Elena Casolari

Elena believes in the transformative power of impact investing and the social enterprise movement; she is an advocate and practitioner of gender smart investing.

She is the co-founder and partner of OPES Italia Sicaf EuVECA, which invests in impact enterprises in Italy, and OPES-LCEF Fund, an impact investment vehicle that provides financial resources and management support to early-stage social enterprises whose businesses serve low-income people and disadvantaged communities.

For 10 years, Elena was CEO at ACRA, an international NGO, and before that spent 12 years in the investment banking industry covering emerging markets. Elena serves as a Director at Fondazione Umano Progresso, the Social Impact Agenda for Italy, and she is also a member of the General Council of Fondazione Compagnia San Paolo, one of the leading banking Foundation in Italy. After her graduation in Management, Elena was a Monbushoo fellow at the Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo for two years.