Prof. Durreen Shahnaz, a Bangladeshi-American entrepreneur, is the CEO and founder of Impact Investment Exchange (IIX). A global leader of sustainable finance and impact investing, she is a 2017 Oslo Business for Peace Award Honoree (often referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize for Business’), a financial rainmaker in Forbes 50 over 50, and an Asia Society Game Changer Awardee.
Drawing from a rich career through which she broke down walls and built bridges to connect the backstreets of underserved communities to the Wall Streets of the world, Durreen’s work has helped millions of women, thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, governments, and impact stakeholders around the world play a role in sustainable development and women’s empowerment.
Durreen continues her mission to build a more inclusive and sustainable world by bringing the intersection of climate action and gender equality to the forefront of capital markets. Her newest book, The Defiant Optimist: Daring to Fight Global Inequality, Reinvent Finance, and Invest in Women (June 27, 2023 / Broadleaf Books), provides a compelling account of the author’s unparallel journey from a constricted girlhood to becoming a global leader in the impact investing movement and launching the world’s first social stock exchange.
She and her husband have two daughters and live in Singapore.