at Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon; a Diploma in Nutrition and International Child Health, from Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; a doctorate in Pharmacology, from the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York. He is a graduate of the Masters in Health Care Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was inducted as an Ashoka Fellow in 2014 and recently into the IPIHD/SEAD network at Duke University. He is recipient of numerous international awards, including the 2014 Sankalp Award.

Dr. Moka Lantum is co-founder of MicroClinic Technologies, a Nairobi based company, commercializing ZiDi, Africa's first enterprise health management solution for BoP clinics/hospitals provided as a hardware-software utility service through partnerships with both public and private institutions across Africa. As a social entrepreneur, he is committed to also create youth employment opportunities in Health IT and improve last mile access to safe affordable drugs. Dr. Lantum has over 20 years experience in health delivery and health care management with multiple executive roles in a Fortune 500 health-related manufacturing company. He was director of business process improvement for a $6 billion New York-based health insurance company, prior to founding MicroClinic Technologies. Dr. Lantum obtained his Doctor of Medicine training at Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon; a Diploma in Nutrition and International Child Health, from Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; a doctorate in Pharmacology, from the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York. He is a graduate of the Masters in Health Care Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was inducted as an Ashoka Fellow in 2014 and recently into the IPIHD/SEAD network at Duke University. He is recipient of numerous international awards, including the 2014 Sankalp Award.

Joan Trant is a Managing Partner and a key member of the TriLinc Global Executive Management team, a member of the Investment Committee and of the Sustainability and Impact Committee. Her primary responsibilities include accelerating fund sales through specific channels, helping build the TriLinc brand, and leading the Company’s efforts to support the continued development of the impact investing industry. Prior to joining TriLinc Global, Joan launched and was Executive Director of the International Association of Microfinance Investors (IAMFI). IAMFI’s Limited Partner members’ microfinance commitments/investments totaled $780 million, and General Partner members managed an aggregate portfolio of $1.84 billion. IAMFI led the microfinance investment industry with proprietary research, contributions to third party publications, educational and networking meetings, tailored member services and consensus-building for investor best practices. Prior to IAMFI, Joan was Deputy Executive Director of The Resource Foundation, supporting community-building programs in 20 Latin American countries, benefiting annually 4.6 million underserved children, youths, women and men. Previously, Joan spent 15 years in the financial services industry, holding international sales, financial advisory and operations management positions at Bankers Trust and Citibank, with direct experience in the Spanish, Mexican and Argentine markets. She oversaw a combined portfolio of $225 million in client assets. Joan is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business Executive Level Nonprofit Management Certification Program. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. from Georgetown University. Joan serves as an advisor to Inspiring Capital and co-leads the Georgetown Alumni College program in New York City. She is fluent in Spanish with working knowledge of Portuguese. Joan is based in Manhattan.

Dave Kirkpatrick is a Managing Director and co-founder of SJF Ventures, which focuses on high growth, positive impact ventures. Dave helped lead SJF’s capitalization of four funds totaling $260 million starting in 1999. Dave’s portfolio engagements include TransLoc, EnTouch Controls, Community Energy, Living Earth, and ED MAP, as well as exited companies NEXTracker, groSolar, CleanScapes, B.B Hobbs, and Foxfire. Dave’s particular industry focus areas include solar energy, energy efficiency, recycling & reuse, and mobility. Prior to SJF, Dave founded and managed two other successful enterprises – KirkWorks, a cleantech investment research firm; and SunShares, a solar energy and recycling company. Dave was named the 2005 CDVC Practitioner of the Year by the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance and Recycler of the Year in 1996 by the National Recycling Coalition. Dave co-founded the SJF Institute in 2001, which merged with Investors’ Circle, a twenty-year-old impact investment angel network, in 2011. Dave earned a BA in Physics and History from Duke University in 1982 and an MBA from UNC Kenan Flagler Business School (KFBS) in 1991. He was named KFBS Executive MBA Alumnus of the Year in 2010. He enjoys gardening, kayaking and trying to learn Spanish.

Cary Krosinsky teaches the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Investing at Brown University supporting the Sustainable Investment Fund within the Brown Endowment, and Lecturer, Yale College on Climate, Energy and Investing as well as Business and Sustainability. MBA Lecturer at Concordia, Maryland and the Yale School of Management. Books include the recent Sustainable Investing: Revolutions in Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2017 with Sophie Purdom), a look at the future of investment, where financial success will require a sustainability focus and desired societal outcomes will require financial acumen, following two previous volumes on this subject (with Nick Robins and other leading contributors). Principal at NPV Associates, consulting to companies on 1) the Value Driver Model, which we created in 2013 for the PRI and Global Compact, 2) the nexus of sustainability and investor relations, a discipline we created in 2005 primarily for European public companies and 3) educational services. Senior Advisor to BlueSky Investment Management, Co-founder and Director of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, and Editor of the Journal of Environmental Investing, now in its 8th year. Their next issue and a related symposium on The State of ESG Data and Metrics are being guest edited and hosted at Yale on September 22, 2017. Co-created Systems Finance at Yale in 2016, led a Working Group in 2015 for the Principles for Responsible Investment developing its Climate Change Asset Owner Strategy framework released during COP 21, and advised to the UNEP Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System resulting in papers including The Value of Everything. Co-author of a New Vision of Value for KPMG and ClimateLens for Wilshire Associates, as well as Senior Advisor to the University of Cambridge’s Investment Leaders Group following earlier careers in environmental and institutional investment data, analytics and technology.

John Denniston is Chairman of the Board of Shared-X. Shared-X is an agriculture impact company aiming to generate strong investor returns, while at the same time lift thousands of smallholder farmers out of poverty, by collapsing the dramatic yield gap separating developed and emerging country crop production through the deployment of advanced, sustainable farming techniques.

In this episode we speak with Rafa Jimenez who is the Founder/CEO of AhorroLibre. AhorroLibre is building a Social Savings Network to allow communities in emerging markets safer, easier and more transparent access to savings and credit. They are based in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.

In our first episode we speak with Dr. Charly Kleissner Dr. Charly Kleissner is an early pioneer of impact investing and has had a successful career in Silicon Valley, where he moved to from Austria in the mid-1980s. Charly and his wife, Lisa co-founded the KL Felicitas Foundation to support social entrepreneurs around the world by scaling impact enterprise, and educate and empower impact investors. For more information on Charly and Lisa’s work, please visit the KL Felicitas website at http://www.klfelicitasfoundation.org

In our first episode we speak with Dr. Charly Kleissner Dr. Charly Kleissner is an early pioneer of impact investing and has had a successful career in Silicon Valley, where he moved to from Austria in the mid-1980s. Charly and his wife, Lisa co-founded the KL Felicitas Foundation to support social entrepreneurs around the world by scaling impact enterprise, and educate and empower impact investors. For more information on Charly and Lisa’s work, please visit the KL Felicitas website at http://www.klfelicitasfoundation.org

Impact on Record (ioR) is a podcast that takes a deep dive into impact investing. We will bring you the stories and interviews about the deal makers, the structure of those deals, and most importantly the impacted! – If you haven’t heard it here it’s not on RECORD!