the future of Impact Investment, March 2013

Club of Amsterdam

Supporter

This event is in collaboration with India House Amsterdam
and its media supporters TV18, Forbes India & CNBC India, IBN-India

Videos
by Winston Nanlohy

the future of Impact Investment – Herman Mulder, Chairman, Global Reporting Initiative

the future of Impact Investment – Giuseppe van der Helm, Executive Director, VBDO, President, Eurosif

the future of Impact Investment – Neeraj Bhatia, Executive Director, Bank of India

Presentations

Giuseppe van der Helm, Executive Director, Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO), President, Eurosif (European Sustainable Investment Forum), the Netherlands
Impact investment: investing in your mission, delivering more than financial returns

Maximilian Martin, Founder and Managing Director of Impact Economy SA., Switzerland
Mainstreaming Impact Investing: What Are The Levers?

Impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Impact investments can be made in both emerging and developed markets, and target a range of returns from below market to market rate, depending upon the circumstances. Impact investors actively seek to place capital in businesses and funds that can harness the positive power of enterprise. Impact investing occurs across asset classes, for example private equity / venture capital, debt, and fixed income.

Impact investors are primarily distinguished by their intention to address social and environmental challenges through their deployment of capital. For example, criteria to evaluate the positive social and/or environmental outcomes of investments are an integrated component of the investment process. In contrast, practitioners of socially responsible investing also include negative (avoidance) criteria as part of their investment decisions. – wikipedia

The speakers and topics are:

Herman Mulder, Chairman of the Global Reporting Initiative – GRI, impact investor
Impact Investing as key driver for new-style International Development Cooperation

We are living in the “turbulent teens” (ref Vision 2050 by WBCSD), facing a combination of accelerating population growth, growing middle classes, continuing extreme poverty, natural resource depletion, ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss, climate change, connectivity, mobility, causing us to “change the pace” in order to face and address the consequences of the past, the globalization of today and further scarcities and (inter-)dependencies in the future.

In this context we need to think and act in terms of multi-stakeholder cooperation, lead by the private sector, with full value-chain approaches, embracing a new economic reality and a new definition of capital.

Impact investing, enhanced by government partial risk guarantees, in the value chains of Dutch companies can be a major driver and opportunity for companies and investors alike.

Giuseppe van der Helm, Executive Director, Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO), President, Eurosif (European Sustainable Investment Forum)
Impact investment: investing in your mission, delivering more than financial returns

What is impact investment? How big is the market, and who are the market players? But may be most important: how does it contribute to different bottom lines (people, planet and profit). Giuseppe van der Helm, executive director of the VBDO and president of Eurosif, will give an answer on these questions and will elaborate on why impact investments are an interesting way to move forward to make this world, and the capital markets, more sustainable

Maximilian Martin, Founder and Managing Director of Impact Economy SA.
Mainstreaming Impact Investing: What Are The Levers?

Impact investing is an idea whose time has come. The question is now, how can we unlock its full potential rather than relegating it to becoming merely another interesting satellite activity. To move truly center stage, impact investing must provide investment solutions in scale to four megatrends that are reshaping how companies, governments and civil society are creating value and financing public goods: (1) massive pent-up demand at the base of the pyramid; (2) the need for radical resource efficiency and green growth; (3) the end of the welfare states as we know it; and (4) the proliferation of the virtuous consumer (LOHAS).

Neeraj Bhatia, Executive Director, Member of the Board, Bank of India Ltd
The role of the three pillars in Impact Investments: Investors – Corporations – Policy Makers

19:00 – 20:15
Introduction by our Moderator
Hedda Pahlson-Moller, Angel Investor / Impact Investor, Omnisource International, Luxemburg

Part I:

Herman Mulder, Chairman of the Global Reporting Initiative – GRI, impact investor, the Netherlands
Impact Investing as key driver for new-style International Development Cooperation

Giuseppe van der Helm, Executive Director, Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO), President, Eurosif (European Sustainable Investment Forum), the Netherlands
Impact investment: investing in your mission, delivering more than financial returns

Maximilian Martin, Founder and Managing Director of Impact Economy SA., Switzerland
Mainstreaming Impact Investing: What Are The Levers?

Neeraj Bhatia, Executive Director, Member of the Board, Bank of India Ltd, India
The role of the three pillars in Impact Investments: Investors – Corporations – Policy Makers

20:15 – 20:45
Coffee break with drinks and snacks. Indian classical music by Marco Spinello, sitar player and Julia Ohrmann, Bansuri (flute) player

20:45 – 21:15
Part II:
Panel with the speakers and
Pieter Oostlander, Founding Partner of Shærpa, the Netherlands
Open discussion

Herman Mulder
Chairman of the Global Reporting Initiative – GRI, impact investor

Herman Mulder is Chairman of the Board of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), an international organization with a mission to make sustainability reporting standard practice, driving its vision of a sustainable global economy. Mulder is a member of the board of the Dutch National Contact Point (NCP) of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Mulder is a former senior executive vice-president at ABN AMRO, and is now an independent board member with a focus on sustainable development issues. He is the initiator of the Equator Principles. He created the ABN AMRO Foundation and was its first chairman. After his retirement he was vice-chairman of the ABN AMRO India Foundation. He has held senior advisory roles for i.a. Global Compact, WBCSD, TEEB, Club de Madrid, Taellberg Foundation, OXFAM NOVIB, Earth Charter International, Youth Employment & Sustainability (YES), and Business Steering Committee for UN Finance for Development. Mulder is a Knight in the Royal Order of Oranje-Nassau for his national and international efforts on Sustainable Development for business.
www.globalreporting.org

Giuseppe van der Helm
Executive Director, Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO)
President, Eurosif (European Sustainable Investment Forum)

Giuseppe van der Helm has been the director of the VBDO, the Association of Investors for Sustainable Development in The Netherlands, since November 2006. He has been chosen President of Eurosif since July 1, 2009.

Giuseppe studied Chemical Engineering and Business Administration at Twente University in The Netherlands. After his graduation he started as a marketer with chemical company DSM, where he worked for 10 years in various positions. During that period he got his first taste of sustainability while working in Paris as Quality Assurance Manager for the automotive industry. After a brief episode as Business Unit Manager with Sigma Coatings he worked as President Europe with motor oil company Valvoline.

In 2002 Giuseppe decided to leave the world of efficiency and economic returns to dedicate his energy to build a better world. After a sabbatical in which he travelled the world he started to study Theology at the University of Tilburg. He teached Philosophy of Life and is a member of the Stakeholder Council of GRI, as well as of the Advisory Councils of KPN and SNS Reaal.
www.vbdo.nl
www.eurosif.org

Maximilian Martin
Founder and Managing Director of Impact Economy SA.

Dr. Maximilian Martin is the Founder and Global Managing Director of Impact Economy. He previously served as Founding Global Head and Managing Director of UBS Philanthropy Services, Head of Research at the Schwab Foundation, Senior Consultant with McKinsey & Company, Instructor at Harvard’s Economics Department, and Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School. He holds an MA in anthropology from Indiana University, a MPA from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in economic anthropology from the University of Hamburg. Max created the first university course on social entrepreneurship in Europe, the first philanthropic services and social finance department for a bank in Europe and the UBS Philanthropy Forum, and coined the term “impact economy”. He has participated in numerous projects and innovations in the impact investing space and authored over one hundred articles on social entrepreneurship, social business and philanthropy, corporate responsibility, impact investments, and related topics.
www.impacteconomy.com

Neeraj Bhatia
Executive Director, Member of the Board, Bank of India Ltd

Shri. Neeraj Bhatia is Part-Time Non-Official Director – Nominee of Government of Bank Of India Ltd. He is a Chartered Accountant and also holds a degree in Science. He is a partner in M/s Samsand & Associates and the firm has been handling concurrent/stock/ revenue audit of all Public Sector Banks. The firm has handled audits allotted by CAG for PSUs.
www.bankofindia.co.in/english/home.aspx

Pieter Oostlander
Founding Partner of Shærpa

Pieter (52) is the founding partner of shærpa. His professional background is in accountancy and finance. In that field, he has had various top-level functions, including the position of Group CFO for international organisations. Eight years ago, he switched to the philanthropy sector. As a director of Noaber Foundation he managed the service organisation which ultimately was the foundation for shærpa. The decision to switch resulted from his ambition to make social impact and value creation (in addition to creating shareholder value) a significant part of his professional activities. The objective of these professionally structured activities is to realise positive changes for the wicked problems in society. He often states that his ambition is to “merry a venture capital approach to societal goals”, and his work with shærpa is dedicated to doing exactly that on a daily basis. As a board member of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA), he actively pursues to further professionalise venture philanthropy and social investing in the European arena. Pieter is also a member of the board of directors of SROI Network, promoting the use of a systematic approach to social value accounting.
evpa.eu.com
www.shaerpa.org

Hedda Pahlson-Moller
Angel Investor / Impact Investor, Omnisource International

Hedda Pahlson-Moller, adjunct professor, studied International Relations at Brown University before receiving a Master in Political Economics from Lund University and a MBA from Copenhagen Business School. She is currently working on a phd program with Nyenrode University.

Hedda is the Founder & Owner of Omnisource International (OMSINT) a venture capital & management firm, with a portfolio of investments in knowledge and technology-driven start-ups. She sits as an investor and board member of Chameleon Invest (seed and start-up investments) and the HUB Luxembourg, driving social entrepreneurship. Additional board positions beyond OMSINT portfolio companies include the Luxembourg Business Angel Network (LBAN) and the venture philanthropy organization, Bench2Cures.
www.omsint.com