Agents of Impact | April 12, 2019

Follow the Talent: Agents of Impact Special Report for Apr. 12

Dennis Price
ImpactAlpha Editor

Dennis Price

Greetings, Agents of Impact!

Welcome to ImpactAlpha’s weekly “follow the talent” roundup of impact investing career moves, job openings, events and opportunities. Help the growing ImpactAlpha community follow your talent: Send job moves, mandates, event announcements and other news to [email protected].

– Dennis Price, editorial director

Agent of Impact

Hiro Mizuno. As chief investment officer of the $1.5 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan, the world’s largest pension fund, Mizuno has leverage. He has used it to drive sustainable investing in Japan and throughout global financial markets. Shortly after Mizuno took the helm in 2015, the GPIF signed on to the UN Principles of Responsible Investment. Partly as a result, sustainable investing assets in Japan leaped from 3% to 18% of total managed assets between 2016 and 2018, according to the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance. “We have a 25-year investment horizon,” Mizuno said in 2017. “The financial system has to be sustainable. It’s important for us to make sure we affect the whole investment chain.”

GPIF invests its trillions through the world’s biggest asset managers, including Prudential, State Street, JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and Fidelity. He presses asset managers to think long-term. He requires them to sign on to the Principles for Responsible Investing, or explain why they won’t. He expects them to integrate environmental, social and governance, or ESG, considerations into their investment decisions. And he wants passive managers to engage companies on ESG issues. Mizuno uses technology and artificial intelligence to track managers in real-time. “If you do not satisfy us then you are out,” he told the London Stock Exchange last year. Follow ImpactAlpha on Instagram.

Seize the Opportunity

Salesforce is hiring a director of ethical and humane use (reporting to Paula Goldman) in San Francisco… High-net-worth family network The ImPact seeks a manager for its “collective influence” projects… Glenmede is hiring a public markets impact research associate in Philadelphia… Village Capital is looking for a manager for its sustainability practice and an executive assistant in Washington D.C.…

Pay-as-you-earn coding program Lambda School is hiring a general manager in India… BlueOrchard is looking for a senior investment risk specialist in Geneva… Acumen America is looking for a senior associate in San Francisco… Edtech startup Kinvolved is hiring in New York.

Follow the Talent

Greg Ratliff, previously with the MacArthur and Gates foundations, is a vice president in the impact investing practice at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors… Stephanie Smith is the chief inclusion and diversity officer at Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank… Sondra Ford is the new director of the Strong, Prosperous, and Resilient Communities Challenge at Low Income Investment Fund. Angie Garling is the organization’s first director of early care and education… Matthew Reilein is the new president and CEO at National Equity Fund

New Markets Venture Partners promotes Elizabeth Chou to general partner… Pam Kostka is the new CEO at All Raise, which advocates for women founders and funders… Transform Finance new “future of workers” cohort includes Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha, Jobs With Justice, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Service Employees International Union, Workers Defense Project, and Working Partnerships USA.

Get Smarter

Learn how public funds can attract private capital for high-impact investment with “Impact Investment & Blended Finance,” a three-day program from Social Finance Academy, Convergence and the University of Zurich Center for Sustainable Finance and Private WealthImpact Finance Center seeks applicants for impact investing fellowships.

That’s a wrap! Help the growing ImpactAlpha community follow your talent: Send your own job moves, new opportunities and event announcements to [email protected].