Webinar | Venture Philanthropy and Social Impact Investment - Practical Cases from Europe and Latin America

Carolina is CEO of LatImpacto, the Latin America Venture Philanthropy Network, a regional community of social investors that connects and mobilizes capital (human, intellectual, and financial) committed to achieving the most significant social and environmental impact.

Mrs Suárez has over 14 years of experience in the fields of private social investment and philanthropy. Throughout her career and as an expert working with the social sector, she has played a strategic role in the international arena in promoting effective transformations by knowledge sharing and building effective partnerships. She is a reference on strategic approaches to philanthropy and is frequently invited to participate in high-level debates regarding private social investment.

Before heading LatImpacto, she was a Senior Adviser at the International Venture Philanthropy Center (IVPC), where she co-led and strategized the creation of the LatImpacto, based on the success of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EPVA) and the Asian Venture Philanthropy Association (APVN).

Mrs Suárez was also the Founder and CEO of the Association of Family and Corporate Foundations -AFE Colombia- since its creation in March 2008 until June 2018. During these years, she positioned, nationwide and internationally, the AFE as a leading entity and point of reference in philanthropic and social issues, projecting its reach all over Colombia and to international borders, where she contributed to achieving greater synergies and alliances to carry out projects with major social impact, and influencing public policy to promote social transformations through the collective work.

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.

Pedro is an industrial engineer focused on strategic partnerships, fundraising, corporate affairs and government relations. His career has been developed mainly in Civil Society Organizations such as Telethon Foundation México and Un Kilo de Ayuda in the development of early childhood.

He has been serving several strategic and operational functions as part of the committee executive of Un Kilo de Ayuda for more than 12 years. He has been a volunteer in several organizations from an early age, he is part of the founding team of Promotora Social Mexico, where he has played several roles in the areas of communication, business development, philanthropy and institutional relations, leading the efforts of the organization to develop the social entrepreneurship and impact investing ecosystem in Mexico.

He is a member of the Board of Mass Challenge Mexico, Chair of the ANDE advisory Board in Mexico, member of the National Advisory board on Impact investing, member of the Board of Systema B Mexico among other responsibilities.

Mr. Olivier de Guerre serves as President at PhiTrust, which he founded in 2003 and which developed two impact investment strategy: PhiTrust Partenaires SAS social Investment fund created in 2006 and Sicav Proxy Active Investors France which engages towards large caps for more ESG impact.

Previously he developed independent asset management companies and joined Crédit Suisse Asset Management in 1998 as a Managing Director.

Natália Di Ciero Leme is responsible for strategic partnerships and programs at Arymax Foundation. In her career, she worked at departments of social responsibility and sustainability of companies and social organizations and helped in the design and definition of the strategy of different Institutes and Foundations. She graduated in Public Relations from UNESP (Universidade Estadual Paulista), with specialization in sustainability and institutional development from FIA (Fundação Instituto de Administração) and master in Global Affairs from New York University.

Pieter Oostlander is the founder of shærpa and was appointed Fund Manager when SI2 Fund and shærpa merged in 2015. Pieter has been active in the social investment sector since 2004.

As a director of Noaber Foundation he built its service organization, which ultimately led to the founding of shærpa. His ambition is to make social impact and value creation (in addition to creating shareholder value) the core of his professional activities. Since 10 years, Pieter serves on the Board of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA), 3 years of which as the Chair. Pieter is also a member of the board of directors of Social Value International. Prior to his career in the social investment sector, Pieter held various executive finance positions in manufacturing and IT companies.