This week's conversation is with Lindsey Bass, Fundraising and Head of Marketing at ImpactA Global.

ImpactA is a new kind of female-led investment business. A pioneering woman-led infrastructure debt strategy for Global Emerging Markets, mainly in the Southern Hemisphere, was created to catalyse investment in sustainable infrastructure. The team, founded by four women, helps to solve funding gaps in transformational projects and unlocks critical investment to drive climate transition and address inequality.

Lindsey has a 20-year track record as an investment industry professional, but the start of her career could not be further from this. She followed in the footsteps of her creative parents (her mother was in PR and her father was a television producer) into television, which was followed by a stint in the fashion industry. The move into the world of finance was driven by a need to challenge herself and the opportunity to make more money. And she has stayed there ever since.

Lindsey has always been interested in inclusion, and ImpactA’s team make-up and focus on emerging markets is an interesting and rewarding fit.  She was formerly co-Chair of the Legal & General Inclusion Teams.  She is currently an Ambassador of the Diversity Project (DP) and Co-Lead of the Mental Health Workstream for the DP. Separately, she is a director of Rebel Consulting, on the Advisory Board for E2W, Advisory Council for AIMSE, and is a Trustee for the Poppy Academy Trust, and is a Mental Health First Aider.

In this podcast, Sophy Norris and Lindsey discuss zig-zag careers, working in finance, the power of investing in projects that benefit women, focusing on what we love (with pragmatism), DEI and more.

The conversation includes:

• Faking it till you make it, being curious and being a sponge at the start of our careers.
• The importance of investment management making a difference, especially as investment businesses are the stewards of $trillions. And how channelling DEI thinking into investments can change the flow of money and outcomes.
• Why climate change disproportionally affects women, and how targeted infrastructure investments can change lives (eye-opening, mind-changing stuff).
• Why supporting women's lives positively impacts local economies and communities.
• DEI echo chambers and the current push back.
• The power of cognitive diversity in teams, but the need for inclusive and focused leadership to harness that power.
• Gender-lense investments. And why diversity does not equal "job done".
• The absolute business case for a strong DEI agenda.
• Why being familiar with discomfort is key to resilience.
• Understanding your skill set, what brings you value, what drives and drains energy.
• Being more like Apple Trees, and focus on growing the fruit.

This series of The Dangerous Women Collective Podcast is sponsored by the fantastic ESET, providing Next-Gen Digital Security for Home and Business. We thank you so much for making our show possible.

Links:

Lindsey Bass | Sophy Norris

ImpactA Global

Sponsor:

ESET

Items mentioned in this Episode:

Dangerous Women: 50 reflections on women, power and identity

The 30% Club

The Diversity Project

May Contain Lies, Alex Edmunds

Cognitive Diversity in Asset Management (a report)

The Guilty Feminist

Stacy Havener - Billion Dollar Backstory