Investing for Impact 2020 | The Economist Newspaper Limited | 13 February 2020 | Convene, 1 Liberty St, New York, NY 10006, USA

Investing for Impact ‘2020 vision’ will explore how after years of advocacy to become mainstream, the impact investment community now faces a different challenge: as more institutions and actors pile in, there is a growing fog and confusion about what impact investing really means, and how it intersects and overlaps with other linked domains like sustainable finance. Long-time impact investment voices also worry that charlatans are moving in, offering products with questionable impact credentials.

Who are the real deal socially conscious visionaries who have a plan to save or upgrade capitalism? What do they have to say to the sceptics that already dismissed social impact investing as a public relations exercise for an industry with a poor image? How to separate and capitalise on the authentic desire to do good from plain salesmanship rhetoric?

The Economist Events’ Investing for Impact summit returns to its fourth year in New York to take stock of an eventful time for the industry, to examine how it can deepen its reach, learn from failures and roadblocks, and leverage the latest developments in technology. We will dissect and analyse interlinked issues including the emergence of a new generation of young investors; the rise of fintech, robo-advisors and digital finance platforms, and the implications of political fragmentation.

We will convene, under the chairmanship of Economist editors, leading financiers, institutional investors, policymakers, academics, impact investors and philanthropies to also discuss and debate how large-scale financial institutions are thinking about their impact ventures, the rising investor appeal of disruptive environmental technologies, from renewable energy to alternative protein, and the alignments between faith-based investing and social impact.

Why Attend?
Join us and you will:
• Network with more than 200 leading financiers, institutional investors, policymakers, academics, impact investors and philanthropists
• Engage in a day of discussions on how to accelerate the growth of investing for impact
• Join like-minded organisations invested in defining the future of investing for impact

2020 Speakers

Jeremy Grantham
Co-founder, GMO, LLC

Nancy Pfund
Founder and managing partner, DBL Partners

Kevin Lu
Partner and chairman of Asia, Partners Group

Tiffany Zhong
Founder and chief executive, Zebra IQ

Tyler Cowen
Holbert L. Harris professor of economics, George Mason University

Tensie Whelan
Director, Center for Sustainable Business, NYU Stern School

Lorenzo Bernasconi
Managing director, The Rockefeller Foundation

Nancy Davis
Chief investment officer and managing partner, Quadratic Capital Management

James Patchett
President and chief executive, New York City Economic Development Corporation

Mary Wenzel
Head of sustainability and corporate responsibility, Wells Fargo

Pauliina Murphy
Engagement director, World Benchmarking Alliance

DJ Nordquist
US executive director, The World Bank

Anurag Banerjee
Chief executive, Quilt.AI

Stan Dupré
Founder, 2° Investing Initiative

Dwayne Safer
Assistant professor of Finance, Messiah College

Robert J. Jackson Jr.
Commissioner, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Rupert Scofield
President and chief executive, FINCA International

Carol Coletta
Chief executive, Memphis River Parks Partnership

Katherine Foster
Chief intelligence officer, Sustainable Digital Finance Alliance

Vikram Gandhi
Senior lecturer, Harvard Business School

Alice Hill
Senior fellow for climate change policy, Council on Foreign Relations

Afsaneh Beschloss
Chief executive, RockCreek

Vijay Vaitheeswaran
US business editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer
Executive editor, The Economist

Helen Joyce
Finance and economics editor, The Economist

2020 Sponsors

AIRLINE SPONSOR:
• Turkish Airlines

SUPPORTING ASSOCIATIONS:
• Backbay Communications
• CAIA Association
• IOO Women in Finance
• Hedge Connection
• Impact Alpha
• Invest with Values
• BLab
• Accion
• G&A
• Impact Hub
• Village Capital