Last week, INSEAD welcomed alumni, students, entrepreneurs, and impact investing practitioners to the annual INSEAD Entrepreneurship Forum. This year, the forum focused on Impact Investing: Creating an Industry from Innovations. Credit Suisse sponsored the event.
With about 200 participants, the day began with an insightful keynote speech by Stewart Paperin, President of the Soros Economic Development Fund. Lively debates followed on whether you can achieve both profit and social impact - with INSEAD's Professor Filipe Santos and Uli Grabenwarter of the European Investment Fund. Additional panels and debates focused on the sector from the point of view of various actors: Funds, Intermediaries, Limited Partners, Entrepreneurs.
Conversation focused on the definition of impact investing, how it is interpreted by various investors as well as funds, how to find sustainable business models for capacity building intermediaries as well as funds at the early stage of investment, and how to re-brand the image of impact investing to unlock mainstream capital.
We also were lucky enough to have a number of INSEAD MBA and EMBA alumni present to pitch their socially and/or environmentally conscious business to the members of the audience.
The day was a great success, and many are now asking that we make it an annual event, potentially drilling down further into specific case studies to really draw out the complexities involved in the current models and structures.
A conference report and access to a video of the presentations will be available shortly on our web site. To see some photos of the event, please take a look here. (Photos by www.danongabrielthe.com). For any questions, contact Christine Driscoll Goulay.
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