Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers!
“Follow the talent” is one of our mantras as ImpactAlpha covers the daily beat of impact investing. Smart, passionate Agents of Impact are driving change within their organizations and across financial markets. You might call such people a collection of leading indicators.
Now, we’re rounding up our daily Follow the Talent section and our weekly Agent of Impact in a special report. Meet one very special agent and catch up with talent on the move, career opportunities and the places to be. Please send your own job moves, new opportunities and event announcements to [email protected]. Help the growing ImpactAlpha community follow your talent.
– Dennis Price, editorial director
Agent of the week
Agent of Impact: Richelieu Dennis. Richelieu Dennis saw something of his own story in Mayvenn, which sells hair products, primarily to African-American women, through a distribution network of local stylists. So his Essence Ventures led Mayvenn’s recent $23 million round of funding. Dennis has been a man on a mission since Unilever bought Sundial Brands, the personal-care products company he co-founded, for an estimated $1.6 billion. Dennis, who was born in Liberia, started Sundial by selling homemade soap on street corners in Harlem. “We built this business on a micro-level, community by community,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “That’s how it needs to happen.” As part of the acquisition, Sundial and Unilever created the $100 million New Voices Fund, which has invested in three dozen businesses run by women of color, including Beauty Bakerie and Envested. “The pipeline exists. The voices are there. But we are left out of the table,” New Voices advisor Melissa Bradley said at this month’s Gender-Smart Investing Summit. “This is an investment in the belief that women of color have parity and have equity.” Follow ImpactAlpha on Instagram.
Seize the opportunity
The Global Impact Investment Network is looking for a research manager…Visa is hiring a director of impact assessment… Impact data platform MIX is looking for a lead for digital financial services and fintech intelligence… Spring Point Partners is hiring a chief investment officer of impact Investing in Philadelphia (see, “Philadelphia leaders commit $15 million to one-stop investor for social startups”)… Humanity United is hiring a manager for strategy, learning and impact… Small-scale commercial solar financier Sunwealth is looking for an asset management associate… Development consultancy DAI seeks a senior finance and investment specialist.
Follow the talent
Tideline’s Kim Wright-Violich joins the board of directors of ImpactAssets… Sean Gilbert is the new director of membership at the Global Impact investing Network… Alliant Capital’s Dudley Benoit joins the board of directors of the Reinvestment Fund… Former AFL-CIO attorney Corey Klemmer is the new managing director of corporate engagement at Domini Impact Investments… Nicole Taylor is the new president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Ex-CEO Emmett Carson was ousted in June after an investigative report found “unacceptable workplace behavior” at the foundation.
Where to be
The Ground_Up Project is hosting an online summit for zero-waste businesses, November 20-21.
Get smarter
Corporate Knights’ 2018 “Better World” ranking of MBA programs is out. Top spots went to Warwick and the University of Exeter in the U.K. and York University in Canada.
Apply, respond, submit
Capria is recruiting up to five emerging- or frontier-market fund managers for capital and network support (see, “Capria Fund raises $33 million to invest in early-stage emerging-market funds”)… DB Microcredit Development Fund seeks “expressions of interest” from partners to deploy approximately $5 million in developing markets… The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance is calling for innovative ideas to unlock capital for climate action and sustainable development.
