Key trends and results on European Investors for Impact - The EVPA Survey 2017/2018

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.

Jelena joined SI² Fund in November 2017 from international impact investor Oikocredit, where she managed investments in Eastern Africa. Prior to that, she worked for the European Commission and Dutch government. Jelena holds an MSc in Econometrics from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a Master in Microfinance from Solvay Business School in Brussels.

Franz Karl Prüller has been with DIE ERSTE Foundation since 2005, first as Programme Director for the Social Development Programme, since December 2012 as Member of the Executive Board and from 1.1.2015 to the end of 2016 as CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of the Foundation. From 2017 he assumed the position of Senoir Advisor to the Board of ERSTE Foundation and the Savings Bank Group in Austria.

Franz Karl currently serves also on the Supervisory Boards of Zweite Sparkasse in Austria and good.bee Credit, a microfinance institute in Romania as well as on the Steering Committee for the European Fund for the Balkans. He also is a member of the advisory board of good.bee Holding. He also serves a vice-president of the board of the Network of European Foundations as well as member of the Governing Council of the European Foundation Centre

Patrice Schneider started his publishing career as a journalist reporting from conflicts in Central Asia in the 1980s.

Following a 20 years career in publishing (Time Warner Group, Lagardère Active) and working for the World Economic Forum, he now works for the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) which invests in independent media around the world providing the news, information and debate that people need to build free, thriving societies.

Since 1996, MDIF - a seven consecutive years' winner of the ImpactAssets 50 awards - has invested more than $170m in 113 independent news businesses in39 countries and has returned US$ 46.9m to investors. For Patrice, the impact investment in quality information is the cornerstone of any open and dynamic democracy.

He is also a Board member of EVPA.

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.