IMM Heated Discussion

Katinka Leiner has been heading Ferd Social Entrepreneurs since its establishment in 2009. She was at the board of EVPA for 5 years and is a long standing board member of The Social Capital Fund in Denmark. Ferd SE is primarily investing in social entrepreneurs in Norway, with a broad array of investment tools ranging from grants to loans, SIBs and equity. Katinka has a Masters degree in engineering and was previously for 11 yrs the Director of Strategy and Communications at Innovation Norway, the Norwegian governmental body for industrial development and entrepreneurship. She has also held political positions in Oslo as a Labour Party member.

Peter Beez is a Program Manager and Regional Thematic Advisor for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. His work for this organisation aims to drive inclusive economic development through innovative and impact-linked finance.

Ben oversees the strategic direction Social Value International and leads our technical facilitation across a broad range of collaborating organisations. Ben is dedicated to reducing inequality and improving the well-being of people and the planet. He is honoured to be leading the global network of inspirational people changing the way the world accounts for value.

Paige Nicol is BlueMark’s European Director, responsible for building out the firm’s client verification services, business development and strategy in the region.

Paige has a decade of experience across professional services and the social sector. Most recently, she was the Director of Strategy & Insights for Luminate, a philanthropy of the Omidyar Group. In this role she led the development of the organisation’s global strategy and shaped their approach to impact measurement and learning. Prior to her time at Luminate, she co-led the development of the Omidyar Network’s experimental impact investing strategy on digital identification.

Paige began her career in management consulting at Deloitte, before returning to her undergraduate alma mater, Georgetown University, where she received her Masters in International Business & Finance at the Walsh School of Foreign Service.

With a decade of experience in the social investment space, as part of her long journey at Impact Europe, the investing for impact network, Alessia contributes to build the impact investing market, by supporting impact investors and all impact stakeholders in connecting, exchanging, learning from each other, and providing them with research, data insights and capacity building opportunities. Alessia aims at accelerating impact by focusing on building partnerships with other networks and relevant actors in the field, sharing learning and good practices, breaking silos, and facilitating the creation and the exchange of knowledge.

In her capacity as Impact Europe Director of Knowledge and Programs, Alessia leads a team of 8 young enthusiastic professionals working on research activities, content and programs development, programs management, data collection, and community engagement.

Alessia co-authored publications, practical cases, and articles on topics such as venture philanthropy, impact measurement and management, impact strategies, the European impact ecosystem, tailored and hybrid finance. Thanks to her research, she prominently contributed to the Impact Europe narrative around investing for impact and to the debate on the different nuances of impact investing. Alessia is invited to speak at international conferences and give guest lectures at European Universities and Business Schools (e.g., ESADE Center for Social Impact, Nova School of Business and Economics, Luiss – Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli, INSEAD Business School in Paris, Solvay Brussels School Economics & Management).

Alessia also cooperates with Impact Europe's sister organisations in Latin America, Asia and Africa (GAIN, Latimpacto, AVPN and AVPA) to strengthen the collaboration among actors active in the global impact ecosystem, by sharing learning, facilitating the exchange of experiences, contributing to scale successes across regions.

Gianluca Gaggiotti is Knowledge Manager at Impact Europe. He focuses on data analysis and content development of several research-related initiatives.

Gianluca joined Impact Europe in 2017, and since then has developed an in-depth knowledge on the impact ecosystem and all the actors involved in it. Gianluca has previously worked as a Research Assistant for several project related to development and social network economics at Bocconi University.

He holds a Master degree in Economics and Social Sciences at Bocconi University with a thesis on the effect of terrorism on political outcome in the US.

Arnau Picón is Knowledge and Learning Associate at Impact Europe. Since joining Impact Europe in February 2019, Arnau has conducted research on topics related to the impact ecosystem, such as impact measurement and management and the role of crowdfunding platforms within the impact sector.

Previously, Arnau worked in the Social Policy Area of a Local Government and in the communication sector as a journalist. He holds a Msc in Economic Development from the University of Glasgow and a Bachelor Degree in Journalism from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He speaks Spanish, Catalan, English and French.