Whither social-impact investment in the Trump administration may depend on Dina Powell, the former Goldman Sachs executive who was named, with Ivanka Trump’s help, assistant to the president and senior counselor for economic initiatives.
Powell helped organize Monday’s roundtable meeting in the Cabinet Room on women entrepreneurs and joined Ivanka, the president and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the discussion. There, the leaders announced a new initiative — The Canada-United States Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders — a pledge to boost support for women-owned businesses on both sides of the border as a way to kickstart economic growth.
“We need to make it easier for women to manage the demands of having both a job and a family, and we also need to make it easier for women entrepreneurs to get access to capital,” President Trump said in opening remarks at the meeting.
Powell, according to Politico, has helped stock the guest lists for Ivanka’s dinner parties on women in the workplace and joined the First Daughter in a meeting with Priscilla Chan, co-founder with her husband and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, of the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative.
At Goldman, the Egyptian-born executive, who also served in the Bush administration, managed the $4 billion impact investing portfolio and the firm’s foundation.
She helped parlay Goldman’s $50 million commitment to 10,000 Women into $600 million from the World Bank, OPIC and others to provide women entrepreneurs in developing countries with education, capital and mentors.
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