Seven Trillion

In this episode I chat about my top 3 takeaways from the Social Finance Forum and some lessons we can take forward into 2019.

80% of the world lives on less than $10 a day. Colleen believes the top leaders, transnational corporations and online business have a great opportunity to start using their business models to lift up the third world and developing nations through education and healthcare opportunities. After surviving cancer at the age of 14, Colleen takes a powerful stand for the evolution of humanity. Her vision is to transform leaders and shift culture in order to create evolutionary experiences for humanity. She guides individuals and corporations to take responsibility with evolving their mindset so they can transform the world. She coaches and consults individuals, companies and leaders to understand how to improve global connectivity, employee retention with the younger generation and move into lifestyle careers. Connect with Colleen here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-gallagher-81691661/

Joy Anderson is a prominent national leader at the intersection of business and social change. She began as a high school teacher in New York City Public Schools. She went to New York to understand how power works in big systems and stayed for eight years because she fell in love with the students. Joy played leadership roles in the teachers union and managed federally funded programs for the school and the district. After leaving New York, Joy transitioned from a school teacher to an entrepreneur, founding Criterion Ventures in 2002, co-founding Good Capital with Tim Freundlich and Kevin Jones in 2006 and leading the development of Rockefeller-funded Healthcare_Uncovered from 2006 until 2009. Literally hundreds of ventures have been shaped by Joy’s insights and experience. As faculty on the leading social innovation award programs, including Unreasonable Institute and Echoing Green, she advises the next generation of leaders. As chair of the board of directors of Village Capital and through involvement in Investor’s Circle, she is actively involved in shaping early stage social investments. And through her role in developing and leading Structure Lab© workshops she has helped over 300 organizations think through their legal and financial structures. A serial entrepreneur and consummate networker, Joy’s leadership and expertise have been at the forefront of the development of the social capital markets over the last 10 years. Her interest in the role of finance in changing the world was sparked during her eight year consulting relationship with the General Board of Pensions of the United Methodist Church. She was instrumental in her board position at Lutheran Community Foundation in their recent $10 million allocation to social investment. As a recognition of her business leadership, in 2011, Joy was ranked 51st in Fast Company’s annual of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. Currently, she leads Criterion Institute which serves as a think tank around shaping markets to create social and environmental good. Joy’s intellectual interests draw on her research for her Ph.D. in American History from New York University. Her dissertation examined prison reform in the 1830’s and how individuals and organizations in democracies claim expertise in order to shape public institutions. Joy lives with her husband and daughter in a Connecticut apple orchard, and can be found in the fall pressing cider and boiling apple syrup. Learn more about Criterion here: https://criterioninstitute.org/

Mike Lightman is an experienced international entrepreneur. After completing his MBA, Mike worked with at Excell Partners, a smaller hardware focused VC in New York that invests in pre-seed and seed deals. Mike had the traditional associate role, conducting diligence and finding new deals. Over time he took on a more senior position and led diligence teams for multiple deals. Mike joined the World Bank in November, 2015. His roles normally involve assessing and redesigning startup support programs, preparing startups for investment, and liaising directly with investors. In his free time Mike is a part time EIR with Hax, the world’s first and largest hardware accelerator. He mentors companies at Urban-X (a smart city accelerator in NYC) and 1776 (a global incubator). Mike has been on the selection committee of SXSW Eco, is a founding board member of CENTCOM New York tech scout week (where US Central Command meets with technology startups), and is generally mentoring a few startups at any given time. Connect with Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellightman/ Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moeini/

Alicia Robb is an author, researcher, angel Investor, and managing partner of two early stage venture funds. She is a Ph.D. economist specializing in entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial finance, and international development. Her most recent vegan investments include New Wave Foods, Finless Foods, LivWell, Vaute, the Gold Leaf Collective, and Lighter. On this episode we chat more about her work engaging women in venture capital, as well as what it means to be a vegan investor. You can connect with Alicia here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicia-robb-a888228/ Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moeini/ Connect with me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/nikamoeini

Mike is the founder and CEO of Active Impact Investments in addition to being the Fund Manager for Fund I. Active Impact exclusively supports small to medium sized social ventures scale their impact and profit by providing funding and extensive capacity building services to the portfolio companies. Prior to this, Mike was a Top 40 under 40 with 20 years in the tech industry specializing in services companies and SaaS products. He worked for 14 years in various executive roles for award winning companies, most recently President of Traction Rec and COO at Traction on Demand. Prior to that President of Randstad Professionals running $300M in revenue. Mike's greatest expertise is in enterprise sales, building high performing teams, improving operational efficiency and execution. He serves on the board of directors at DSRF and is a mentor/EIR at NVBC, Founder Institute and Spring Activator. Mike has a Queen’s BSC, INSEAD exec MBA and got his board training through the Beedie Directors Educ

In cliché fashion, David’s life was transformed after a trip to Africa. His ensuing soul searching led him to quit his Bay Street career on a quest to effect positive change. Currently there are two levers David is pulling to effect change. As Director of Impact Investing at World Vision Canada he is mobilizing investment capital to help the world’s most vulnerable people. He also founded Kind Wealth, a not-just-for-profit business helping generations X, Y, and Z manage their finances in alignment with their values. David has lived, worked, and volunteered at various times throughout Africa. One of his proudest accomplishments is founding and running Grassroots Youth Development while living in South Africa. David is a frequent speaker at conferences and in the media. David spent 13 years as Director of Manager Research with Morningstar; a global investment data & research provider. David holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Toronto, an MBA from the Rotman School

Latest episode of $7 Trillion Ideas (to Save the World)

The very first episode of $7 Trillion Ideas (to Save the World)!

Latest episode of $7 Trillion Ideas (to Save the World)

The very first episode of $7 Trillion Ideas (to Save the World)!

Latest episode of $7 Trillion Ideas (to Save the World)

Latest episode of $7 Trillion Ideas (to Save the World)

The very first episode of $7 Trillion Ideas (to Save the World)!

In this first introductory episode, we’ll go over the gap in international development funding and an overview of the main actors, industries, and aspects of development financing, giving an idea of the episodes to come! If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave a review on iTunes and share it with a friend or colleague interested in the subject.