Following our well attended Gender Lens Investing Networking session in March, we are excited to formally announce the launch of Impact Capital Forum’s new Gender Lens Investing (GLI) Working Group series for our members. Our inaugural Gender Lens Working Group event will be a panel discussion on “How to Mobilize Gender Lens Investment Capital for Emerging Markets.”
Our speakers include:
Suzanne Biegel is founder of Catalyst at Large and Co-Founder of the GenderSmart Investing Summit. She is a globally recognised expert on gender-smart investing. Her work has influenced hundreds of funds and institutional investors, and billions of dollars of capital to move with a gender lens.
Alec Paxton served as the inaugural Chair of the 2X Challenge, and continues to sit on the 2X Challenge Steering Committee. He also plays a leadership role in DFC’s gender lens investing initiative. In addition, Alec works as a Director in DFC’s Social Enterprise Finance Team, where he originates gender responsive debt and equity transactions. Alec is admitted to practice law in the State of New York and is a CFA Charterholder.
Christina (CJ) Juhasz is the Chief Investment Officer of Women’s World Banking Asset Management. She has worked for the organization since 2007, and leads the management of two gender-lens investment funds, directing equity into women-focused inclusive financial service providers, in order to provide responsible growth capital and demonstrate the business case for investing in women. Before transitioning into the role of the CIO, CJ was the director of the Women’s World Banking Capital Markets Group where she conducted and oversaw due diligence, negotiation, and structuring of direct investments in or guarantees of network members. Prior to joining Women’s World Banking, CJ spent 12 years in different roles structuring and marketing international secured and unsecured debt and hybrid capital transactions for banks and financial institutions globally.
Moderator: Virginia Schippers is a Principal at CARE Enterprises – the for-profit, impact investment arm of the global NGO, CARE – where she designed CARE Enterprises’ first gender-lens impact investment fund; the blended CARE-She Trades Impact Fund that will deploy debt and equity to SMEs in South and Southeast Asia to create gender-justice for companies’ women employees, consumers, and suppliers.
This working group is an opportunity for interested ICF members to learn from one another and hear from real practitioners in the GLI field about different gender-lens investment strategies, the problems they are trying to solve, and practical steps for applying a gender lens across a financial portfolio to generate positive impact outcomes for women.
Among others, the Gender Lens Working Group Series will explore questions like:
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Where is the female founder-friendly capital?
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Which institutional investors are actually allocating capital for gender impact?
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How are gender lens strategies considering the intersectionality with racial justice?
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How is gender impact really measured?
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How is financial inclusion for women being addressed through gender lens investing?
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How do gender lens investing strategies differ across regions?
This new working group will have a 12-month tenure with 2-3 events occurring every quarter consisting of:
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Panels of experts in the gender lens investing field, to discuss their practitioner experience on a particular GLI topic
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Subsequent working group discussions – moderated by ICF Board members and occurring approximately 2-4 weeks after the panel – where our members can dive more deeply into what was discussed during the expert-level panel
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Ad hoc networking sessions for our GLI working group members, panelists, and ICF Board members to meet more people working in the industry on a more informal basis
Participation in this GLI Working Group is free for all active ICF Members. Non-members of ICF are welcome to join one GLI Working Group event for the standard event price of $15, but will then be asked to become an ICF member.
Login instructions for this Zoom videoconference will be emailed after your registration is completed.