NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Note: This program is a Live Webinar and Q&A that is accessible from any web-enabled computer or mobile device. Premium members of Impact Entrepreneur get complimentary admission to all live and archived webinars.

Impact Verification: Building Investor Credibility

How do you know if an impact investor is actually delivering on their intended or reported impacts? The answer is impact verification, the antidote to impact-washing and the next frontier in the maturation of the impact investing industry. Just as financial statements are reviewed and audited by financial professionals, impact statements and reports should also be evaluated by independent experts in impact investing.

To meet the market demand for such expertise, Tideline launched BlueMark in 2020 as an independent business focused on verifying the alignment of investors’ impact practices and performance with existing industry standards and frameworks, such as the GRI’s Sustainability Reporting Standards, Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM), IRIS+, Impact Management Project (IMP), and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To date, BlueMark has completed more than 30 impact verification assignments across investor types and asset classes.

In this live webinar and audience Q&A, Impact Entrepreneur’ Laurie Lane-Zucker will welcome BlueMark CEO Christina Leijonhufvud to discuss recent efforts to standardize impact management and measurement and the power of impact verification to bring accountability, discipline and comparability to the impact investing market.

Featured Guest

CHRISTINA LEIJONHUFVUD is a well-respected leader in the impact investing field, with a track record of senior management roles on Wall Street, where she pioneered a first-of-its-kind social finance investment banking business and co-authored seminal research that helped place impact investing on the map for institutional investors. In January 2020, Christina became CEO of Tideline’s new verification business, BlueMark, with responsibility for leading all aspects of the business strategy, new product development, and external relations. Christina supervises the BlueMark team and has directly led over 20 verification assignments across an array of investor types and asset classes. As a Managing Partner at Tideline, she also oversees the firm’s strategy and operations and has led many of the firm’s consulting engagements with leading foundations, some of the world’s largest financial intermediaries, and select ultra-high-net-worth family offices and non-profits.

Prior to Tideline, Christina was Managing Director at J.P. Morgan where she worked for over 15 years, leading a ratings business and several risk management groups, including for the credit portfolio and emerging markets trading businesses. She also created an innovative methodology for measuring and managing country risk and advised numerous sovereign governments on their public credit ratings. In 2007, Christina created and launched J.P. Morgan’s Social Finance business, a novel investment banking unit that published seminal research on impact investing, made proprietary investments in impact funds, and structured and distributed innovative impact products to clients, such as the Global Health Investment Fund, a $100+ million impact investment fund backed by the Gates Foundation. During her time at J.P. Morgan, Christina grew the Social Finance team to eight full-time employees and also managed an internal volunteer corps of more than 2,000 engaged employees.

Host

LAURIE LANE-ZUCKER is Founder and CEO of Impact Entrepreneur, an impact economy business that hosts the Impact Entrepreneur Network, a 27,000 member global network of entrepreneurs, investors and scholars. Impact Entrepreneur is a cornerstone field building, research and educational player in the social impact space, and a consulting company that works with blended value companies, impact investors and academic institutions. For 30 years, Laurie has been a “pioneer” (Forbes) and recognized leader in sustainability, social enterprise and impact investing. Laurie was the founding Executive Director of the international environmental organization, Orion Society, which publishes the celebrated Orion Magazine, as well as the founder of a global sustainability think-tank, the Triad Institute, and Hotfrog, a Founding B Corporation, GIIRS Pioneer Company, and the first company ever to complete an equity transaction on an impact investment exchange.

Laurie is the bestselling and multiple award-winning publisher and editor of books and magazines on sustainability and social impact, having published, edited and written the introductions for celebrated works by Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, Barry Lopez and David James Duncan. He is the author of numerous articles on entrepreneurship and impact investing, and is the co-founder of the Place-Based Education movement, having coined the term with Dr. John Elder, and published, edited and written the foreword for the first book on that growing pedagogy. His current writing projects include two chapters (both co-written) for a forthcoming textbook, Sustainability: Business and Investment Implications by World Scientific Publishing. Laurie is also a lifelong student of world wisdom traditions and is the former Executive Director of Seven Pillars House of Wisdom, a nonprofit organization founded by Pir Zia Inayat Khan focused on advancing wisdom in service of social and environmental healing.

Impact Entrepreneur’s Luminarias Webinar Series features reflective conversations with the leading lights in impact investing and entrepreneurship.

Time: 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM EST