4 W AY S T O T U R N Y O U R PA N D E M I C S E T B A C K I N T O A C O M E B A C K

INSPIRE THE FUTURE Real-Leaders.com

PREDICTIONS
FROM THE
PROPHET OF
PROFITS
“I believe we are on the
edge of a fundamental
reshaping of finance.”

50
LARRY FINK
CEO, BLACKROCK HOW TO
ELEVATE
YOUR VOICE

$50 TRILLION
CLIMATE
INNOVATIVE INVESTMENT
IMPACT OPPORTUNITY
INVESTORS
WILL YOU BE A PART OF IT?

THE IMPACT ASSETS 50

LIFE-CHANGING
DISPLAY UNTIL DECEMBER 31 IDEAS FROM
YOUNG HEROES
WINTER 2021
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COLLABORATIVE PROSPERITY, ACCELERATED GROWTH

WE BELIEVE IN
BUILDING COMMUNITY
FROM THE GROUND UP
CONTENTS

SPECIAL FEATURE

45 / 50
Innovative
Impact Investors
A celebration of investors around the
world who are unleashing the power of
capital for social good.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS & INNOVATION CEO SUCCESS MONEY

34 / 4 Ways to 60 / 3 Amazing 62 / My Journey From 74 / Smart Money Sees

Turn Setbacks Business Solutions Cobbler to CEO of the Post-pandemic
Into Incredible for a Brighter Future a Global Electric World as a Chance to
Comebacks These companies have Vehicle Charging Rethink Our Values
If you want to have a taken old ideas and turned Company This type of outrageously bold
comeback, you’ve got to be them into something new.
Pasquale Romano went thinking is needed to reshape
willing to change. Here’s Could you think like this,
from fixing shoes to running our post-COVID society.
how. too?
a listed, multi-million
dollar company. A quick
calculation convinced him
he was onto something big.

4
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
INSPIRE THE FUTURE DEPARTMENTS COLUMNS

36 / Meet the
Real Leaders
Three impact leaders explain 10 / REPORT BACK 8 / Ever Wonder Why?
where the new opportunities lie. 12 / ADVISORY BOARD SPOTLIGHT Do you ever wonder how much
money is enough?
14 / VOICES
65 / Storytelling 16 / CHANGEMAKERS
How ordinary people can 29 / WATCH LIST
become extraordinary speakers. 22 / How to Run Your
66 / PODCAST PEOPLE Business Like a Tomcat
70 / BIG PICTURE
Fighter Pilot
75 / Innovation & How to overcome stress and
Technology 82 / MENTAL HEALTH achieve your goals.
How can Artificial Intelligence 84 / DESTINATIONS
help fight climate change?
86 / GIFTS FOR GOOD
88 / COMMON GROUND 24 / Becoming a
Billionaire Without a
76 / Climate Action 90 / IMAGINE Business Plan
Four business opportunities to
help fight the climate crisis. Some of the most successful
companies have learned that
adaption is more important than
prediction.
79 / Social Impact
82-year-old engineer extracts
drinking water from thin air.

80 / Investing
Investment lessons I learned
from my 4-year-old son.

On the Cover
On page 30, Larry Fink,
CEO of BlackRock, explains
how to move from ambition
to action with investing.
Photograph: Axel Dupeux/
Redux.

Page 68: The ultra runner bringing

attention to the global water crisis.
 WINTER 2021

Founder
Mark Van Ness
Founding Editor
Grant Schreiber
CEO
Julie Van Ness
General Manager
Heather Mann
Director of Digital Operations
Kevin Edwards
Copy Editor
Carla Kalogeridis
Digital Media Coordinator
Noah Willerford
Director of Strategic Alliances
Leah MacKenzie
Video Producer
Tucker Hamilton
Content Engagement Coordinator
Madelyn Dwyer
Head Office
St. Thomas, U.S.V.I

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EVER WONDER WHY?

How Much Money Is Enough?

“Two years ago, I
anticipated a tectonic
shift in capital. That
shift is now underway,
Do you ever wonder why so many people idolize and it’s actually
money? happening at a pace
Other publications gush with rankings and stories of the
faster than I ever
richest people in the world as if the mere hoarding of assets imagined.”
is admirable. We live in an era in the United States when — Larry Fink, CEO,
50 billionaires have stashed away as much wealth as 165 BlackRock, the world’s
million of their fellow citizens (according to Bloomberg largest fund manager
Wealth). Many, but not all, of those billionaires are intent on
(His full speech at the
accumulating more.
You have to ask yourself: How much is enough? (Jack Sim has the answer on page 39.) G20 Summit on page 30)
If you are one of the least rich billionaires with only $1 billion to your name, and you are
lucky enough to live another 50 years, how much would you have available to live on each
year? Just to make the math simple, let’s say you are an eccentric billionaire who likes to
sleep with your money, and you keep it in your bedroom, so you don’t collect any interest
on it for the rest of your life. You would still have $20 million every year to spend. If you’re
one of the top 10 billionaires, you get to spend 2 billion a year!
This reminds me of the 1985 film Brewster’s Millions, starring Richard Prior. He has to
spend $30 million in 30 days to qualify to inherit a $300,000,000 fortune (that’s back
before the days of billionaires when $300 million was considered a lot of money). Spoiler
Alert: It’s really hard to spend that kind of money without being laughed at.
Maybe we should stop idolizing billionaires, but neither should we vilify them. Instead,
why not show the same concern that we do for anyone afflicted with a hoarding disorder?
Let’s encourage them to get help.
There are an estimated 2,755 billionaires in the world today. Yet, only 223 have taken
the billionaire Giving Pledge to give back at least half during their lifetime or upon their
death for the common good. Do 92% of them intend to take their money with them or
pass their money-hoarding affliction on to their children and grandchildren? How sad
would that be?
Real leaders choose to invest their talent and money to benefit humanity. That does
not require them to sacrifice and live like monks. Rather, there is a growing movement of
purpose-driven capitalists demonstrating that they can do well by doing good.
In this special edition, we recognize 50 Real Leaders of Impact Investing. These are
leaders of impact funds that are 100% dedicated to investing in business solutions to
serious social and environmental issues. Ten years ago, it wasn’t easy to find 50 impact
funds. Today there are hundreds, and when we see traditional fund managers like Larry
Fink at BlackRock present climate solutions as “an investment opportunity of at least $50
trillion,” you know the world is changing fast. Buckle up!
Money does not literally make the world go around, but it certainly holds the power to
turn it around! Let’s all put our money where our mouth is and invest in a future we can
be proud of. And don’t be surprised if you make a good financial return in the process.

Mark Van Ness, Founder

Mark@Real-Leaders.com

8
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
 FOR OUR FREE WEEKLY WoW! WORDS OF WISDOM EMAIL SIGN UP HERE: WWW.REAL-LEADERS.COM/SUBSCRIBE

REPORT BACK

New Advisory Board

We celebrate diversity of thought at Real Leaders, and couldn’t
be prouder to announce our new Advisory Board for 2021-22.

JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE

You can expect to see and hear from the following impact
leaders in the near future: Kwame Taylor-Hayford, cofounder
of Kin; Linda Fisk, CEO of LeadHERship Global; John
Denniston, chairman of GSV Shared-X; Claudia Chan, founder
of S.H.E. Summit; Jim Massey, former VP ESG sustainability,
ethics, compliance at AstraZeneca; Parneet Pal, MBBS, chief
science officer at Wisdom Labs; Peter Cherukuri, cofounder
Dr. Jane Goodall Awarded the Inaugural at Data Protocol; Joanna Hall, executive director of the U.S.
Real Leaders Lifetime Leadership Award Coalition on Sustainability.

At our monthly Meet the Real Leaders event in July,

our guest speaker, Dr. Jane Goodall, was honored
with a Real Leaders Lifetime Leadership Award. Now
87-years-old, Dr. Goodall has devoted her life to the
Did you know
study and preservation of the natural world since we’re on Apple
age 17. “Be passionate about what you do,” she told Podcasts? Open
us, and we couldn’t agree more. The real leaders we the app and
search for
speak to every day all have one thing in common — “Real Leaders
they seek purpose in a higher cause, and in so doing, Podcast”
build companies, organizations and causes that
move the world in the right direction. We could think
of no one better than Dr. Goodall to honor with our
first Lifetime Leadership Award. Keynote Speakers Keep Hope Alive During
the Pandemic
One of the most popular stories at Real-Leaders.com this past
year has been on keynote speakers. It comes as no surprise
when you consider that we’ve all needed some words of
encouragement to see us through lockdown and a disrupted
Are You Being Wowed Every Friday? business world. Tens of thousands of readers turned to Real
If you haven’t already signed up to receive our Leaders to find inspiration and encouragement, and to look and
FREE weekly WoW! Words of Wisdom email, you
should. These Friday morning emails are the think about a specific topic in a way they may never have done
perfect way to inspire your weekend and plan before. The transition to remote work and digital meetings now
your Monday victories! To receive your free, demands that we all have a voice, whether we like it or not.
weekly dose of inspiration, sign up here: Motivational speaking and the way you present yourself has
Real-Leaders.com/Subscribe become a critical business skill. Join us each month at Meet the
Real Leaders, where you can add your voice to lively discussions
with like-minded impact CEOs. Real-Leaders.com/Meet

@Real_Leaders @RealLeadersMagazine @Real_Leaders @Real-Leaders @RealLeadersMagazine

10
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
 Join the
Social Impact
Revolution
Business is evolving and Real
Leaders is at the forefront
of this change. Our global
reach, diverse platforms and
impact leadership strategies
will prepare you for the next
big business opportunity —
profitable social impact.

JOIN US

Join the Real Leaders Impact

Collaborative if you are a leader looking
to collaborate for greater impact.

Real-Leaders.com/Impact-Collaborative

WE SUPPORT
ADVISORY BOARD SPOTLIGHT
Healthy Leaders Build
a Healthy Planet
By Parneet Pal, MBBS
Real leaders, in my view, are those that create not just
“high” impact but “wise” impact. Wise impact refers to
the ability of leaders to do two things. First, they must
navigate uncertain business environments without burning
themselves out, i.e., stay resilient, agile, and well. Second,
they must build businesses that go beyond
just “sustainability” towards “net-positive” “WISE
outcomes for the economy and planet. This
is a daunting proposition. However, if we are
LEADERSHIP IS
to solve the interconnected crises of climate, UNDERSTANDING
inequality, and health we face today, we don’t THAT BURNING
have a choice.
My work is focused on this intersection
YOURSELF
of leadership, health, and impact. I bring a OUT WILL
well-being lens so that leaders learn how to ULTIMATELY
harness the body’s renewable sources of energy BURN THE
that enable them to make the best decisions
– for their own health, and the health of their PLANET OUT.”
business and the planet. — PARNEET PAL
Two key influences inform my perspective:
the evolution of the global healthcare story and
making the connections between personal and
planetary health.
Globally, the leading cause of sickness and
death comes from lifestyle-related chronic diseases like
obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, mood disorders,
etc. The good news is that most of these outcomes are
preventable when we pay attention to four key aspects
of our daily lifestyle: what we eat, how much we move,
how we sleep, and how we manage our stress. However,
our healthcare systems are primarily designed to treat
individuals after they fall sick. As a Harvard- and Columbia-
trained physician, I realized that the wisest impact I could
have would be to move away from clinical practice, focus on
prevention and behavior change, and help individuals stay
well. I did this by designing and scaling well-being programs
for executive health, and now in the workplace.
The second influence came from noticing that behavior
change depends less on the individual and mainly on
the systems they are surrounded with. Our workplaces,
communities, and businesses are currently set up for us
to fail – just look around and notice that your health and
well-being are rarely incentivized or supported no matter
where you are throughout the day. Watching the global
climate story evolve in parallel, I noted that when it came
to sustainability, we’ve been ignoring the planet’s health
12
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
in a similar fashion – our extractive business
systems are designed for continuous planetary
degradation.
Our personal and planetary health is in a
shambles. We are burning ourselves out and
burning the planet along the way.
Many years ago, I stumbled on the book
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make
Things by William McDonough and Michael
Braungart, and it blew my mind. They had a
vision for true renewal and regeneration within
both technical and biological ecosystems. They
talked about a world where waste equaled
food, where nothing went from the cradle to
the grave, where we took a page from nature to
create a world of abundance and well-being.
This inspired me to think about human health
from this lens of renewal – how our bodies are
not siloed entities in space but part of nature’s
ecosystem. When we respect this connection
and eat, live, sleep and work in concert with
planetary circadian rhythms and food systems,
we move more and more towards “net-positive”
energy production in our cells. We begin to
appreciate that what is good for us is also good
for the planet. It’s impossible to be well on a sick
planet. We can then show up in each moment
for the many crises we face with greater focus,
creativity, and compassion. This wise impact is
also reflected in how we run our businesses and
societies, creating a “net-positive” well-being
economy. n ParneetPal.com
Parneet Pal, MBBS, is a Harvard- and Columbia-
trained physician working at the intersection of
lifestyle medicine, technology and behavior change.
 HAVE AN OPINION YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE? EMAIL US AT INFO@REAL-LEADERS.COM

VOICES
id
afra ed Thank you to Real Leaders for organizing an
s i r, I’m of gat
y d inspiring and energizing fireside chat with Jane
sorr kin
I’m ot that nity. Goodall and some great breakout discussions! It
e n m u
we’r com will take a lot of collaboration and effort to address
the systemic problems our world faces, but forums
like these help to instill hope that the opportunity to
create a thriving and sustainable world is still within
our reach.”
JASON BURNHAM
New York

The pandemic has changed my perception of

leadership forever. Many ‘heroes’ we idolized just
two years ago have shown they are not up to the

I had the privilege of being in the same Zoom room as
Jane Goodall. I have been a fan of her work for a long
time and her passion for the environment is contagious.
Thank you Real Leaders for making it happen. We all
can make a difference, one step at a time. First step is
learning, there is a lot of noise around. Be curious, ask
questions and find out how you can make a difference.”
RICHA GUPTA
Toronto
I was delighted to come across Real Leaders magazine
at an airport recently. Your stories are pure inspiration
for budding social entrepreneurs, who seek others just
like them. I had no idea that there were already so many
amazing solutions out there.”
WENDY PRICE
Lincoln
RY L E Y E D WA R D S
new challenges we see in the world today. Humble
leaders that demonstrate that the buck stops with
them, take responsibility when things don’t work
out, and tackle uncharted territories have become
my new benchmark of what a real leader looks like
— all captured perfectly at Real Leaders.”
VICKI DODD
Phoenix
I was part of a group of CEO’s and
business leaders from around the world
that joined Real Leaders and Jane Goodall
at Meet the Real Leaders. We learned how
we could use our businesses to have a
positive impact on the environment and
the people we work with. Jane shared
these words of wisdom, “Do whatever you
can to make the world a better place. We
must think about what we can do to make
a positive impact in your community.” Talk
about a mindset shift. Lead ethically and
Be the first to receive change the world for the better!”
Real Leaders FRANK KITCHEN
each quarter. Subscribe at: Arizona
Real-Leaders.com/Subscribe

JOIN THE REAL LEADERS IMPACT COLLABORATIVE

Real-Leaders.com /Impact-Collaborative

My Real Leaders group at the Impact Collaborative is an essential part Whether you’re a CEO of a company with 500 employees or
of my monthly schedule. Being a CEO is a unique and often lonely 5, the Real Leaders Impact collaborative has been incredibly
role and being a social business CEO is even more unique. Without valuable in developing my executive leadership skills,
Real Leaders I could never have found such a diverse and like-minded expanding my thinking and helping me problem-solve with
group of impact CEOs to share my challenges.” leaders who’ve experienced similar challenges.”
BLAIR KELLISON MEESHA BROWN
Sebastopol New York

14
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
 1000+ efficient solutions to
protect the environment in
a profitable way
“ Today, thousands of solutions exist that can boost economic growth while preserving
nature, but they are often hidden in startups or research labs. They remain unknown
to decision makers and are not implemented at industry level. By achieving our
1000 Solutions Challenge, we have now the proof that enough solutions exist today to
make our world more profitable, efficient and sustainable. Therefore, no excuses left
for inaction as decision makers cannot pretend anymore that ecology is too expensive,
hurts the economy and destroys jobs!”
Bertrand Piccard, Initiator and Chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation

A FOUNDATION A LABEL A VOICE AND A TEAM

FEDERATE, PROMOTE,
ACCELERATE
Bringing together clean
technology players,
highlighting clean and
profitable solutions to
ensure their implementation,
initiating synergies between
solution providers and
investors and demonstrating
the considerable impact of
efficient solutions on the
economy and the environment
to accelerate the transition to
a sustainable carbon neutral
economy.
RECONCILE ECONOMY AND
ECOLOGY
Collaborating with
independent experts and
recognized institutions,
evaluating solutions capable of
protecting the environment in
a profitable way thanks to a
unique and free label and
referencing the labelled
solutions in a Guide of
1000+ Solutions, a true
guidebook for decision-makers
to choose solutions based on
technical, environmental and
socio-economic criteria.
ACTIVATE THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF
SOLUTIONS
Encouraging governments to
put in place more ambitious
energy policies and
environmental goals. Goodwill
Ambassador of the United
Nations for the environment,
Bertrand Piccard and his team
collaborate with public
authorities of regions and
cities to identify their needs,
bring innovative solutions and
sustainably integrate these
clean technologies in local
territories.

www.solarimpulse.com
CHANGEMAKERS KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS INSPIRING THE FUTURE AS A CHANGEMAKER? EMAIL US AT EDITORIAL@REAL-LEADERS.COM

4 Life-Changing Ideas
from Young Heroes
By Marianne Larned

Young people have been at the forefront of social change across the globe and throughout history, especially
today in the climate justice movement. It takes courage to face the prospect of a long future with eyes wide
open — given projections for how much change the planet will see in a young person’s lifetime. Here are
four inspiring young people who are acting to reconcile humanity with nature and creating new business
opportunities along the way.

a father and a mother who was a film

producer, Slater had always been in love
with telling stories. She made her first
film when she was only 6 years old.
Slater also loved watching movies.
When she was 14 years old, she sat in
her parents’ living room and watched
An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary
made by Davis Guggenheim about
global warming. It was eye-opening for
her. “I remember about halfway into
the film, I started crying and I didn’t
really stop for several hours,” she says.
“It scared the hell out of me. It wasn’t
something that I understood or knew
how to fix, and the people who could fix
it were not doing anything.”
Slater felt betrayed. All her life,
she had been told that she had
opportunities in life, things that she
could do and dreams she could realize.
Suddenly, she started to question this.
“None of it felt like it was real anymore
SCYTHIA FILMS

because there was this big thing called

Youth Unstoppable climate change rising up in the middle of
Slater Jewell-Kemker / Canada my life that made everything uncertain
and unstable,” Slater says. “And I
wanted to do something. I wanted to

“I AM PASSING THE BATON TO YOU,” said Jean-Michel Cousteau, as he handed 12-year-old Slater
the delicate skeleton of a sea urchin. Slater had been invited to visit the island where the
famous marine biologist and documentary filmmaker had started a children’s camp for youth “TO BE TRULY RADICAL IS
to learn about ocean sustainability. TO MAKE HOPE POSSIBLE,
It all started the year before when Slater wrote an essay for the MY HERO project.
The assignment was to write about someone who inspired her. Not only did the famous
RATHER THAN DESPAIR
oceanographic explorer answer her questions, he also invited Slater to visit the camp. “That CONVINCING.”
was the first time I felt like someone who was very important took me seriously and wanted — RAYMOND WILLIAMS,
to listen to what I had to say,” she says. “He was a big influence on me.” WRITER AND ACADEMIC
When she met him in person, she recorded a video interview with him. With a writer for

16
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
be the person who had tried to do
everything they could.”
In May 2008, when she was
15, Slater went to the Youth
Environmental G8 Summit in Japan.
For the first time, she got to meet
young people from all over the world
whose lives were being impacted
by climate change — and they
had all had enough. Slater brought
her camera to the summit. There
she made lifelong friends, and she
started what would become a 12-
year documentary film project. She
decided she would tell the story of the
environmental youth movement from
within. The result was a documentary
titled Youth Unstoppable.
After the summit in Japan, Slater
traveled to several other climate
conferences, in Copenhagen, Cancun,
Paris, Poland, and Madrid, and she
always brought her camera.
At the conferences, she would
simply walk up to people and ask
them questions. “At the beginning, I
would have to say that a lot of it was
adrenaline fueled by terror,” she says,
laughing. But soon she realized that
she was in a position of power: She
had the ability to share these people’s
you’re doing is right. You feel this
sense of camaraderie, being part of
this community that has a purpose.”
Besides, giving up the fight against
climate change had never been an
option for Slater. “We all share this
feeling that this is the most important
thing we’ve ever come across,” she
says. “It’s a mixture of perseverance
and stubbornness, but it’s also the
feeling that I am doing something
“I’VE HAD OLDER PEOPLE that might actually matter. That it
COME UP TO ME AND might affect other people and create
positive change.”
SAY THEY FEEL RE- In the end, Slater worked on Youth
INSPIRED BECAUSE OUR Unstoppable for 12 years. She shot
GENERATION ACTUALLY over 500 hours of footage and spent
19 months editing. It was finally
CARES AND IS DOING released in 2018 and has played in
SOMETHING.” over 100 film festivals worldwide and
— SLATER JEWELL-KEMKER garnered 13 awards to date. “I’ve had
young people come up to me and say
that for the first time, they felt like they
stories, and they needed their stories were actually spoken to as human
to be heard. beings and not just spoken down to,”
One thing that kept Slater going she says. “And I’ve had older people
is the friendships she made along come up to me and say that they had
the way with other young climate lost all hope. And that they feel re-
activists. “It was a lot of fun,” she inspired that our generation actually
says. “You’re going up against cares and is doing something.”
something, and you feel like what YouthUnstoppable.com
Rise and Grind
Fergus Moore / Scotland
FERGUS MOORE HAD LONG DREAMED OF BECOMING AN ENTREPRENEUR.
His grandfather, a successful small business owner and
venture capitalist, had instilled in him a desire to build
something out of nothing. He saw from an early age that
being a businessperson has its perks, like the ability to set
your own hours and priorities. But it also gave him the ability
to create things and see them take shape. He always knew
he wanted to make something that would have an impact
— whether that be on environmental, social, or economic
issues.
He didn’t know it at the time, but his neighbor Scott
Kennedy shared the same dream.
When the two young men were placed on the same team
RISE AND GRIND
for a class entrepreneurship project, it turned out to be a
fortunate pairing.
17
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
 CHANGEMAKERS
weren’t the only people who believed in the
project. A quarter-million-euro grant from Zero
Waste Scotland helped them develop the
technology and test it in a lab before taking it to
the real world — and they’re still just 26.
Despite being a small startup, they’re already
“WHAT speaking with some of the biggest players in the
coffee industry. What if these companies got on
HUMANS DO board? What could they accomplish then?
OVER THE NEXT In February 2020, they completed the
50 YEARS WILL prototype of an invention they had been testing
— an industrial-sized machine that converts
DETERMINE coffee grounds into environmentally friendly
THE FATE OF products.
Just as two young entrepreneurs in Scotland
ALL LIFE ON can play a role in tackling food waste, so too
THE PLANET.” must an entire generation. And they won’t just
RISE AND GRIND

— DAVID need help from the titans of the coffee industry,

ATTENBOROUGH, but also from other changemakers, and —
ENVIRONMENTALIST perhaps most importantly — from consumers.
“Our generation seems to be far more
interested in sustainability and leading a more
In addition to their passion for impactful life, rather than simply making as much
entrepreneurship, the two shared a few other money as possible,” Fergus says. “I think change
things. Both young men were working in coffee does have to come from a shift in mindset, and
shops to pay for school. After making thousands I would hope that our generation can be the one
of coffees — and throwing out filter after filter that can push people toward that direction.”
of spent grounds at the end of their shifts — Revive-Eco.com
they both started to realize something: Coffee
grounds, like cups and straws, represented a
major source of waste that the industry hadn’t
really taken into consideration. Each year, in
the tiny country of Scotland alone, between
40,000 and 50,000 tons of coffee grounds are
thrown away. Across the UK, it’s half a million.
Worldwide, that number is exponentially higher.
Most of the coffee grounds in the world end
up in massive, smelly landfills where they emit
methane — a major greenhouse gas contributing
to nearly half of global warming. By 2050, as
many as 3.4 billion tons of food waste will enter
the global waste stream, and coffee grounds are
a small but important part of this.
Fergus and Scott knew it didn’t have to be
that way. “We were seeing firsthand the amount
of food waste going out in the trash at the end
of every single shift, and it was something that
didn’t feel right to us,” Fergus says. “It felt like
there was definitely more value there. It seemed
to be something that people could use.”
And so, at the age of 23, they teamed up to
Disinvestment For a
try to develop a solution to all that coffee-ground
waste. Overwhelmed with the scale of the issue,
Sustainable Future
they began with some online research. They Alyssa Lee / USA
discovered many ways that used coffee grounds
could be recycled: as fertilizer or compost, as a AS A FRESHMAN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES,
natural face scrub, even as insect repellent. ALYSSA LEE HAD AN EYE-OPENING EXPERIENCE. “What really woke
What started as a class project has now me up was a speech by Van Jones on plastic pollution as a
turned into a full-scale company called Revive social justice issue. It was the first time I had ever heard the
Eco. After three years of work in the lab, Fergus term environmental justice. It was the first time I had heard of
and Scott are testing out their creation. They environmental issues related to issues of class and race.”

18
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021

GETTY IMAGES
Alyssa was eager to discover where plastic pollution
came from, how it’s disposed of, and where it’s shipped
and processed. What she learned was devastating. “It’s all
about the hidden costs, the ‘sacrifice zones’ of living the
way we live, and who has to bear the brunt of that.”
Alyssa began changing her habits. She started small by
using less plastic, and one thing led to another. She and
a few students started a food cooperative that focused
on environmentally friendly products, as well as issues of
labor justice. The more she understood American society’s
dominant institutions, the bigger the issues she began to
focus on. “And what bigger issue does the environmental
community face than fossil fuels?” she points out.
Digging into the research, Alyssa was shocked to
discover that many universities across the country were
investing in and profiting from the very fossil fuel companies
that were causing environmental catastrophes. She just
couldn’t stand to see the negative impact of an influential
institution such as hers on the next generation of young
leaders. In 2013, she started the Fossil Free UCLA
Divestment Campaign, and by 2020, it was announced that
the investment portfolio for the entire University of California
system — not just UCLA — was fossil free.
In 2015, Alyssa expanded the divestment movement
by joining forces with the Better Future Project, where
she started working as a divestment organizer. There
she provided coaching and mentorships to hundreds of
students in New England who were working to get their
colleges to divest. But by 2018, the Better Future Project
was at a crossroads: organizations like 350.org and the
Divestment Student Network were no longer actively
working on fossil fuel divestment. The Better Future Project
was fighting the fight alone. So they decided to form Divest
Ed to fill this crucial gap, and Alyssa moved into a new role
as its director.
CHANGEMAKERS
“FIRE MADE US HUMAN, FOSSIL
FUELS MADE US MODERN, BUT
NOW WE NEED A NEW FIRE
THAT MAKES US SAFE, SECURE,
HEALTHY, AND DURABLE.”
— AMORY LOVINS, CHIEF SCIENTIST,
ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE
“We have an enormous opportunity as students
to really shape our institutions to make a very
powerful political statement about not just climate
change, but specifically the fossil fuels industry,”
she says. “And divestment is one of the most
powerful statements they can make.”
The divestiture movement spread worldwide,
and as of 2020, it was comprised of hundreds of
institutions. About 1,200 of these institutions had
$14 trillion divested from the fossil fuel industry,
including 60 colleges and universities; religious
institutions like the Catholic Church in Greece;
municipalities like the City of Denver; state pension
funds in New York City; foundations such as the
Rockefeller Foundation; and entire countries, like
Norway, that have taken a stand for the environment
and against fossil fuels by divesting.
“How we decide to live is a lifelong process,”
Alyssa says. “It’s a constant, iterative, dynamic
experience. It’s never too early or too late to decide
you want to fight for justice. At the center of this
decision is the choice to make a connection against
all odds. Connecting to those whose circumstances
are completely different from yours, connecting
to the earth’s history and to its wisdoms and
pains, and connecting to yourself. Making these
connections is hard, emotional work. It requires
rigor, self-interrogation, and living with constant
uncertainty. But if you accept all this, fighting for
justice, at its core, is about the capacity to build
radical joy for yourself and for others.”
Alyssa has a message of resilience especially
for youth who want to get involved in remedying
social justice, sustainability, and other environmental
issues. “Being a good person and fighting against
injustice is a constant battle. It’s not always easy.
But when you make a difference, it is all worth it. I
wish I had learned earlier how to be okay with being
uncomfortable and being uncertain, because some
of the greatest personal gains I’ve made are when
I’ve come out the other side of a difficult situation.”
Divested.BetterFutureProject.org
19
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
 CHANGEMAKERS
Eyewear With a Conscience
François van den Abeele / Spain
SEA2SEE
FRANÇOIS VAN DEN ABEELE’S IDEA FOR CLEANING UP PLASTIC
“IN ORDER TO
IN THE OCEANS EMERGED OVER TIME. As a journalist, he’d ATTAIN THE
covered social and environmental issues in over 130 IMPOSSIBLE,
countries in some of the world’s most vulnerable
regions, like Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
ONE MUST
ATTEMPT THE
From what he’d seen, the crisis of plastic pollution in the
waterways was devastating impoverished communities, ABSURD.”
and the scale of the neglect was monumental. Francois — MIGUEL DE
was troubled and often thought about this problem —
CERVANTES, AUTHOR
and about what could be done.
“You don’t just get out of bed one day and say, ‘I want
to manufacture eyeglasses out of plastic waste,’” he
says. “I started to wear glasses later in life, so by then,
they were more on my mind.” One day he thought, “Hey, glasses are
something people all over the world wear. Frames are made of plastic.
Then the gears began turning.”
While Francois had no experience in fashion, he was a quick study.
He discovered that fashion is a $100 billion a year industry, and that it is
among the most environmentally damaging, ranking only behind oil and
gas in terms of its negative impact. His vision was ambitious, but it was not
unrealistic. He’d worked with impact businesses before. “I soon realized
that this was a way to create a sustainable product that was profitable and
could help clean up the oceans.”
In 2016, he put together a team, gathered up 20 kilos of recycled plastic,
brought it to a processor in Italy, and made Sea2See’s first run of products
— 20 sunglasses. “It was a big idea and there were a lot of skeptics. Even
my wife thought it was a crazy idea, using marine waste for frames. But
there they were.”
20
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
The product was a hit almost immediately. To keep
up with growing demand, Francois began working with
fishermen in Spain to gather plastic. He then expanded
his operation to France. Now he works with African
fishing communities in Ghana, Senegal, and Togo, and
he is hoping to expand to other African countries as
well. Together they clean up polluted waterways while
providing a much-needed revenue stream for these
once-marginalized fishermen. “When I first went there,
they thought I was crazy,” he says. “They wondered
why this guy was going to pay them for collecting
waste.” To his critics, François responded, “Waste has
value. And cleaning it up has a value too— it benefits
everyone.”
Over time, François has leveraged the power of this
new community of fishermen to address other regional
problems. With the excess plastic that remains after
the frame-making process, he launched a line of
watches that supports the nonprofit organization
Free the Slaves, to stop child exploitation in places
like Lake Volta in Ghana where children are forced to
work. “The sale of one watch finances two weeks of
education for each kid that is saved. Our campaign is
called Time for Time, because we all have time; and I
believe we should give meaning to our time by giving
back to the most vulnerable among us.” And not all
the waste collected by Sea2See goes into glasses or
watches; they are also building a recycling plant to
provide recycled plastic to various industries.
François believes that the future of all business is
sustainable business, and this is where the youth can
really lead the charge. “If you want to start any type of
business, it should have an impact beyond whatever
product or service you are offering. There are so many
things you can do. I know it’s tricky. It takes time. But
if you have the resolve, you can do it. Try to have an
impact. That’s what I’ve tried to do. And if I can inspire
people to try and have an impact in the same way, I’ve
done my job. So, do it! Get involved. Sweat. Work.
Bring your ideas to reality.” n
Sea2See.org
Marianne Larned is the
founder of The Stone Soup
Leadership Institute, a
non-profit organization that
invests and trains young
people around the world
to become leaders in their
communities. These stories
are from her latest book,
Stone Soup for a Sustainable
World: Life-Changing
Stories of Young Heroes.
StoneSoupLeadership.org
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LEADERSHIP

HOW TO RUN YOUR

BUSINESS LIKE A
TOMCAT FIGHTER PILOT
By Carey Lohrenz

T
ime spent in the cockpit
of an F-14 is a grueling
experience — the
pressure mounts as
you prepare to land
on what feels like a
bobbing 300-foot-
long postage stamp
— in the disorienting
darkness. The weight of your mission,
the awareness of what’s at stake, and
countless external factors compound by
the millisecond. No matter how many
times you’ve nailed it before, landing
on an aircraft carrier can be life-or-death
dangerous.
The recent pandemic and economic
fallout further compound the pressure
and uncertainty you face as a business
owner. You want to ensure everyone in
your organization is supported, whether
they are battling physical, emotional, or
financial burdens. Repetitive practice and
relentless preparation are requirements
to navigate peak stress and overwhelm,
whether operating a supersonic,
twin-engine fighter jet or leading your
team. Identifying where to fix your
focus, formulating a flight plan, and
communicating with your team increase
your chances of success. AS ONE OF THE FIRST FEMALE F-14 TOMCAT FIGHTER
PILOTS IN THE U.S. NAVY, CAREY LOHRENZ HAS
LEARNED THAT UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS — AND
ISN’T — WITHIN YOUR SPAN OF CONTROL CAN
HELP KEEP STRESS AND ANXIETY AT BAY AS YOU
OVERCOME OBSTACLES AND ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS.

Carey Lohrenz (right) is a leadership speaker,

business consultant, military aviation pioneer,
and author of Span of Control: What to do
When You’re Under Pressure, Overwhelmed
and Ready to Get What You Really Want.
CareyLohrenz.com

22
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021

“ STUDY YOUR SPAN OF CONTROL.”
Span of control in the corporate world indicates the number of direct
reports you can effectively manage. In the Navy, the concept carries
a different interpretation. Effectively managing your span of control —
knowing what you can, and should, control at any given time
— keeps you alive and helps you accomplish your mission.
“FLIGHT
FORMULATE YOUR
PLAN.”
Without a solid flight plan, your chances of reaching your
destination on time are minuscule. Working in a leadership
capacity in your organization means your flight plan involves
others; your chances of victory increase with a spirit of
collaboration and accountability. Beware of the “drift
factor” — in aviation, it can take an aircraft off course; in
your day-to-day life, you may find yourself drifting due to
a lack of awareness, pressure and overload, distractions,
and ego. Building checkpoints and markers of success into
your flight plan will keep the team on track and energized.
To keep everyone aligned and moving forward — especially
in times of crisis and uncertainty — I recommend adopting a
three-phase approach: Prepare. Perform. Prevail.
● Prepare. Bring team members together for a period of
planning. Establish the mission objective, analyze threats
and obstacles, review resources, and walk through the steps
needed to reach your goal. Don’t overlook asking, “Has
anyone ever done this before?” Schedule the debrief before
acting on your plan, or it will fall under the radar.
● Perform. Fighter pilots must act without hesitation,
take control, and push the envelope or they will come
up short. Performing means following the plan in the
face of fear. The confidence needed to execute is rooted
in thorough preparation. Set your sights on seeing the
upside; let your growth mindset be your superpower. Your
solution-based thinking will serve the team well as you face
contingencies (expected and otherwise).
● Prevail. The debrief is vital to improving future
performance. Foster an environment that encourages open
discussion around wins and misses as you highlight lessons
learned. The goal is always to improve.
LEADERSHIP
“FIX YOUR FOCUS.”
To help students master the prioritization of tasks amid
chaos, the Naval Academy introduces the concept of
“the Bucket.” The Bucket represents the finite capacity
pilots have for “input and subsequent action in the
low-altitude environment.” Students learn that the most
important tasks must go into the Bucket first. Removing
distractions and identifying your top priorities applies in
business as well.
I have found that naming my top three priorities
for the day is a simple tool with immediate benefits.
I write down what my most important work looks like
each day — just three things. Failing to do so inevitably
results in precious time wasted, teetering between
task switching and task overload instead of engaging
in focused work. Research shows us that we pay a
significant price when attempting to multitask — losing
up to 40% of our productive time.
“FLYCOMMUNICATE TO
IN FORMATION.”
The Blue Angels’ classic V-formation showcases
their undeniable technique and talent. In the
workplace, the uplift created by operating in
alignment — with shared goals and values —
helps everyone soar faster toward the goal.
Your one key vision should be accessible at
all times; strive for something that is simple,
memorable, and repeatable. Staying in sync
calls for consistent communication and being
honest with one another about what’s working
and what isn’t. Communicate in a manner that is
concise, precise, clear, and consistent. In high-
stress situations, be aware that one’s ability to
process information is compromised by as much
as 80%. Especially in high-pressure scenarios,
keep the following in mind:
● Speak clearly and slowly.
● Anticipate, prepare, and practice.
● Establish trust by establishing that
you care.
● Repeat the most important points.
● Balance each negative with three to
four positives.
● The first and last things you say are most
likely to be remembered.
● Speak in short sentences and use
simple words.
● Clarity around your destination makes
for a more effective and efficient flight. n
23
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
LEADERSHIP

M
ost startups
need a business
plan because
they depend
on venture
capital funds
or banks for
financing Understandably, pitching a
business idea to potential investors
typically requires a business plan.
But how decisive are business plans
in determining the success of an
entrepreneur? It’s a good question,
and one that by no means only
applies to startups. “Sometimes
You’ll Have To ‘Zig’ When The
Blueprint Says ‘Zag.’”
In his autobiography, Michael
Bloomberg, No. 9 on the Forbes list
of the richest people in the world
with assets of $55 billion, details the
earliest days of his company. One of
G E T T Y I M A G E S / L I N TA O Z H A N G

his key insights is that rigid planning

can do more harm than good: “You’ll
inevitably face problems different
from the ones you anticipated.
Sometimes you’ll have to ‘zig’ when
the blueprint says ‘zag.’ You don’t
want a detailed, inflexible plan
getting in the way when you have
to respond instantly.” While his

BECOMING A
competitors were still busy trying
to come up with the perfect final
design, he was already working on

BILLIONAIRE WITHOUT
the fifth version of his prototype.
“It gets back to planning versus
acting. We act from day one; others
plan how to plan — for months.”

A BUSINESS PLAN
Bloomberg stressed that making
forecasts about new business ideas
is mostly a useless and meaningless
task. “The noise in the assumptions
you have to make is so great, and
the knowledge you have of strange
By Dr. Rainer Zitelmann
areas so limited that all the detailed
analysis is usually irrelevant.”

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REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
 LEADERSHIP

“IT GETS BACK TO PLANNING

VERSUS ACTING. WE ACT
FROM DAY ONE; OTHERS
PLAN HOW TO PLAN — FOR
MONTHS.” — MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

Pivoting
Are all of these examples just exceptions?
Just how important are business plans?
A 2010 scientific study compared the
growth of more than 11,000 companies.
G E T T Y I M A G E S / K I M B E R LY W H I T E
The study found that planning improved
business performance. However, the study
also demonstrated that this applies more
to established companies than startups.
And the researchers stressed that for any
business plan, setting goals and being
willing to change the business model is more
important than trying to predict business
developments in detail.
An important concept in terms of
“If You Plan, You Lose. If You Don’t Plan, You Win.”
understanding the success of many startup
The Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma is just as skeptical as Bloomberg when
companies in Silicon Valley is pivoting. This
it comes to rigid business plans. Worth $34.6 billion, the founder of Alibaba
involves being prepared to radically change
is now the richest man in China. When he was trying to get his business
the original business model at a moment’s
off the ground, he approached venture capitalists in Silicon Valley to raise
notice. The goal is not to implement an
money. The investors he met expected him to present a fully developed
original concept and prove how good the
business plan. But, much like Bloomberg, Jack Ma did not have a business
initial plan was. The goal is to establish
plan. His motto was: “If you plan, you lose. If you don’t plan, you win.”
a strong market position. If that means
But from the outset, he thought big and set very ambitious goals. Shortly
abandoning the plan and giving the company
after he founded his company, he told a journalist: “We don’t want to be No.
a completely new and different direction,
1 in China. We want to be No. 1 in the world.” He was so convinced of his
then it’s time to pivot. n
future success that he even had a meeting filmed in his modest apartment
in February 1999 — as a document for the company’s later history. During
the small meeting, he posed the following question: “In the next 5 or 10
years, what will Alibaba become?” Answering his own question, he said,
“Our competitors are not in China but in Silicon Valley… We should position
Alibaba as an international website.”

Google’s Founders Started Without A Business Plan

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, worth $50.8 and $49.0 billion, are ranked No.
10 and No. 14 on the Forbes list of the richest people in the world. They
also have some things in common with Michael Bloomberg and Jack Ma.
They didn’t have a fully fleshed-out business plan when they started, and
they changed their business model again and again. The two creators of
Google, both born in 1973, had a bright idea: They wanted to build the
best search engine in the world. According to the book, The Google Story, Dr. Rainer Zitelmann is a historian and
“Neither of the guys had a clear idea of how the company would make sociologist, author, businessman, and real
estate investor. His recent book is Dare to be
money, though it seemed to them that if they had the best search engine,
Different and Grow Rich: Secrets of Self-made
others would want to use it in their organizations.” People Who Became Rich and Successful.

25
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
 ETHICAL FASHION

The Clothing Donation

Model Is Broken “THERE IS NO
SUCH THING AS
‘AWAY.’ WHEN WE
THROW ANYTHING
AWAY IT MUST GO
SOMEWHERE.”
— ANNIE LEONARD,
CREATOR OF THE STORY
OF STUFF

consequences, for without the best-

quality items, there isn’t enough value in
the waste stream to pay for expanding
collection efforts.
The only way recycling at necessary
scale will happen is through the
efforts of for-profit recycling and
reverse logistics companies. These
companies collect used clothing
through charity partnerships, clothing
collection bins, home pickup, and
VICTOR BILCIK

municipal partnerships. They pay the

hefty cost of collection through the
value of the goods collected. The
highest-value materials can be reused
Alex Husted (above) has a solution for the again as clothing. By selling reusable
antiquated one-stream, consignment, donation materials into secondhand markets,
these companies subsidize the cost of
model for recycled clothing. properly downcycling and recycling the
remaining materials. Think of it this way:
We can’t recycle your ripped towels if we
The average American puts 100 lbs of clothes per year into the trash. are not also able to resell your designer
Clothes and shoes are by far the fastest-growing waste stream. According to jeans.
the EPA, only about 15% of clothes and shoes in the United States are currently The fashion industry should produce
reused or recycled. To increase the diversion rate, we need investment by far less and better quality items that
reverse logistics and recycling companies. These companies need to find last, and consumers should drastically
enough value in discarded clothes and shoes to pay for the costs of collection, curb their consumption. But while we
sorting, resale, and recycling. Keeping up with this expanding tragedy is wait for the “shoulds,” clothing recycling
hard work that requires scalable solutions. The growing trend of inaccurate businesses are the only ones equipped
information risks putting large-scale collectors and recyclers — those doing to handle this waste — and they need
the heavy lifting on an escalating problem — out of business. your help to make it happen.
The COVID closet cleanout trend has led to a torrent of clothing hitting thrift The bulk of used clothing is bought
stores and collection bins, along with an equal flurry of terribly misguided by and sold in overseas markets — over
press about clothing reuse and recycling of textiles. Well-meaning journalists 70% of the world shops secondhand
and bloggers are encouraging consignment, swapping, and thrifts as the clothing. If trade with these foreign
first stop for your best-quality unwanted clothes, telling people to place markets stops, fast fashion imports
only their damaged items in collection bins. This has terrible environmental will increase in these same nations as

26
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021

the next, most affordable option. Placing only the damaged
and least valuable items in U.S. bins will make the bins
disappear, along with the thousands of American jobs
they create. This means the billions of pounds of clothing
currently collected by the bins will end up in overloaded
landfills and incinerators around the country. The thrift
stores and small charities remaining will continue to be
increasingly overburdened and end up turning away, or
simply trashing your damaged goods. We will be back to
square one. Want to help? Start by buying used clothes
rather than new. You can shop at swap.com or your local
second-hand stores. Want to do more? Get your favorite
charity charged up about solving this growing problem by
hosting a clothing drive with HELPSY or a local collector.
This is the fantastic win-win solution that raises funds for
your organization while taking a bite out of this massive
The Frock of Wall
Street: Trading in
Bygone Classics
By JJ Martin
Above, from left: Costume by artist Henri Matisse for the ballet ‘Song of the
Nightingale,’ France 1920; butterfly coat by Zandra Rhodes. England, 1969;
Two-piece suit by Franco Moschino, Italy 1990.
ETHICAL FASHION
environmental problem.
Want to make a real impact? Talk to your town about
starting a textile waste program. Many municipalities are
starting to take zero waste initiatives seriously, but no
program is complete without a plan for textile waste. Boston
is a great example of a major city leading the charge toward
zero waste by taking action to address textile waste.
Textile waste is a problem we can solve together. Buy
less, buy used, and properly dispose of all your unwanted
items with a collector who will take and properly dispose of
everything. n
Alex Husted is cofounder of HELPSY, a for-profit B Corp with
an environmental mission to radically change the way people
think about clothing recycling.
L O S A N G E L E S C O U N T Y M U S E U M O F A RT
In pursuit of rare gems to save or sell,
professional fashion collectors hunt
high and low.
“I hunt for clothes every day,” says Italian collector
Enrico Quinto, who keeps his 7,000 pieces of 20th-
century fashion under lock and key in an obscure
underground garage in Rome. “I find things at flea
markets, vintage stores, auctions, and from old ladies
who call me up wanting to sell things. But the best
place to buy — if you have an eye and recognize quality
— is Ebay.” These professional collectors have the
27
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
ETHICAL FASHION

few in the world to deal in the likes of rare 1919 Hirsch-

Weis canvas trousers, late-1800s Levi’s one-backpocket,
buckle-back trousers (which he sold for $35,000), and
dead stock (a zenith category of never worn, washed, or
sold merchandise bearing original sales tags) from old
mom-and-pop shops. His customers are often obsessive
Japanese denim collectors who help boost sales to $2
million per year.
“There’s a reason people don’t get this,” says Quinto
of strangers who might walk off the street and baulk.
“$10,000 for a pair of jeans? Really? People are
bewildered by what I do, so I enjoy it when I can share it
with someone who appreciates it.” So too does Quinto,
who likes to fly under the radar. “The big joke when I buy

L O S A N G E L E S C O U N T Y M U S E U M O F A RT
a dress from a store owner who doesn’t know me is, ‘So
what do you plan to do with it — wear it?”’ Quinto says.
“I don’t even answer. I just smile.” n

JJ Martin is the editor at large for Wallpaper magazine

in Italy and was previously worldwide director of special
events at Gucci.

eye and know quality when they see

it. They also have a better sense of
an object’s inherent worth than most
sellers, including auction houses.
“Once I bought a 1630s men’s jacket
from Christie’s and had sold it to the
Met Museum on the phone before
even getting home,” says Quinto. He
has also fished out an 1880s handbag
from the $5 bin at a vintage market
that was worth around $500.
There are other fashion
antiquarians, however, that never go
near a museum. They operate with
the single intention of selling to other
fashion enthusiasts. Larry McKaughan
specializes in pre-1930 American
men’s workwear. “I have a collection,
but primarily it’s because we’re looking
for a home for the pieces we have,”
McKaughan explains of the 400 items
currently housed at his base in Seattle,
Washington. “I don’t keep things for Above, from left: Detail of a men’s suit, France 1755; Denim dress
myself – which doesn’t mean I don’t by Japanese designer Junya Watanabe, 2002/03; Thierry Mugler
love the stuff, because I do. But this is jacket, France 1988.
my business.” McKaughan’s specialty
is extremely niche. He is one of the

28
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
 WATCH LIST

“IT’S A WORLD OUR KIDS WILL INHERIT

FROM US, SO WE HAVE TO SHOW THEM
THAT SOLUTIONS EXIST.” — DAMON GAMEAU

Motivated by concerns about the planet his 4-year-old

daughter Velvet would inherit, award-winning director
Damon Gameau embarked on a global journey to meet
innovators and changemakers in the areas of economics,
technology, civil society, agriculture, education, and
sustainability. Drawing on their expertise, he sought to
G E T T Y I M A G E S / H I R O S H I WATA N A B E

identify the best solutions, available to us now, that would

At Last: A Climate Crisis
help improve the health of our planet and the societies
that operate within it. From marine permaculture to
decentralized renewable energy projects, he discovered
that people all over the world are taking matters into their
own hands.
The film examines how renewable energy, like rooftop
solar, have enabled micro-grids to form in Bangladesh
empowering communities to produce, own, and trade
their own energy. Gameau explores mobility and how a
move away from car-ownership through self-driving cars

Movie that Delivers and ridesharing can enable the redesign of urban areas
by promoting green spaces and more livable cities. The

Solutions film also looks at the many uses of seaweeds and how
bringing seaweed ecosystems to the open ocean through
marine permaculture can enable the sustainable harvest
of seaweeds and fish to help guarantee food security while
regenerating marine life and sequestering carbon.

This journey is the central premise

for the documentary 2040, a story
of hope that looks at the very real
possibility that humanity could reverse
global warming and improve the lives of
every living thing in the process. It’s
a positive vision of what could be
instead of the dystopian future we are
so often presented.
“We interviewed over 100 children
from around the world for 2040
and asked them what their hopes Damon Gameau, a former Australian actor,
and dreams were for the future,” is now a full-time director since his success
says Damon. It’s a world they will be with That Sugar Film and 2040. He was recently
nominated for NSW Australian of the Year for
inheriting from us, so we have to show
his work in “the Regeneration” movement. His
them that solutions exist, that there
2040 documentary included an extensive impact
are people who care deeply about their
campaign that has seen 1.5 million students
future, and that wonderful careers await
taught the curriculum materials, hundreds
with genuine purpose and meaning.” n of farmers receive assistance to switch to
regenerative practices, plus the building of the
first seaweed platform in Tasmania.
WhatsYour2040.com

29
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
COVER STORY

I
n 1450, the Venetian cartographer Fra
Mauro created his mappa mundi, the
most accurate map ever drawn. He
created the map — not by drawing it up
according to how he thought the world
should look from sitting in the monastery — but by
talking to people on the ground – the traders, explorers,
and refugees who were actually out navigating the
world.
As we try to draw a map for our pathway to net zero,
that’s what I’d like to share today: what I’ve learned The CEO of BlackRock
from the conversations, experiences, and events over
the past couple years. We know we want to go to net
finds himself in an
zero — now we need a realistic map for how to get there. uneasy alliance between
In 2015, a global consensus emerged in Paris around traditional market forces
limiting global warming ideally to 1.5 degrees, and more and a new world order
recently, around achieving net-zero carbon emissions
by 2050. that demands social and
Since that milestone, we’ve seen the physical effects environmental returns
of climate change – whether it’s the unprecedented on top of financial
fires from Australia to the American West to the
returns. In his speech
Amazon, or the flooding around the world. And these
physical effects — which will only continue to mount to business leaders and
— are playing out in financial terms as well, as they policymakers from
increasingly impact insurance rates and financing around the world at the
decisions.
As an asset manager and fiduciary to our clients,
Venice International
BlackRock is at the nexus between owners of capital and Conference on Climate, at
the companies and assets we invest in on their behalf. the G20 in July, Larry Fink
That’s why I wrote a letter to CEOs last year about a explains how a transition
fundamental reshaping of the economy. I wrote that
climate risk is an investment risk and that it would to a net zero economy
have a profound impact on their businesses and will build a more
ultimately how investors would evaluate them. And prosperous future.
that BlackRock and other investors would increasingly
be asking for greater transparency into the ways that
climate risk would affect their ability to grow, and how
they were preparing for the future. By Larry Fink
Not all industries and companies are moving as
fast as we’d like. But I do believe disclosures are
improving dramatically, and we’re beginning to see a
real transformation in the corporate world as more and
more companies commit to net-zero plans.
I believe we will see continued progress on
corporate disclosures as more governments consider
making them mandatory. But we need greater global
DAMON WINTER / THE NEW YORK TIMES

consistency in this rule-making. We need to put politics

aside and create a standard taxonomy for sustainability
reporting or it won’t work. Investors need a single
standard by which to judge companies.

30
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
THIS IS HOW
YOU MOVE FROM

AMBITION
TO ACTION
COVER STORY
As necessary and useful as some of these
steps are, they are, frankly, the easy part.
In fact, they’ll be nothing more than
window dressing unless we begin to take
steps on comprehensive, long-term planning.
If we hope to be successful in truly making
sustainable progress, I see three critical
issues we need to address.
Focus on Public and Private Companies
First, we need to broaden the focus beyond
just public companies. There’s been
tremendous progress in the public markets
recently. Two years ago, I anticipated a
tectonic shift in capital. That shift is now
underway, and it’s actually happening
at a pace faster than I ever imagined.
Sustainable investing strategies globally
saw nearly $400 billion of inflows in 2020
and are on track to grow almost twice
as quickly this year. I believe that this
is the beginning of the most profound
transformation of the financial system
I’ve seen in my 40-year career in finance.
But the shift is happening mainly in the
public markets and among public companies.
Disclosure has reshaped behavior in
dramatic ways, most of them positive. But
one negative effect it’s having is creating a
massive incentive for public companies to
divest dirty assets. By some estimates, by the
end of the decade, oil and gas companies will
divest more than $100 billion of assets.
Divesting, whether done independently
or mandated by a court, might move an
individual company closer to net zero, but it
does nothing to move the world closer to net
zero. Indeed, it could even have the opposite
effect. As private and state-owned companies
produce a greater and greater share of oil
and gas, there will be less scrutiny and less
disclosure around global emissions.
Of course, the Task Force on Climate-
“I BELIEVE THAT THIS IS THE
BEGINNING OF THE MOST
PROFOUND TRANSFORMATION
OF THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM I’VE
SEEN IN MY 40-YEAR CAREER IN
FINANCE.” — LARRY FINK
32
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), requires public
companies not only to disclose their direct emissions, but
also emissions throughout a company’s supply chain or a
bank’s lending book.
To reduce these Scope 3 emissions, big public
companies and banks are now being cast in the role of
“emissions police” — having to cut off business or lending
to companies (often smaller companies) that have not
yet reduced their own emissions. This will have the
unintended consequences of fueling a backlash against
Why it Matters our big companies. It will promote the narrative of big
This is a historic versus small and further polarization.
opportunity to
We’ve made important progress getting large
invest in climate
innovation, and public companies to move forward. It’s been a critical
companies who early step. Now, we need a comprehensive approach
evolve will be that applies to companies, both public and private.
rewarded by
financial markets Bring Down the Green Premium
over the long Second, as we move forward with the energy transition,
term. Reducing
we need to make sure that we are pushing just as hard on
environmental
damage while the demand side as we are on the supply side. Otherwise,
boosting innovation we risk a supply crisis that drives up costs for consumers —
enables us to especially those who can least afford it— and risks making
build a more just, the transition politically untenable.
inclusive world — The gap in cost between clean technologies and those
one where more that emit greater amounts of greenhouse gases is still
and more people
can prosper.
enormous for most things, and we need to work to bring
Businesses are down the green premium. Rising oil prices will only
perfectly positioned mean greater dependence on coal in the emerging world;
to take up this therefore we have to manage the supply and demand
new challenge and curve more effectively.
monetize these Virtually all the recent focus and real movement
ideas. Aligning your has been on the supply side, while very little is being
company with the
17 UN Sustainability
done about demand. In fact, right now demand for
Goals is a good hydrocarbons is actually accelerating, driving energy
start. Real Leaders prices higher.
can help. We have to ask ourselves: Will people accept $100 or
Real-Leaders.com $120 oil, even in the short term?
While some see higher prices as a way to constrain
demand, rising costs in the energy sector will only sow
greater economic inequality and a world of “haves and
have nots.” This will feed political polarization, and we’ve
already seen how populist leaders can undo years of work
and progress with little more than a single tweet.
The solution has to focus on bringing down the green
premium by changing behaviors and making huge
investments in new technologies, while minimizing the
stranding of assets.
We’ve seen some progress closing the green premium
by bringing down costs in the energy and transportation
sectors. But there are sectors — cement and steel are just
two examples — that are major sources of emissions,
where there has been very little progress to date. The
energy transition is going to require unprecedented
investment in new technology to decarbonize every

sector of the economy.
Sixty years ago, when President
John F. Kennedy committed to putting
a man on the moon, it seemed like
the greatest technological challenge
ever undertaken. At the peak of the
Apollo program, the U.S. government
was spending more than 6% of
discretionary spending on the space
program. But that moonshot was
modest compared to the one for
a carbon-free economy that we
face today.
Yet, the government’s ability to
finance it is even more constrained.
Right now, almost every government
— as we’re seeing with the U.S.
infrastructure bill — is relying on
deficit spending. But deficit spending
has its limits, especially when
governments are also spending on the
physical impacts of climate change.
If we’re going to bring down
the green premium, we need
to get serious about attracting
private capital for technological
innovation. Approaches that fail
to mobilize private capital are not
going to be enough to get the job
done. A successful transition that
doesn’t impose politically unpalatable
costs on those who can least afford it
will require that we carefully balance
supply and demand. At the same
time, we need to mobilize public and
private capital to bring down the green
premium.
Mobilize Capital for Emerging
Markets
Third and finally, we need to rethink
how we are going to attract the
necessary capital to facilitate the
transition in the emerging markets.
Economic development in each
emerging market is going to depend on
how quickly they become green.
That will also require enormous
amounts of capital. There is private
capital that can be mobilized for the
emerging markets, but we need to
rethink the way the international
financial institutions can support low-
carbon investments at scale.
The IMF and World Bank were
created nearly 80 years ago based
on a bank balance sheet model and a
very different global challenge. They
have achieved great things and have
strong networks and relationships in
emerging markets. But when it comes
to unlocking asset owners’ capital for
sustainability, we need to rethink their
roles. The transition of the emerging
markets will depend on reimagining
these institutions for the world of
sustainable investing in which we
live today.
We need a financing system that
isn’t built around bank balance
sheets, but one that is built to attract
asset-owner capital into sustainable
investments and economies that
offer long-term, durable returns. The
green banks being established around
the world — and currently under
consideration in the U.S. as part of
the infrastructure bill — could be a
powerful mechanism for accelerating
green investment. But they won’t be
enough on their own.
We need global solutions and
international organizations that
are willing to mitigate the risks of
investing in emerging markets.
If we’re going to attract the
hundreds of billions of dollars of
private capital for brownfields and
other sustainable projects in the
emerging markets, we need more
solutions like those used in mortgage-
backed securities where some degree
of losses is absorbed before they
impact private investors.
BlackRock is pleased to have
joined in creating an innovative fund
in conjunction with government
partners, France, Germany, and Japan,
as well as philanthropic partners. This
is a public-private structure designed
to attract private capital for sustainable
infrastructure — like renewable power
— in emerging markets. Government
and philanthropic institutions are
providing subordinated capital as
a means to provide risk and return
protection that attracts private capital.
Just this past week, we held a first close
for the fund. This is the type of public-
private partnership we need to provide
first-loss protection for investors.
However, as excited as I am about
COVER STORY
this fund, we need solutions of a much
greater magnitude.
If we don’t have international
institutions providing that kind of first-
loss position at a greater scale than
they do today — properly overseeing
these investments and bringing down
the cost of financing and the cost
of equity — we’re just not going to
be able to attract the private capital
necessary for the energy transition in
the emerging markets.
While these challenges on the
journey to net zero are massive, I
remain an optimist and do believe that
the climate transition presents a
historic opportunity. By BlackRock’s
research, the transition could drive
as much as 25% higher cumulative
GDP growth over the next two
decades alone. It represents an
investment opportunity of at least
$50 trillion. As an asset manager, we
know asset owners want to be a part
of this opportunity. But a lot of change
still needs to happen to achieve that.
We need a globally consistent
approach that spans both the private
and public sectors. Each side needs
to work together in defining sector-
specific pathways to net zero. We need
to do as much as possible to mitigate
rising energy costs and to ensure a just
transition for all stakeholders in the
global economy.
Careful planning, coordinated
action, and continued mitigation
of the risks will be the way we can
all achieve our shared goals. Broad-
based public policy, investment in
sustainable, scalable energy sources,
and long-term planning are what’s
needed to drive change. This won’t be
easy – we need a comprehensive plan
for a just transition or we won’t have
comprehensive success.
Larry Fink is chairman and CEO of
BlackRock. This article is his address
to the International Conference on
Climate, hosted by the Italian Ministry
of Economy and Finance and the Bank
of Italy in Venice in July. The conference
followed the G20 Finance Ministers and
Central Bank Governors Meeting.
33
FALL 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
4
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

No matter where you find yourself in life, you will experience setbacks.
Yet, if you want to have a comeback, you have to be willing to change.

Ways to Turn
Setbacks Into
Incredible
Comebacks

By Dr. Willie Jolley

We’ve been through a series of setbacks over the last

year — a pandemic, economic downturn, massive job
loss, racial strife, and social upheaval. Unfortunately,
it’s been one setback after another. Yet, I’m here to
proclaim that it’s now comeback time! The key to a
remarkable comeback starts by elevating your thinking
and having a positive outlook and a mindset that
expects better times down the road. When I wrote the
GETTY IMAGES / DELMAINE DONSON

book A Setback is a Setup For a Comeback, it led to

a call from Ford Motors in 2006 when the company
had just experienced a huge setback. Ford was on the
brink of bankruptcy and needed a big comeback.
I worked with Ford for three years, and in 2009,

01 VISION
You need to develop a big vision for your
future. Start thinking about what your life
would look like if you had a magic wand
and could tap your future and make it
extraordinary.
02 DECISION
You must decide if this setback is a “setback, period”
or a “setback, comma.” A period means “end of the
story, no more to this story.” Yet, a comma means
“there is a pause in this story, but keep going because
the best part is yet to come!”
GETTY IMAGES

34
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021

they rejected a government bailout and went from
losing millions a month to making billions each
month. After my time at Ford, I started getting
calls from Fortune 100 companies around the
world — General Motors, Verizon, Walmart, Procter
& Gamble, Johnson & Johnson Dubai, Coca-Cola
South Africa, and many more. Here are the lessons
I learned from working with these companies that
will help you create your amazing comeback too.
As business leaders, we know that setbacks
happen to everyone – even the most successful
among us. The determining factor in what your
result will look like is how you will handle the
setback. If you give up and let the problems bury
you, you may as well put up a tombstone and let
your dreams rest in peace. But if you change your
perspective, avoid getting flustered, and start to
see your setbacks as a setup for a comeback, you
can change course and go on to win.
In my office, I have eagles everywhere to remind
me to model the habits and actions of an eagle
and not an ostrich. For example, when a storm hits,
an ostrich sticks its head in the ground and says,
“Let me know when it’s over!” But the eagle does
03 ACTION
You must take action to turn this setback into a remarkable
comeback. Two little birds are on a telephone wire, and one thinks
about flying away. How many little birds are left? Two! What? Yes,
until you take action on your decisions, nothing changes.
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
the opposite; it takes flight and flies into
the face of the storm. It flies through the
storm and refuses to give up. Eventually,
the eagle soars above the storm and gets a
panoramic view of the whole situation.
The eagle acknowledges severe
problems at a specific point, but instead of
getting stuck in the moment, it looks down
the road and realizes, “there is a solution
ahead.” Business leaders need to develop a
bird’s-eye view of their companies too.
Right now, the lesson for leaders who
face serious challenges ahead is not to
hide and hope it will pass, but to fly high
and keep looking forward. This strategy
helped Ford and many other major brands
survive during troubled times, and it can
work for you. Always have the mindset that
your best is still to come. n
Dr. Willie Jolley is a Hall of
Fame speaker, award-winning
singer, best-selling author, and
popular television and radio
personality. He is the author of
the book, A Setback Is a Setup
for A Comeback!
04 DESIRE
How badly do you want to make it happen? You
must want it badly because life will test you and try
you. So, get that big vision, make tough decisions,
take massive action, and have great desire.
35
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
MEET THE REAL LEADERS

WHY GOOD FOR THE

ENVIRONMENT IS ALSO
Meet the Real
Leaders is a

GOOD FOR BUSINESS

monthly, virtual
CEO collaboration
event that hosts an impact leader
who is making a positive difference in
the world. It’s also an opportunity to
network with other impact CEOs and
participate in interactive Break-thru
Groups. Join us each month for valuable
business insights from innovative
leaders. Learn how to take action to
become a better leader, how to build a
better, more profitable business, and

JANE
to find opportunity in the emerging
social impact economy. The following
summaries from the past three Meet the
Real Leaders events will give you an idea

GOODALL
of what to expect. Sign up for free
for the next event here:
Real-Leaders.com/Meet

I
t’s become clear that the current economic based on firsthand experiences.
model — that we can have unlimited extractive I left Gombe National Park in
consumption on a planet with finite natural Tanzania in 1986, where I had been
resources — is not a longterm solution. Achieving researching the problems faced
GDP growth at all costs, instead of protecting the by chimpanzees, and why their
environment for our future is not something that will numbers were decreasing. I also
continue to work. Already in some places, thanks to saw the crippling poverty in Africa
demand and unsustainable lifestyles, resources are on my travels across the continent.
being used up faster than nature can replenish them. How do you give hope to people who
Unless business changes its rapacious demand on the look around and see the damage
environment, the future will look pretty grim. Many businesses we have done to our planet? I have
have already seen the writing on the wall, and realized that unless met so many amazing people doing
our natural resources are protected their business won’t continue — incredible things and also seen the
they will have nothing to continue it with. terrible harm we have inflicted on
Many business leaders I know have become very concerned our planet. My stories from these
about the future and are gradually changing the way their business encounters can play a powerful role
operates; thinking about their supply chains, the unequal wages in changing minds.
paid in other countries that allow people to earn just enough money I have stood in Greenland and
to survive for that day. Real leaders have realized that things can’t watched the ice melting. I have
go on this way. Instead, business leaders should see the positive listened to the Inuit explain how
attributes of working differently. My approach to convincing people even at the height of summer the
is not to say no, or berate them. Changing minds is difficult, but you ice had once never melted there.
don’t change minds by pointing at people and telling them they’re I have met people who have left
bad. I never tell people they can’t do something, or that they are their island homes because the sea
bad people — you have to try and reach the heart. True change levels have risen. I have spoken with
comes when people change from within, not told what to do. environmental refugees who have
So, how do you reach the heart? My approach is through stories, left their homes to seek a new life

36
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
G E T T Y I M A G E S / J E F F S P I C E R F O R N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
MEET THE REAL LEADERS
in places that are more habitable.
They send money back to their
drought-ravaged countries where
it has become impossible to make
a living, despite their ancestors
having sustained themselves there
for hundreds of years before.
Having experienced these things
firsthand and then telling people
about them, I can suggest ways to
create change.
Business leaders need to lead the
way. Many governments are tied
up with corruption or their next
election campaign. Business and
philanthropy are moving into the
gap to help heal the harm we have
inflicted on the natural world. As a
business leader, ask yourself a few
simple questions: “Am I harming
the environment with this? How
was this made? What can I do
better? Am I paying fair wages?”
Shareholders, too, are starting
to demand that their business
become more ethical. Those of us
lucky enough to live in a country
38
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
MICHAEL COLLOPY
Words of Wisdom
• Be passionate about what you do.
Goodall cares deeply about what we’re
doing to the Earth and this keeps her
motivated to travel 300 days of the
year in pursuit of her cause. She draws
strength from her spiritual connection
to the natural world.
• Get obstinate. Don’t allow yourself
to become knocked down by the
opinions of others. Think: “I’ve got to
fight harder.”
• Maintain hope. If you don’t hope what
you want to do will make a
difference, then why bother?
• If you think your individual effort is
too small to make a difference, realize
that there are millions of others just like
you. Reach out to them.
• Don’t act globally before you act locally.
What can you do in your own community
first? A small success will give you the
confidence to scale this idea.
“EVERY DAY YOU MAKE AN
IMPACT ON THE WORLD IN SOME
WAY. GO TO BED EACH NIGHT
AND THINK ABOUT YOUR DAY. ASK
YOURSELF WHAT IT WAS.”
— JANE GOODALL
that is not struggling with poverty, can make
intelligent choices in what we buy: “Has this
harmed the environment? Was it cruel to
animals. Is this cheap because of child slave
labor? If we don’t buy products that are made
unethically then business will change. I also
know of many companies where CEOs have
come under pressure from staff to do the right
thing. Other companies can’t attract good
talent, because no one wants to work for a
company that’s destroying the planet.
New trends are emerging that offer new
opportunities. Food is one example, where
there’s a push to return to small-scale family
farming, regenerative agriculture, and organic
foods, and move away from the incredibly
destructive methods of industrial agriculture.
Why should we grow our food with poison?
It doesn’t make sense. If our biodiversity and
healthy ecosystems collapse from over-use,
think about what the future might look for your
grandchildren (and theirs).
These solutions should start with young
people. After all, it’s their future we’re stealing.
I began the Roots and Shoots program at the
Jane Goodall Institute that targets young people
from kindergarten to college. It began with 12
students in Tanzania and is now in more than
60 countries. The main premise is that every
day we have an impact on the planet, and
that we can choose what impact we’ll make. I
learned in the rainforests that everything is
interconnected. This also applies to all life.
Each of the Roots and Shoots groups choose
three projects: one to help people, one to help
animals, and one to help the environment. I’ve
seen how these children have even changed
their parents for the better. Business leaders,
too, can lead the way. n
Through 60 years of groundbreaking work, Dr.
Goodall has shown us the urgent need to protect
chimpanzees from extinction. She has also redefined
species conservation to include the needs of local
people and the environment. Today she travels the
world, speaking about the threats facing animals
and environmental crises, urging us to take action on
behalf of all living things and the planet we share.
 MEET THE REAL LEADERS

I
have moved from the Third World to the
First World in my life. I was privileged to

THE TRILLION DOLLAR be poor before I became rich, to understand

what it feels like to live in poverty without

MARKET OPPORTUNITIES needing to read a book. I failed all my

subjects at school, but the teachers never
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE tested me on the things in which I excel
today — entrepreneurship, humanity,
PYRAMID. and compassion. I went on to create 16
businesses, including the Australian
International School, despite knowing nothing about
how to run a school. I didn’t need to know how schools
worked — just that there was a need for such a school.
I hired an Australian headmaster, grew attendance
to 3,500 students, raised the capital for a half mile-
long campus and sold it for $105 million. After that I
built the largest roof tile factory in Malaysia, despite
knowing nothing about roof tiles. I can always hire
those that know how, and spotting the demand is good

JACK SIM
“IF I CAN SHOW
BUSINESS LEADERS
THERE IS MORE MONEY
TO BE MADE THROUGH
SOCIAL IMPACT
COLLABORATION, THEN
THINGS WILL BEGIN TO
CHANGE.”
— JACK SIM

39
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
MEET THE REAL LEADERS

enough for me. I retired from business at

age 40 because I realized that when you
don’t have money, you need to exchange
your time to get it. But when you’ve
earned enough money to cover your basic
living expenses, then time becomes more
valuable than money. No entrepreneur
should exchange something of higher
value for something that’s worth less. If I
sell time to buy money, then I’m in a loss-
making business.
By all means, work hard to create
enough money to have a comfortable
life, but then end your relationship with
money as you know it and focus on a
higher purpose. Instead, look for social
problems in the world and try and solve
them. So many people spend their entire
lives focused on making even more
money. It’s doubtful you’ll ask someone
to check your bank balance on your last
day on Earth. I have a countdown clock on
my mobile device that is set to expire on
my 80th birthday — a rough estimate of
how long I think I will live. At 40-years-
old I had 14,600 days to live. Today I have
less than 5,700 days left — that’s less than
1,000 weeks. Life is so precious, and once
you’ve benchmarked yourself against the
days you have left on this planet you’ll
think more carefully about how you use
your time.
When I was 40, there was a recession
and I lost half of my money. I counted the minister refused foreign aid. If we had acted
remaining half and was amazed to find “WORK HARD TO weak and defenseless, we would have entered
that it was enough. At that time my hair into a poverty mindset. Instead, we invited
turned from black to white and the stress CREATE ENOUGH foreigners to invest in our country, which gave
of dealing with employees, suppliers and MONEY TO HAVE our people new skills and the lessons they
auditors during a recession got to me. A COMFORTABLE needed for success. Over time, we moved out
What’s the best way to feel better when the initial lower value industries and replaced
you have a problem? Find someone with LIFE, BUT THEN them with higher value ones. By the same token,
a bigger problem, of course. But instead END YOUR charities cannot get people out of poverty.
of doing this to feel better about myself, RELATIONSHIP Only market-based solutions can. Charity
I turned this exercise into social impact should be used exclusively in emergency
— I wanted to help solve the problems
WITH MONEY situations where you don’t have time to save
of others. If you only focus on yourself AS YOU KNOW lives without a quick intervention.
you risk becoming a miserable person. IT AND FOCUS We have a chronic situation today where 4
Helping others made me feel happy and billion people are earning less than $8 a day.
healthier, so that’s what I did.
ON A HIGHER Charity could never solve a problem this big,
My country Singapore also grew from PURPOSE.” only market-based forces can. After I founded
the Third World to the First World. It’s — JACK SIM the World Toilet Organization and learned how
now the fourth richest country in the to establish a world body without using a lot of
world per capita, because our finance funds — I only employ two people — I established
a world trade center for the poor here in

40
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021

“SINGAPORE IS NOW
THE FOURTH RICHEST
COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
PER CAPITA, BECAUSE
OUR FINANCE MINISTER
REFUSED FOREIGN AID. IF
WE HAD ACTED WEAK AND
DEFENSELESS, WE WOULD
HAVE ENTERED INTO A
POVERTY MINDSET.”
— JACK SIM
Singapore to focus on opportunities at
the base of the pyramid and to solve
all the problems in the world through
business. Solutions already exist for
energy, nutrition, housing, healthcare and
sanitation. The problem is that nobody
is taking these solutions from others
and scaling them. My new job is not to
reinvent the wheel but to bring everyone’s
knowledge together and share it. Many
entrepreneurs don’t realize they can make
more money by adopting this approach. If
I can show business leaders there is more
money to be made through social impact
collaboration, then things will begin to
change. Unlocking the power of group
purchasing will result in cheaper, faster
and easier transactions and boost growth
faster than if you went it alone. People are
intuitively unwilling to share, but if the
rewards are greater they will reconsider.
MEET THE REAL LEADERS
Words of Wisdom
• There will be a time when you cannot
move past the limits of your own success
or skillset. That’s the time to collaborate
with others for greater purpose and
growth. Never become a bottleneck.
• Become a facilitator. Help others unlock
their greatness. A real leader is someone
who wants to see the impact happen, and
not only because they seek attention for
themselves.
• Having nothing to lose is a big asset.
If you’ve failed at something your fear
factor will be low and you can only rise
GETTY IMAGES / NG HAN BOON
from that point.
• Like Jack, say to yourself, “I only have a
few thousand days left on this planet, why
don’t I give it a try?”
• Spend time on self-reflection. Could
you be the problem in a situation? If so,
how will you resolve it?
• Figuring out the problems of others,
Customize your business ask depending rather than your own, will help you think
on who you talk to. A politician is in a love-giving way, and help identify
looking to get re-elected, companies peoples needs (your customers).
seek increased revenue, academics seek • Make enough money to live
exposure for their ideas. Build a network comfortably, but too much money can
of people and companies that will add be a curse. Look at how many broken
value to your business and create a families come with great wealth. Invest in
relationships and people too.
network of shared value. A real leader will
coordinate resources between unrelated • Don’t waste your time on things that
organizations, deliver on each, and make don’t make you happy. You’ll also attract
them think they did it themselves. n like-minded people to help you along
the way.
Globally known as Mr Toilet (He created UN
• Identify a social problem in society
World Toilet Day) Jack is a serial entrepreneur. you’d like to solve. Think about what a
He created 16 “traditional” businesses, and business solution to this problem might
then turned serial social entrepreneur and look like.
created eight social impact businesses. He
retired at age 40 to devote himself full-time
to changing the world for the better. He has
built a “World Trade Center” for the poor in
Singapore, that aims to unlock the economic
potential of billions of people worldwide.
41
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
MEET THE REAL LEADERS

STRENGTHENING
MARKETS THROUGH
SOCIAL IMPACT.

LORD MICHAEL
HASTINGS

A
n amazing change has taken
place over the course of the
last decade. Business has
woken up to the reality of
climate change, that we’ve all
been talking about, but are
now experiencing firsthand.
Many business leaders have
realized that our abuse of
plastics, poorly managed waste and overconsumption
has become a threat, and that business has the power to
create solutions. Governments can provide frameworks
and regulation and set boundaries, but it will be
business that provides the energy, vehicles, systems
and innovations that provide sustainable solutions.
Business has woken up that being pro-planet is not only
about being good, but effectively about being profitable.
It’s about building for the next future yet to come.
KPMG in London was one of the first companies
to adopt a living wage, which then spread to other
financial institutions and corporates around the world.
Lead through example. Walmart in the USA was the
first company to adopt a living wage in that
part of the world. How you remunerate
people, take care of them and consider their
human rights and dignity are important
factors in the new world of business.
One example would be to give staff time
off to vote, and stress the importance of
voting (without being partisan). Matching
climate awareness with a responsibility for
people has shifted business into a new era.
Profit with purpose is how we will shape a
meaningful future.
The starting point for engaging with this
agenda is not to ask how you will maximize
profits because you’re being responsible,
sustainable and more caring of your
people. The reality is that this approach is
already profitable. Financial directors and
shareholders can be hard to win over, but
change is already happening at the highest
level.
The Business Council of America made
a firm commitment two years ago toward
social impact, under the leadership of Jamie

42
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
 “PROFIT WITH PURPOSE
IS HOW WE WILL SHAPE A
MEANINGFUL FUTURE.” —
LORD MICHAEL HASTINGS
MEET THE REAL LEADERS
Dimon of JP Morgan. He suggested it was
time to reshape our obligations toward
society and that company agendas should
align with people, profit and planet.
When I took on the responsibility at
KPMG in 2008 to persuade businesses in
126 countries to adopt an energy program
that reduced consumption by 25% we saved
hundreds of millions of dollars. Our offices
around the world realized that if they took
control of their office lighting, servers and
energy consumption they were saving a
fortune — which in turn drove profit. When
you approach sustainability in this way, the
finance director, CEO and investors will all
sit up and say, “this stuff delivers.”
Many companies lose good people year-
after-year from a lack of treating them
properly or motivating them. Keeping and
retaining talent is also a driver of profit.
We discovered that the loss on an annual
basis from staff churn and recruitment was
the equivalent to the value of the 6 largest
audit accounts at KPMG. It’s common
knowledge that many employees leave a
company because of the managers that
look over them, rather than look after them;
they generally don’t leave because they are
drawn someplace else. The culture in your
organization can become a cash advantage.
44
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
Three big areas for building
profit are: Energy savings, human
resources and public engagement
through socially responsible
program, which helps with
reputation building. When Paul
Polman was CEO of Unilever he
explained this very simple piece
of math. The business of Unilever
as a whole, in 130 countries and
one of the biggest corporations
on the planet, had a market value
that was 40% greater than it’s
operational value. So what is
this gap between the things the
company owns, makes and sells
and Unilever’s market value?
It’s all about reputation. It’s
one of the greatest intangibles
Words of Wisdom
• As a business leader, don’t hand
the company vision to others to
fulfill — It’s yours to own.
• No serious leader today can sit
back and say, “I don’t understand
the climate crisis.” Spend time
to understand one of the biggest
issues of our time.
• Look at the operational cost
values that sustainability brings
and understand the value of
intangibles, such as good
reputation.
• Become the enthusiast in your
business. Actively advocate
for people to see that it’s not
only about a social good, but a
fundamental business operation.
you could ever have in a business, yet
on the back of reputation you have the
important option to raise capital, to
borrow on the markets and negotiate
low interest rates. Profitability comes
from responsibility, reputation, quality of
people and purposeful behaviors.
When I moved from the BBC to KPMG
in 2006 there was no job description for
my role, despite being head hunted by
the chairman of KPMG — just an idea. As
a global company that moved between
private and public capital, with a
presence in varied cultural markets, they
had identified the need to galvanize all
130,000 employees at the time around
doing what was right and appropriate,
in a way that made our clients more
effective.
The Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh
in 2013 is one such example. Many
famous luxury brands were being
manufactured in the building when it
collapsed, killing 1,134 workers, mainly
women, with thousands more losing
limbs. Each of the companies needed to
decide how to respond. It was my duty
to speak with the leadership of Primark
in the UK about what they intended to
do. To their credit, they were the first
organization to fully compensate the
families of all those affected — massive
multi-million dollar payouts. It showed
up the other companies that were
dragging their feet on the issue and
led to a massive increase in reputation
for Primark. It attracted great talent
and subsequently better sales. It’s a
practical example of how profitability
was enhanced by social responsibility.
Perhaps the best leadership advice
I’ve recently heard is from Hubert
Joly, former CEO of Best Buy: “The
corporations that will thrive coming out
of this pandemic are those that treat
customers as human beings with needs,
and not walking wallets.” n
Michael John Hastings, Baron Hastings of
Scarisbrick CBE, is the former Global Head of
Corporate Citizenship for KPMG International.
He was previously the BBC’s Head of Public
Affairs and then the first Head of Corporate
Responsibility. He is the Chancellor of
Regent’s University London, and Professor
of Leadership at the Stephen R. Covey
Institute, Huntsman Business School, Utah
State University.
50
OF IMPACT INVESTING

Innovative
Impact Investors

Investors around the

world are making impact
investments to unleash
the power of capital for
good. This Real Leaders
special edition celebrates
the breadth of impact
fund managers operating
today — by featuring
the ImpactAssets 50,
the industry’s leading
database of impact fund
managers.

IN COLLABORATION WITH
 OF IMPACT INVESTING
The impact investment funds are listed alphabetically and do not constitute an offering or an endorsement of specific products.

1ST COURSE AFRICAN FRONTIER ADVANCE GLOBAL

RENSKE LYNDE CAPITAL CAPITAL
GENERAL PARTNER
ERIC DE MOUDT JANET MCKINLEY
CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY
CEO FOUNDER
INNOVATIVE NEW FUND MODEL COMMUNITY INVESTING

The fund invests in

private companies
with robust market The fund uses advances The company doesn’t believe it has a
potential and strong in technology, data peer group, however sometimes it is
leadership in the food analytics, and financial compared to trade finance funds. Funding
system. Lyne and her innovation to bring has reached 65 countries across a range
team have prepared for financial inclusion to of industry sectors with measurable,
this endeavor not only by studying the people living off-grid positive impact that does not sacrifice
food system and building their networks, at the bottom of the returns. The fund invests in the real
but also by creating some of the start-up pyramid in Africa and globally. More than economic activity of Small Medium
infrastructure necessary to disrupt this 1.8 billion people live without access Enterprises, supports major impact
gigantic collection of markets. They have to reliable, and modern electricity. They goals, and aligns with United Nations
also cut their teeth starting companies of spend over $27 billion a year on dirty Sustainable Development Goals 5, 8, 9,
their own and investing in them directly, energy (kerosene usually) for lighting and 10. It offers financing to meet SME
offering entrepreneurs the benefit of and mobile phone charging, which leaves needs, and the average transaction size
substantial personal experiences. Lynde them stuck in a continuous cycle of is less than $5,000. Decades ago, during
is a veteran leader in food, agriculture, poverty. Pay-as-you-go and off-grid solar a career in the investment business, the
and nutrition policy and regulatory companies make a real difference by NGO Oxfam introduced Janet McKinley
arenas. Together, the team has helped offering consumers a way onto the energy to 50 very poor, courageous women who
launch more than 35 food system start- ladder. In exchange for small affordable had received pilot loans from the Vietnam
ups. 1cc.vc daily mobile money payments, consumers Women’s Union. The successful outcomes
own a solar home system, which provides inspired her to become involved in
them access to modern LED lighting, impact investing. She learned that
phone charging as well as radios, TVs, grant money can be a powerful catalyst,
ACHIEVE water irrigation, and refrigeration.
AfricanFrontierCapital.com
but will never be sufficient. Through
various trials, she has seen successful
PARTNERS micro-insurance, crop innovations,
and many other successful initiatives
MANAGEMENT become commercially viable. “Donor
money is finite, but the problems facing
DANIEL PIANKO the world are virtually infinite. Keep
COFOUNDER money in motion doing good,” she says.
COMMUNITY INVESTING
AdvanceGlobalCap.com

While millions of
Americans have
benefited from
technological change
and the rise of the
digital economy, tens of
millions have been left
behind. Achieve Partners believes legacy
education and workforce systems have
not adapted to the challenges of the 21st
century, and innovative new approaches
are required to bridge the gap from
education to employment. “Being a junior
investment banker at Goldman Sachs was
an amazing experience,” says Pianko.
“But I realized that making the rich richer
through mega-mergers was not for me.
I wanted to use my skills to make the
world a better place. Solving the world’s
greatest problems should drive the
highest returns.” AchievePartners.com

46
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
ALANTE CAPITAL APIS & HERITAGE
MANAGEMENT INVESTOR INSIGHT CAPITAL
KARLA MORA PARTNERS
MANAGING PARTNER
TODD LEVERETTE
CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY
PARTNER
INNOVATIVE NEW FUND MODELS

Alante works at the

intersection of new
innovation and market This fund is a minority-
leaders to connect owned sponsor that
and scale emerging buys privately held
technologies that companies with large
radically improve workforces of color
sustainability in the apparel industry. from retiring founders
The fund seeks to support and drive and transitions them

systemic change, investing across the
lifecycle of apparel into innovations that
improve production practices, streamline
distribution, increase use, and recover
and recycle apparel waste. The fund
is Women-led and ~70% of LPs in first
close were also women. In addition, all
its portfolio companies have women
on the executive team. Across apparel,
the fund targets investments in clean
technologies, green chemistries, material
innovations, AI, and SaaS. Designer
Eileen Fisher has partnered with Alante
as an investor and chief advisor.
AlanteCapital.com
GETTY IMAGES
to 100% employee-owned firms. Its
employee-led buy-out (ELBO) model
does not require investment from
employees; rather, workers build wealth
WARREN BUFFETT through equity and their assets grow as
CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY the business grows. The average Black
American retires with zero retirement
savings — ditto for 75% of LatinX workers.
“An investor should The company expects the average
act as though he employee-owner to retire with $50-70k
had a lifetime in savings, accomplishing the core goal
of helping to close the racial wealth gap
decision card with and attacking intergenerational poverty.
just 20 punches ApisHeritage.com
on it.”
AQUA-SPARK

ALPHAMUNDI AMY NOVOGRATZ

GROUP
FOUNDER
CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY

LISA WILLEMS
DIRECTOR The Dutch firm is
COMMUNITY INVESTING fully dedicated to
investing in sustainable
aquaculture. They want
This impact investing to show investors that
fund is headquartered you can have healthy,
in Switzerland with sustainable aquaculture
offices in Kenya, with at least comparable returns to
Colombia, and the its traditional counterpart. The fund is
GETTY IMAGES

United States and has a building an ecosystem of sustainable

dual mission to reduce
poverty and preserve the environment in
developing countries. The team seeks to
fulfill this mission by investing venture
debt, mezzanine, and equity in small and
medium enterprises that are applying
market-based solutions to the world’s
most pressing challenges in sustainable
food and agriculture, renewable energy,
clean technology, and financial inclusion.
Its investment thesis is predicated on the
increasing purchasing power of low-end
consumers and their growing need for
basic products and services, delivered
through sustainable value chains
enhanced by technology. Alphamundi.ch
aquaculture Small Medium Enterprises
across the value chain, such as
sustainable feed alternatives, antibiotic-
free farming, innovative technologies,
KATHY XU
FOUNDER, CAPITAL TODAY
disease battling, and market access.
With this unique portfolio ecosystem
approach, the fund strives to create solid,
“Get big fast when long-term partnerships where all parties
have an incentive to help strengthen the
opportunities framework. Investments benefit from
come. The only each other and from the larger network
barriers you can of experts and partners. Novogratz also
set up against developed and produced Chat the Planet,
a web and television series that brought
competitors are young people together globally.
scale and brand.” Aqua-Spark.nl

47
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
 OF IMPACT INVESTING
ARBORVIEW
CAPITAL
KARL KHOURY
COFOUNDER
CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY
Arborview’s investment
thesis has three
essential elements: (1)
seek out businesses
where demand for
cleaner or more
sustainable alternatives
provides an opportunity for strong
growth; (2) acquire a meaningful stake
in the business at a reasonable valuation
and work closely with management to
build infrastructure and processes to
support scalability and rapid growth;
and (3) partner with management to
execute on business growth and position
the company as an attractive enterprise
that can create significant value for all
stakeholders. A focused, lower-velocity
investment strategy such as investing in
fewer companies, the company achieves
a higher level of engagement with each
management team. ArborviewCapital.com
ASTIA FUND
SHARON VOSMEK
CEO
UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES
Astia Fund is a $100M
venture fund investing
in companies that have
at least one woman in
an executive, equity-
holding position and
that are pursuing a
high-growth strategy. What makes the
organization different from other women-
focused GPs is that it has a proven and
structured process of sourcing and
screening investments — the Astia Expert
Sift. Astia has used this methodology
since 2003, when it was an incubator,
and have continued relying on it as they
evolved to an accelerator. When the
company launched, the Sift became the
only method for deal consideration due
to its consistent performance over time.
The Sift process is documented, rigorous,
tested, proven, and repeatable. Astia.org
48
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
CALVERT IMPACT
CAPITAL
JENNIFER PRYCE
PRESIDENT & CEO
PIONEER
The fund invests to
connect capital with
the communities
that need it most,
demonstrating that
private capital can be
successfully invested
in communities often overlooked and
underserved by traditional finance.
The company seeks broad economic
opportunity and investments that
protect our planet. Complementing its
portfolio performance is a capitalization
cushion of over $100 million to
protect investors against any potential
portfolio losses, which has led to 100%
repayment with returns to all investors
to date. More than 5,400 individual
and institutional investors, as well as
financial advisors, have invested to date.
CalvertImpactCapital.org
CAPITAL IMPACT
PARTNERS
ELLIS CARR
PRESIDENT & CEO
UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES
The fund is constantly
working on strategies
to reinvent mainstream
financial systems and
ensure it is equitably
serving Black, Hispanic,
and indigenous
communities to support economic
mobility and wealth creation. Utilizing
the impact investing space to advance
its mission was an incredible opportunity
to do just that. Five years later, Capital
Impact Partners has hit $200 million
in sales with a strong S&P rating — a
humbling validator that this was the right
approach at the right time. “The uptick in
interest for opportunities that champion
issues of social and racial justice help
underscore that investors recognize the
value in social impact alongside financial
returns,” says Carr. CapitalImpact.org
CLEAN ENERGY
VENTURE FUND
TEMPLE FENNELL
COFOUNDER
CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY
The fund enables the
mitigation of climate
change through
energy innovation. The
organization is funding
~25 disruptive, capital-
light technologies and
business model innovations that can
reshape how we produce and consume
energy. Each startup they invest in
must have the potential to mitigate 2.5
gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions
by 2050. In addition to funding, the team
provides hands-on guidance through
leadership coaching, strategic marketing,
IP development, and active board
participation. Its advisory board is led by
former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz,
who is actively involved in strategic
guidance.
CleanEnergyVentures.com
CONSCIOUS
VENTURE PARTNERS
JEFF CHERRY
CEO
UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES
The fund invests in
high-potential under-
represented founders,
most often overlooked
by other investors and
business accelerators for
all the wrong reasons.
Cherry was inspired by the work of friends
Ed Freeman from the university of Virginia
and Raj Sisodia. Cherry considers Freeman to
be the father of stakeholder capitalism and
Sisodia, the author of Firms of Endearment
and Conscious Capitalism, was the catalyst.
“He opened my eyes to how caring for the
needs of all stakeholders — what we consider
the foundation of impact focused companies
— helped those companies outperform by
driving both social and financial value,”
says Cherry. “The business of business
is people. Yesterday. Today, and forever.”
ConsciousVentureLab.com
CRAFT3 DE-CARCERATION DEVELOPING
ADAM ZIMMERMAN FUND WORLD MARKETS
PRESIDENT & CEO CHRIS BENTLEY PETER JOHNSON
COMMUNITY INVESTING
MANAGING DIRECTOR MANAGING PARTNER
UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES
COMMUNITY INVESTING

The fund is a
certified nonprofit
The U.S. Criminal The fund seeks
CDFI established in
Justice System directly risk appropriate
1994 to strengthen
impacts 6.6 million investments that meet
economic, ecological,
people and costs more critical development
and family resilience
than $80 billion per needs in emerging and
in Pacific Northwest
year; this profoundly frontier markets. The
communities. It lends capital and
broken system is founders believe that
provides expertise to people who do
marred by racial disparities, extractive for impact investing to be sustainable,
not normally have access to financing.
business practices, and misaligned it must offer risk-appropriate returns
Craft3 is unique among most CDFIs
incentives, but the opportunity exists comparable to mainstream investments.
because its mission encompasses
to find highly innovative business While its peer group has sourced the
the three bottom lines of economic
models that address the injustices of bulk of its funding from retail and
opportunity, environmental sustainability,
mass incarceration. The fund has three concessional investors, DWM has
and social equity. “These three concerns
main goals: (1) reduce the number of successfully engaged institutional
are interconnected and cannot be
individuals entering the system; (2) investments across the U.S., Europe and
successfully addressed as isolated
reduce the negative impact on individuals Asia, including pension funds (e.g. faith-
problems,” says Zimmerman. “We
and families impacted by the system; and based, TIAA-Cref), insurance companies,
evaluate credit risk in order to accept
(3) support a successful transition out of and asset management groups. DWM has
risk and responsibly say ‘Yes’ but are
the system. The investment committee channeled more than $2 billion in private
not afraid to say ‘No.’ We deliver a suite
includes a cohort of three members who debt and equity investments in over 200
of products that integrate mission and
have experienced the criminal justice companies in more than 50 developing
business results. We are fair, honest,
system and founder experience covering countries since 2006.
direct, and transparent.” Craft3.or
all three primary impact goals. DWMarkets.com
DecarcerationFund.com

DBL PARTNERS ECOENTERPRISES

NANCY PFUND
FOUNDER
FUND
PIONEER
TAMMY NEWMARK
INVESTOR INSIGHT CEO
PIONEER
Based in the San
Francisco Bay Area,
DBL’s investment In Latin America, one
strategy is to invest of the world’s most
in companies that biologically rich regions
deliver top-tier VC representing nearly
returns while working 40% of the planet’s
with the company to promote social, remaining biodiversity,
environmental, and economic impact in there is a significant
the regions in which they operate. DBL burden on fragile ecosystems and critical
is one of the first firms to use a double natural resources due to unsustainable
bottom line approach to investing for agricultural methods, deforestation,
impact at scale. It creates value in its and harmful business practices.
portfolio companies in two ways: The EcoEnterprises Fund has found that
team participates in activities to support successful regenerative business models
a company’s strategic, financial and that create value from biodiversity while
operational efforts through participation concurrently addressing the needs of
as board directors, observers, and rural communities are crucial to building
company advisors (the First Bottom ARIAN SIMONE economic resilience, tackling the global
CEO, FEARLESS FUND
Line); the team also supports the creation climate crisis, and ensuring planetary
of programs and activities that drive health. EcoEnterprisesFund.com
positive social impact. DBLPartners.vc “When women of
color are provided
with resources to
launch and scale
their businesses, 49
the sky’s the limit.” WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
 OF IMPACT INVESTING
ECOSYSTEM
INTEGRITY FUND
SASHA BROWN
PARTNER
CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY
The fund looks for
the most critical
pain points where a
business problem
overlaps with a
sustainability problem.
Its leaders take a
systems-based approach to sustainability
investment. This approach flows from
the fact that environmental problems
are systemic in nature, and the goal is to
address them — by shifting the behavior
of large, established systems (e.g.,
energy, transportation, and agriculture).
Brown and her team believe that most
opportunities to change these systems
tend to be incremental rather than
“disruptive.” The firm’s investment focus
includes renewable energy, energy
efficiency, waste reduction, green
chemistry, power grid management,
transportation, agriculture, water, and
natural foods. EcoSystemIntegrity.com
50
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
ELEVAR EQUITY EMPLOYMENT
MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY FUND
SANDEEP FARIAS JOANN CHEN
COFOUNDER DIRECTOR
PIONEER INNOVATIVE NEW FUND MODEL
The core team within Elevar has been investing for over This is one of the first
15 years with the same strategic focus on underserved funds focused on
and low-income communities. They have been pioneering early-stage technology
leaders at the forefront of many product developments, solutions that help
unique business models, and laying the tracks to serve underserved workers
these communities more effectively. advance economically.
Much of Farias’s childhood was spent in the small towns ETF@JFFLabs partners
of India, which laid the foundation for his journey. After with diverse entrepreneurs building
building a career as a team leader in corporate commercial early-stage technology solutions that help
law, he realized that he was looking for something more adults with low to middle skills to find,
meaningful and decided to build a team focused on the secure, and prepare for jobs that lead to
social sector. economic advancement. The fund meets
As part of his general reading, he discovered an the gap in innovation and investment for
obscure article that talked about a ‘for profit’ approach disadvantaged workers, partners with
to development, and was intrigued. At that time, impact diverse entrepreneurs, and catalyzes
investing wasn’t even called that — the language of that diverse sources of capital to address
space had not yet even evolved. Farias became fascinated leading workforce and racial equity
by microfinance and the potential it had to solve the challenges. The fund supports female
many pain points of low-income customers. He says the entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color,
potential to think through distribution strategies that known to be underfunded by venture
could deliver a variety of essential services to low-income capital. JFF.org/etf
communities. “The lack of access to essential services
for underserved communities is an issue of discrimination
that must be challenged,” he says. “If a service can ENTERPRISE
be provided by a business at an affordable cost, it’s
imperative that we leverage the power of markets to COMMUNITY
scale and provide access to life-changing services to
millions of households. ElevarEquity.com
PARTNERS
PRISCILLA ALMODOVAR
PRESIDENT
UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES
In the American
working-class
neighborhood where
Almodovar grew up,
renters could work
toward building their
wealth and becoming
homeowners. But that ideal has become
harder and harder to reach, and many of
those working-class neighborhoods have
faced disinvestment or gentrification. As
a banker, she understood that investment
decisions are often made by outdated
underwriting models or are constrained
by perceived notions of risk. One of the
only national nonprofits that addresses
America’s affordable housing crisis from
every angle. The firm owns and operates
13,000 affordable homes and provides
resident services for 22,000 people.
EnterpriseCommunity.org
FULLCYCLE FYREFEM FUND ILLUMEN CAPITAL
CLIMATE PARTNERS MANAGERS DARYN DODSON
STEPHAN NICOLEAU CATHY GODDARD MANAGING PARTNER
MANAGING DIRECTOR CEO UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES

CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES

The fund believes that
investing in climate
solutions presents the
greatest economic
opportunity of our
time. Fullcycle invests
in companies with
market-ready, globally scalable technology
and associated infrastructure projects
that demonstrate measurable, material
climate impact and compelling financial
returns. “Investing in climate-critical
infrastructure is the fastest path to reach
net zero emissions,” says Nicoleau.
“Climate action is a race against time.” The
firm invests in growth stage companies
with scalable technologies and proven
GHG abatement efficacy. As a capital and
operational partner, FullCycle accelerates
commercialization and asset deployment
while de-risking project development,
focusing on economic sectors with the
most potent emissions. FullCycle.com
The company is a women-owned South African
enterprise, with 51% of its shareholders being Black
South African women. Goddard spent a chunk of her
career in banking, watching money flow into deals
led by the usual suspects. She decided she’d rather
help move capital to worthy entrepreneurs who were
marginalized.
The company gender strategy is devised to
maximize pipeline and help women into ownership
of businesses they would not be able to start and
get to scale speedily (women typically are found in
SMMEs rather than the larger SMEs). According to
Goddard, there’s so much going on in South Africa that
“aha” moments are frequent. Given the team’s unique
combination of private equity and business rescue
skills, Fyrefem has a fix-and-build strategy for SMEs
in Southern Africa, but make sure portfolio companies
understand the drive to implement gender programs
to bring women into C-suite and ownership during the
investment.
Many distressed funds hold business only until
fixed. Fyrefem continues to hold and build by
switching into private equity mode (Fix -> Build) and
are the only black-women-owned team in business
Illumen Capital is
a Black-owned and
-operated impact fund
addressing systemic
inequity by reducing
racial and gender bias
in investing. Working
closely with the world’s leading social
psychologists at Stanford SPARQ,
Illumen combines investment capital
with evidence-based tools and training
designed to reduce implicit racial and
gender bias to unlock latent return and
multiply impact. Illumen integrates
rigorous, 10-year bias-reduction coaching
and tools with investment capital. “An
inclusive and optimal asset management
industry will be the cornerstone of an
equal and equitable future,” says Dodson.
IllumenCapital.com

IMPACT ENGINE
rescue investing in South Africa.
“Like business and personal strategies, impact
mandates should keep up with the times,” says
Goddard. “Keep checking that what you are doing MANAGEMENT
is making a needed difference, in the right place.”
Fyrefem.com
PRIYA PARRISH
MANAGING PARTNER
CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY

Impact Engine invests

in companies driving
scalable solutions to
improve economic
empowerment,
education,
environmental
sustainability, and health. Three out
of four partners at Impact Engine are
female, in an industry where only 9.9%
of senior roles at PE firms are held
by women. Three out of four partners
are non-white, in an industry where an
overwhelming majority of firms have
no investing partners of color. A more
diverse team has led to a more diverse
network from which to source, which is
reflected in their portfolio. To date, 44%
of its portfolio companies’ CEOs are
women and 24% are non-white.
TheImpactEngine.com

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WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
 OF IMPACT INVESTING
IROQUOIS VALLEY
FARMLAND REIT
DAVID E. MILLER
FOUNDER
PIONEER
Iroquois Valley is an organic farmland
finance company that supports independent
farmers nationwide with access to land
and operating capital through innovative
leases, mortgages, and lines of credit. The
company began in 2007 with a handful of
investors financing the organic transition
of one farm in Iroquois County, Illinois,
and has grown with the support of more
than 500 investors financing a portfolio of
approximately 13,000 acres through more
than 80 unique transactions. Iroquois Valley
emerged from the 2007-08 financial crisis
looking to re-establish trust in investing and
create positive, much-needed change within
agriculture, finance, and public health.
Traditional farmland funds pool money
from a limited number of investors and
target a specific financial return at a pre-
determined exit point without considering
the impact of this model on the farmer
growing the food, the health of the land,
the nutrition of the food, or the impact on
the people consuming it. Iroquois Valley’s
model is in direct contrast to the traditional
farmland investment model described above.
To Miller, this way of investing seemed
like good business. “We’re investing in the
land, and we work with organic farmers who
are building soils that only get healthier
with time,” he says. “We wanted to solve
problems. There’s no liquidity on a dead
planet.” IroquoisValley.com
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REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
KACHUWA
IMPACT FUND
MARILYN WAITE
VICE PRESIDENT
INNOVATIVE NEW FUND MODELS
Kachuwa is an
investment cooperative
and public benefit
corporation focused on
owning and operating
impact real estate and
investing in privately
held impact companies. “I’d like to think
of myself as a wise investor,” says Waite.
“All investment has impact, positive
or negative. Being a ‘neutral investor’
isn’t an option. Financial capital is the
engine behind our economy — and as the
economy is a wholly owned subsidiary
of the environment – it must work for
people and planet.” Waite is moved by a
quote from Gloria Steinem: “We will never
solve the feminization of power until we
solve the masculinity of wealth.”
KachuwaImpactFund.com
KIVA CAPITAL
MANAGEMENT
CELIA WONG
MANAGING DIRECTOR
COMMUNITY INVESTING
Kiva has built
relationships with
social enterprises
and intermediaries
across the United
States and over 80
countries by providing
0%, risk-tolerant capital for 15 years.
Kiva leverages the tremendous brand,
data-rich relationships, and impact
focus of Kiva.org to provide impact
investors true impact and competitive
returns. ECLOF Kenya is a microfinance
institution providing financial and non-
financial services to micro, small, and
medium entrepreneurs in Kenya. Kiva
has partnered with ECLOF over the last
7 years to develop new loan products,
including critical higher-education
loans as well as a partnership to drive
innovative new “climate-smart” financing
products to dairy farmers in Kenya.
Kiva.global
LENDABLE
DANIEL GOLDFARB
CEO
COMMUNITY INVESTING
Lendable provides
senior-secured debt
facilities to early- to
mid-stage fintech
companies in frontier
and emerging markets
that have the potential
for exponential growth. Lendable believes
that over the next decade, fintech players
across frontier and emerging markets
will most quickly provide crucial financial
services to those who currently lack
access and need them most. These
fintech companies use innovative new
business models to create access to
productive assets, working capital for
MSMEs, consumer credit, payment
solutions, and remittances. Lendable
uses proprietary data and analytics tools
to underwrite its investments and monitor
collateral in the form of payments and
receivables on a daily basis.
Lendable.io
LOCAL INITIATIVES LOW INCOME MARIGOLD CAPITAL
SUPPORT INVESTMENT FUND NARINDER DHAMI

CORPORATION KIMBERLY LATIMER-NELLIGAN

LISA GLOVER
PRESIDENT & CEO
COMMUNITY INVESTING
LISC mobilizes corporate,
philanthropic, and public
capital from local and national
sources to fund a diverse
toolkit of support — including
loans, tax credit equity
(through affiliates), grants,
training, technical assistance, and public policy
support. The firm focuses on improving quality
of life for low-wage earners. Outside of lending
activity, LISC has provided funding to 1,243
community development corporations through
the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development’s Section 4 program; partnered
with the U.S. Department of Justice to support
more than 74 community-police partnerships;
and helped build or renovate more than 406
recreation facilities through partnerships with
the National Football League Foundation, ESPN,
and Under Armour.
LISC.org
PRESIDENT
COMMUNITY INVESTING
Founded in 1984, the
Low Income Investment
Fund (LIIF) is an S&P-
rated impact fund that
offers investors a way
to create opportunities
for low-income people
and communities through its LIIF Impact
Note. Since inception, investors have
impacted 2 million low-income people
and created $75 billion in social benefits
for low-income people through job
creation, improved health, safer and more
affordable homes, and higher graduation
rates. Its investment approach is based
on the understanding that sustained
neighborhood transformation requires
holistic, cross-sector collaboration,
from quality education to affordable
housing, healthy food, and accessible
transportation.
LIIFund.org
MANAGING PARTNER
UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES
The fund envisions a
world with decreased
gender-based
violence and sexism,
racial prejudice and
xenophobia, class and
status, and exploitative
business practices. Marigold’s leaders
dream of a possible future where
economic prosperity is shared more
equitably across all markets, citizens, and
communities. It applies critical social and
gender equity approaches to investment
decisions and portfolio management.
The team leverages more than 20
years’ experience in impact investing,
microfinance, and venture philanthropy.
Marigold uses revenue-based
investments, in addition to equity and
debt, for seed through early-growth stage
ventures in mental health, SRHR, financial
inclusion, digital media, diversity-equity-
inclusion education, access to justice, and
worker engagement within supply chains.
Marigold-Capital.com

MAYCOMB CAPITAL
ANDI PHILLIPS
MANAGING PARTNER
INNOVATIVE NEW FUND MODEL

Maycomb is an impact-investing platform with funds that provide

financing across asset classes to support strategies that transform
communities. The Community Outcomes Fund provides outcomes
financing — sometimes known as Pay for Success — that enables
government to realign funding with evidence-based solutions to social
challenges. “Over the course of my career, I’ve had the privilege to
witness how bringing together private capital and local community
stakeholders can be transformative,” says Phillips. “Whether it was
providing emergency loans to retail businesses in New York City
impacted by September 11 or leading the first social impact bond in the
United States, I really believe that these public-private partnerships are
an underestimated resource for large-scale impact in communities.”
The outcomes financing project that she led in Utah, which financed
pre-K for over 4,000 4-year-old students, demonstrated to Phillips how
this type of public-private partnership could spur change at scale. She
likes to quote Ben McAdams, former U.S. representative and mayor of
Salt Lake County, who was the first county official to launch a Pay for
Success Project. He frames the issue in the following way: “We spend
hundreds of millions of dollars a year on human services, often without
clearly defining outcomes and how to measure them. The funds we
committed to the early education social impact bond allow us to do just
that.” MaycombCapital.com

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WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
 OF IMPACT INVESTING
MICROVEST CAPITAL
MANAGEMENT
GIL CRAWFORD
CEO
PIONEER
One of the first U.S.-
based microfinance
investors, the firm has
built a 17-year track
record of investing in
microfinance institutions
(MFIs) and small
and medium enterprise (SME) financial
institutions whose interests are aligned
with the borrowers and communities
they serve. Since its founding in 2003,
MicroVest has disbursed more than $1
billion to over 200 RFIs in 60 emerging
and frontier countries. Unlike many of
MicroVest’s competitors, the firm typically
avoids investing in large retail or universal
banks and avoids countries that the
investment team believes to harbor risks
that outweigh the potential investment and
impact opportunity. MicroVestFund.com
MIROVA
GAUTIER QUERU
MANAGING DIRECTOR
CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY
Mirova is an asset
management
company dedicated to
sustainable investing
and an affiliate of
Natixis Investment
Managers. The firm
was created in 2014 with the ambition to
prove that another way of investing was
possible — one which would combine
value creation for the society and the
planet with financial performance.
Central to its founding mission — and as
a principle that guides all funds managed
or advised — is the belief that financial
and economic performance, and social
and environmental impact must be
effectively combined to address at scale
the interrelated challenges arising from
climate change, resource depletion, and
the burgeoning demands of a growing
population. Mirova.com
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REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
MISSION DRIVEN
FINANCE
DAVID LYNN
COFOUNDER
INNOVATIVE NEW FUND MODEL
The fund’s entire focus
is on accelerating
economic opportunity
in communities that
have been left out of
the current system.
And rather than chasing
unicorns, the firm looks for places where
risk has been mispriced and there are
significant capital gaps. “Charity has
not been effective at creating change at
scale, and it perpetuates unequal power
dynamics,” says Lynn. “I want to change
the game and get capital flowing where it
normally doesn’t.” As much as possible,
the company avoids wealth-extractive
models and supports local partners in a
bottom-up strategy. “When our investors
come from the same communities we
strive to support, then we will have
redistributed power and changed the
narrative. Until then, we haven’t done
enough,” says Lynn.
MissionDrivenFinance.com
OPEN ROAD IMPACT
FUND
MAYA WINKELSTEIN
CEO
INNOVATIVE NEW FUND MODELS
Founded in 2012, Open Road offers fast, flexible,
and affordable funding to organizations across
geographies and sectors facing discrete, unforeseen
financing gaps that threaten to derail their work. In
the past year, this work has included a healthcare
organization expanding telemedicine offerings to
vulnerable populations and East Africa’s largest
tilapia farm providing 20 million high-protein meals
to local communities — all in the midst of the global
pandemic. Winkelstein and her team wanted to
model impact-first investing.
They structure their profitable investments to
maximize impact, whether it’s educating millions of
children or bringing renewable electricity to millions
of homes. “Entrepreneurs are the ones doing the
hard work,” she says. “Our job as impact-investors
is to meet their needs, not just our own. Every
dollar we invest returns 9x in social impact.” Social
entrepreneurs turn to Open Road when they have
no one else to turn to during a crisis. As the only
impact investing firm focused on bridge loans to
the social sector, the company model enables social
entrepreneurs to move from impasse to impact. As
one of the borrowers stated “Most funders recoil
when they see desperate situations but Open Road
rushes in and knows how to separate short term
crisis from long term impact potential.”
“Impact investing is at a crossroads,” says
Winkelstein. “Time will tell whether it actually leads
to an improved world — or simply a great marketing
tool. The choice is ours.” OpenRoadAlliance.org
PRIME IMPACT
FUND
AMY DUFFUOR
PARTNER
CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY
The fund’s structure
enables it to partner
with investors using a
variety of philanthropic
mechanisms and
investment options to
support early-stage,
market-driven solutions to climate
change. Duffuor was disillusioned after
the 2008 financial crisis and felt there
had to be a different way to invest —
one that has positive impact alongside
financial returns. It took her several years
to transition into the impact-investing
space. One day, while working for an
investment bank in Singapore, she
decided she’d had enough. “Our world is
dictated by false boundaries; we can’t do
this and that,” she says. “Impact investing
is about imagining and actioning a third
way — where impact and finance are
intentionally aligned.
PrimeImpactFund.com
PYMWYMIC
ROGER PIETERSE
MANAGING DIRECTOR
INNOVATIVE NEW FUND MODEL
PYMWYMIC is a
co-owned impact fund
leveraging a peer-
to-peer network and
exchange of knowledge
and expertise. Investing
in the food system
is an emerging, high-growth market
opportunity, driven by an increasing
number of consumers demanding healthy
and environmentally friendly products,
as well as by a growing political push.
The overall investments had reached a
size of $22 billion worldwide in 2019. A
wave of transformation is taking place to
improve agricultural production, increase
transparency of supply chains, and more.
To safeguard impact, the manager plays
an active role in embedding impact into
the governance of a company, developing
an impact strategy and measuring and
managing impact key performance
indicators. Pymwymic.com
RAVEN INDIGENOUS
CAPITAL PARTNERS
JEFFREY CYR
MANAGING PARTNER
INNOVATIVE NEW FUND MODELS
Investments in indigenous enterprise will deliver
non-correlated (and superior) financial returns
alongside a transformative impact narrative over
the next decade according to Cyr. This will be
due to several interrelated reasons: demographic
dividend (young, rapidly growing, increasingly
educated population); increased sovereignty over
land and resources; capitalization of indigenous
trusts and development corporations from legal
settlements; an increased focus on self-reliance;
and reduced dependency. When Cyr looked hard
at the ecosystem, it was evident that what was
missing was patient, flexible, Indigenous-led
capital.
The relationship between indigenous people
and money is broken. To most indigenous
entrepreneurs, money is synonymous with white
males, power, and extraction. As one of the
world’s only indigenous-led and -owned venture
capital provider, one of its key tasks is helping
indigenous peoples re-imagine money (in the
context of an impact-focused fund) as medicine
and healing, and to decolonize the investment
process. Cyr’s moment came while running
an indigenous social innovation summit and
seeing the sheer brilliance of his people. After
engaging with his business partners, he realized
he had the perfect mix to pull it off. “It’s much
more a journey then a destination,” Cyr says.
RavenCapitalPartners.ca
SARONA ASSET
MANAGEMENT
GERHARD PRIES
CEO
PIONEER
The fund’s Theory of
Change demands a
focus on counting jobs,
participation of women,
and megawatts of
clean energy. Sarona
seeks deeper and
longer impact by changing the thinking,
policies, and strategies of business
leaders across emerging markets.
Pries has been inspired by Jürgen
Moltmann, Jim Wallis, Hans Küng, and
Mother Teresa – their words of radical
engagement compelled him to apply
his skills toward building healthy new
economies. His life changed on a visit
to Calcutta: “No one wanted a handout;
they simply wanted a fair chance to work
and do business,” he says. “Good people
have invested in other good people since
the dawn of time. What we are doing is
neither novel nor revolutionary. It is to be
human; it’s what our grandmothers taught
us.” SaronaFund.com
 OF IMPACT INVESTING

SHARED INTEREST SLAUSON & CO. SUNFUNDER

DONNA KATZIN FUND AUDREY DESIDERATO
FOUNDING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COFOUNDER
AUSTIN CLEMENTS
CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY
MANAGING PARTNER
INNOVATIVE NEW FUND MODEL

INNOVATIVE NEW FUND MODEL

A U.S.-based non- SunFunder is a

profit investment fund
that provides access
to local capital and
technical support for
small and growing
businesses, small-
holder farmers, and cooperatives
in Southern Africa. Shared Interest
mobilizes the financial resources of
Southern Africa’s own commercial
lenders — facilitating their loans to
low-income communities of color by
partially guaranteeing them. The goal
is to catalyze mainstream commercial
loans to the majority market, unlocking
the equivalent of millions of dollars
(more than $125 million to date) in
loans to entrepreneurs. Investors’ loans
to Shared Interest are in turn invested
in high-quality securities that serve
as the collateral that backs the L/Cs,
unlocking commercial credit for some of
Southern Africa’s lowest income people.
SharedInterest.org
The firm is a Los
Angeles-based, early-
stage venture firm led
by experienced fund
managers of color. It
was created to connect
talented founders from
underrepresented backgrounds to the
venture ecosystem. “The best investment
opportunities are in the discovery of
talented underrepresented founders who
are disconnected from the traditional
venture ecosystem,” according to
Clements. By discovering and cultivating
talent, Slauson acts as an access
point for VCs to find new, undiscovered
opportunities in communities where
the firm is connected and for founders
to prepare and be connected with the
right investors for subsequent rounds of
financing.
Slauson.co
specialist debt
provider based in
Nairobi and London,
financing companies
in Sub-Saharan Africa
and Asia where there
is often limited access to reliable and
affordable electricity. As one of the
few debt providers in solar financing,
SunFunder has unlocked $150 million in
debt financing through public and private
investors and has financed over 50 solar
companies and projects. Its vision is an
equitable, low-carbon world powered
by solar. Its mission is to pioneer and
scale financing for distributed solar +
storage. As the global climate emergency
continues to worsen, a major reallocation
of public and private capital is driving
unprecedented resources toward low-
carbon solutions. SunFunder.com

SJF VENTURES
ARRUN KAPOOR SUNWEALTH POWER
MANAGING DIRECTOR OMAR BLAYTON
PIONEER
CFO
CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY

Founded 21 years
ago, SJF is one of
the longest-standing
impact funds in the
United States. It
invests in high-growth
companies accelerating
sustainability, enhancing opportunity,
and improving health and wellness.
Beyond investing in impactful business
models, SJF works to accelerate impact
through deep engagement with each
company, enabling the fund to serve as
a leader through its impact management
and acceleration approach. The fund’s
investments are driving sizable positive
impacts through models focused on
mitigating climate change, advancing
education access and outcomes,
conserving natural resources, improving
health, growing sustainable food, and
creating greater economic access.
SJFVentures.com
Sunwealth envisions a future where renewable energy is accessible, affordable,
and inclusive.The firm invests in that future by financing and managing
high-performance renewable energy projects in the built environment that
deliver clean power, cost savings, and quality jobs to “solar deserts,” including
low-income communities and communities of color. Blayton was moved by
witnessing how certain communities were overlooked for investment without a
convincing reason.
“Intentional inclusion of these undervalued groups provides an arbitrage
opportunity that any good investor should seek to capture,” he says. Blayton’s
realization came while reading the proposed regulations for the Massachusetts
solar incentive program (SMART) and recognizing that if structured correctly,
the return on solar investment in LMI communities far outweighed the risk.
Sunwealth’s market of small-scale commercial solar projects is overlooked
by traditional solar investors because of the high transaction costs
associated with underwriting and because of its focus on traditional credit
metrics like S&P ratings or FICO scores for determining creditworthiness
of solar customers. Sunwealth’s rigorous underwriting process focuses on
understanding the underlying value in the market, and helps ensure financial
and operational performance. “Creating a strong, viable investment is the
clearest and most sustainable way to scale impact,” says Blayton.
SunWealth.com

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REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
THE LYME TIMBER
COMPANY
JIM HOURDEQUIN
CEO
CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY
Founded in 1976, the
fund invests in and
manages forestland and
rural real estate with
conservation attributes
in the United States and
Canada. It focuses on
the disciplined purchase of properties
where it can add value through operations,
conservation strategies, and concessionary
financing for social and environmental
outcomes. Lyme invests in natural solutions
to climate change, land fragmentation,
and ecosystem degradation. It conserves
forestland by selling working forest
conservation easements (WFCEs) that
restrict development and require sustainable
forestry but still allow income from timber
harvesting. LymeTimber.com
TRUE WEALTH
VENTURES
SARA T. BRAND
FOUNDING GENERAL PARTNER
UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES
True Wealth is a seed
stage venture capital
fund for women with
ideas to change the
world. Led by two
women, Sara Brand and
Kerry Rupp. Starting
in high school and through receiving her
PhD in green design & manufacturing,
Brand wanted to focus on improving the
environmental and human health impacts
of product and solution designs. Her
“aha” moment came when she realized
that investing in women entrepreneurs
was the best way to do this, as they are
on the front lines of seeing these critical
issues — women are responsible for
85% of consumer purchases and 80% of
healthcare decisions. “The most effective
and efficient way to accelerate healthier
and more sustainable solutions is to
invest in women entrepreneurs,” she says.
TrueWealthVC.com
TURNER IMPACT
CAPITAL
BARI COOPER SHERMAN
PRINCIPAL
UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES
The fund seeks profits
with a purpose, bringing
a multi-disciplinary
investment approach to
underserved domestic
markets characterized
by large mismatches
between the supply and demand of
community-serving infrastructure
and related services. Turner Impact
focuses specifically on the need for
quality schools, healthcare facilities,
and affordable rental housing. Investors
are not asked to sacrifice yield in order
to effectuate social and environmental
impact with their funds. Turner
recognizes the central role that improving
property and the lives of people can
play in achieving superior risk-adjusted
returns, relative to conventional value-
add real estate investment strategies.
TurnerImpact.com
VOX CAPITAL
DANIEL IZZO
COFOUNDER
PIONEER
Three VC funds focus
on start-ups (seed
and Series A rounds)
using technology to
improve access to
basic services, such
as education, health,
and financial services to the low-income
population in Brazil — more 120 million
people. Its first credit fund focused on
providing working capital to companies
delivering credit solutions to underserved
individuals and organizations:
microentrepreneurs, SMEs, and small-
scale renewable energy projects. Vox is a
pioneer in impact investing in Brazil and
by far the most active in number of deals
and in developing the local ecosystem.
They are also the most active tech for
good player in Latin America, focusing
on tech-enabled solutions to societal and
environmental issues.
VoxCapital.com.br
WATEREQUITY
GARY WHITE
FOUNDER
COMMUNITY INVESTING
Founded by award-
winning entrepreneur
Gary White and Matt
Damon of Water.org, the
success of WaterEquity
is built on decades of
experience investing in
water and sanitation in emerging markets.
On his travels, White saw firsthand that
low-income families could be part of
solving their own water crisis if given the
opportunity. “I realized that the capital
markets and private investment could
provide a means to affordable financing
for those who lacked access to water and
sanitation,” he says. “At the time, nearly
everyone in the development community
thought that water financing could only
be provided by charity.” White could see
that low-income families were willing
to pay for water and sanitation. “People
living in poverty are not a problem to be
solved. They are a market to be served.”
WaterEquity.org
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WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
 OF IMPACT INVESTING
WOMEN’S WORLD
BANKING
MARY ELLEN ISKENDERIAN
CEO
UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES
The fund makes
direct minority equity
or quasi-equity
investments in high
performing, women-
focused, inclusive
financial service
providers worldwide. They use investment
capital to influence portfolio companies
to better serve women as clients and
employees, and reduce the gender gap in
financial inclusion. Rooted in their deep
understanding of the women’s market,
they tackle financial inclusion in three
interconnected ways: By partnering with
financial services providers to develop
scalable market-driven solutions;
Through their gender-lens private equity
fund; and, finally, because diverse
institutions are proven to be stronger,
they build institutional capacity through
leadership and diversity programs.
WomensWorldBanking.com
WORKING CAPITAL
FOR COMMUNITY
NEEDS
JOSHUA MIGUEL JONGEWAARD
DIRECTOR OF LENDING
UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES
WCCN has been
investing in the
working poor in Latin
America, through its
microfinance loan fund
since 1991, making it
one of the first social
impact funds in the world. They work with
regional partners to seek out investments
in women and rural areas, two
traditionally underserved populations in
the region. The organization has returned
100% of the principal and interest owed
to its investors in its 29-year history, and
helps fund around 20,000 individual and
family-owned businesses each year. They
offer a fixed interest rate note to retail
investors, with a $500 minimum, in 46
states in the U.S. WCCN.org
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REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
This Real Leaders of Impact
Investing Special Edition is a
collaboration between Real Leaders
and ImpactAssets. There is a massive
movement toward impact investing
and hundreds of funds are now
focused on profitable social and
environmental business solutions.
As a current or past investor in
some of these funds, as well as a
client of ImpactAssets, Real Leaders
is committed to highlighting the
importance of impact investing to our
global audience of CEOs.
ABOUT THE 50 For the past decade, the ImpactAssets 50 (IA 50) has
been the go-to resource for the rapidly growing impact
INNOVATIVE sector. The industry’s first publicly available, searchable
IMPACT
resource of impact investing fund managers, the IA 50
has chronicled the innovation and exponential growth
INVESTORS
that has characterized impact investing.
Used by individuals, family offices, financial advisors
and institutional investors, the database features a
diversified listing of private capital fund managers
delivering social and environmental impact as well as
financial returns. Behind every impact fund are real
people, and we’ve chosen to celebrate 50 of them
here. Among the considerations to contemplate when
investing in an impact fund, is whether you see faces
in the fund that look like the beneficiaries of the fund in
which you’ll invest.
The list represents the vanguard of impact fund
managers, a group that is increasingly diverse. This
is especially true of the IA 2021 50 Emerging Impact
Managers, who in 2020, 51% reported more than half
of their investment professionals were women and 54%
said more than half of their investment professionals
were people of color.
The IA 50 is not an index or investable platform
and does not constitute an offering or recommend
specific products. It is not a replacement for due
diligence. In order to be considered for the IA 50
2021, fund managers needed to have at least $25
million in assets under management, more than three
years of experience as a firm with impact investing,
documented social and/or environmental impact and
be available for US investment. No minimum track
record or AUM was required for IA 50 2021 Emerging
Impact Managers. ImpactAssets.org/IA50
IN COLLABORATION WITH
 BUSINESS & INNOVATION
FA I R P H O N E

01 MOBILE PHONES
YOU CAN FIX YOURSELF 3 AMAZING
BUSINESS
Every year or two, many people swap functional mobile phones for You can find new
new upgrades. While this is good business for telecommunication
companies, it’s terrible for the health of the planet. When mobile business ideas

SOLUTIONS
phones are improperly recycled or end up in landfills, it ultimately anywhere. These
causes negative effects to nearly every system in the human body.
Mobile phones contain harmful toxins including lead, mercury, three companies
have taken
FOR A
arsenic, cadmium, chlorine, and bromine, which can leak into
the groundwater and bioaccumulate in the food chain causing
detrimental damage to the soil, water supply, vegetation, animals,
old ideas and
and humans. Dutch company Fairphone is making smartphones turned them into
you can upgrade yourself. Founder Bas van Abel (above) developed
a system where you can swap in a new camera and be holding an
upgraded model in minutes, and if a part breaks, you can replace
BRIGHTER something new.

it without buying a new phone. You’re even supplied with a tiny

screwdriver so you can get to work yourself, and the phone is
made from 40% recycled plastics. In a market that sees 1.6 billion
smartphones sold each year, Fairphone wants to make a wasteful
FUTURE
sector more circular. Less than 10% are recycled, and in the U.S.
alone, more than 416,000 phones are thrown away each day. About
600 million old phones are currently gathering dust in homes,
according to Georgia-based company WasteCare Corporation.
Electronic waste is the world’s fastest-growing waste stream. How
could you take advantage of this?

“THE SOLUTION TO THE WHOLE PROBLEM

LIES WITH US, THE PEOPLE THAT BUY
STUFF. BUYING NEW STUFF STARTS
WITH SOMEONE WITH A SPADE IN THE
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO.”
— BAS VAN ABEL

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REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
 BUSINESS & INNOVATION

03 3D PRINTED
CASTS FOR
BROKEN LIMBS
Brazilian healthtech startup Fix has
developed a new cast for fixing broken limbs
that is 3D-printed and biodegradable. Made
from environmentally friendly bioplastic
— beetroot, sugarcane, and corn pulp —
the web-like design lets the skin breathe,

Y O U N G H E N RY S B R E W E RY
meaning less sweating and itching from
traditional plaster casts, and it can also get
wet without damage. Once you’re healed
and ready to dispose of it, the cast will
biodegrade in 9 months and can be used as
compost or fertilizer. Plaster casts are made
from petroleum products and are tough to

02 BREWING BEER WITH dispose of without creating environmental

harm. Fix makes 30 different styles for

THE HELP OF ALGAE fingers, wrists, and shoulders and has

eliminated the need for 2.5 tons of plaster
serving more than 4,000 patients. According
A brewery in Sydney, Australia, is fighting climate change with algae. When to the Association of American Medical
beer ferments it produces CO2, with just one six-pack of beer creating CO2 that Colleges, hospitals produce 4.4% of global
would take a tree 2 days to absorb, according to the founders of Young Henrys greenhouse emissions. With many seeking
Brewery. Richard Adamson and Oscar McMahon (above, left) got talking to improve their medical waste recycling,
over their love of beer and music, and discovered they also shared the view this sector is primed for innovation. n
that the Australian beer scene felt a little stagnant – that it should be more
adventurous, innovative, and fun. So, they teamed up with climate scientists
to make the process greener, along with head distiller Carla Daunton (above,
right). A bioreactor full of microscopic algae is fed waste CO2 from the brewing
process, where the algae “captures” it and photosynthesizes it into oxygen.
Algae accounts for a fraction of the planet’s biomass yet generates half the
planet’s oxygen. Young Henrys wants to make algae the norm across the beer
industry. Dutch beer Heineken already has a zero-carbon brewery powered by
solar, biogas, and spent grain, and Carlsberg is working with the World Wildlife
Fund to restore seagrass meadows. The next time you order a beer, check that
it was made with a low carbon footprint.

Opposite, above: Fairphone has learned

a lot from self-taught engineers in Africa,
who have creative and effective repair
methods. Many phones are used fourth or
fifth-hand and keeping their phone alive is
a top priority for many people, often with
adventurous repair methods.
G E T T Y I M A G E S / K L A U S V E D F E LT

The World Economic Forum is the

premier international institution
for public-private cooperation. It
connects communities of leaders around global issues through
high-level meetings, research, initiatives, and digital networks.
A nonprofit, it is impartial and independent and believes
dialogue and cooperation between business, government, and
civil society can improve the state of the world. WeForum.org

61
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
CEO SUCCESS

My Journey from
Cobbler to CEO of a
Global Electric Vehicle
Charging Company
By Samantha Huang

THERE IS A SHOPPING CENTER IN PRINCETON, NEW

JERSEY, THAT EXUDES ALL THE CHARM OF A COMMUNITY
WHERE SMALL BUSINESSES CONTINUE TO THRIVE AND
RESIDENTS TAKE DEEP PRIDE IN LOCAL HISTORY. It’s the
same place where Pasquale Romano used to go
after school when he didn’t have sports practice
or needed to work at his father’s shoe repair shop.
His dad started him on the small jobs — taking
inventory, sorting materials, manning the register
— and by the time he attended Harvard University,
he was a fully trained cobbler. He fondly
remembers his father, an Italian immigrant,
telling an 8-year-old version of himself that “if
this education thing doesn’t work out,” Romano
always had the family business as backup.
Romano never did join the family business.
Last March, at age 55, he took his company,
ChargePoint, public on the New York Stock
Exchange. The event marked Romano’s decade-
long journey of leading the company as CEO.
Based in Campbell, California, ChargePoint
CHARGEPOINT

“ONCE I MAKE A DECISION, I DON’T DOUBT

IT. I’LL REVISIT IT WHEN I RECEIVE NEW
INFORMATION — AND EVEN CHALLENGE
MY DECISION — BUT NEVER IN THE
CONTEXT OF DOUBT.” — PASQUALE ROMANO

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REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021

Below: Pasquale Romano
encountered many naysayers
who said his company would
never work. Below, right:
ChargPoint has created hundreds
of thousands of places to charge
an electric vehicle. Their app
will check for open spots in real
time, and search by price and
charging speed. Many spots are
free to use.
operates the largest online network of
charging stations that allows drivers
to charge their electric vehicle. The
company also has a presence in 16
countries around the world.
When Romano joined ChargePoint
as CEO in 2011, the electric vehicle
market was barely getting started.
Back then, the sales of electric vehicles
represented a paltry tenth of a percent
of the 12.8 million automotive market.
The development of EV-charging
infrastructure, which depended on
the growth of the broader electric
vehicle market, lagged even further
behind. Building ChargePoint when the
market didn’t yet exist brought out the
naysayers, who said his company would
never work. The venture capitalists
reverted to their usual catch-all
criticism for companies they didn’t yet
understand: “Yes, but how will it scale?”
Romano didn’t pay attention to the
skeptics. He’d done some preliminary
calculations around the chances for
ChargePoint’s success the same day
he did his first interview for CEO.
CEO SUCCESS
The year was 2011 and Romano was
in a transition phase after selling his
company, 2Wire, for $475 million the
year before. He had just left a meeting
with Mark Leschly, an early investor
in ChargePoint who was also on the
company’s board.
His head still swirling from the
discussion with Leschly, he brought
up the calculator on his phone when
he reached his car in the parking lot.
At first, he held the phone in portrait
mode, but when he performed the
calculation for ChargePoint’s market
size, the sheer scale of the projection
forced him to turn the phone 90 degrees
into landscape mode. The size of
the opportunity for the EV-charging
infrastructure market was massive.
Better still, there was no market leader
in the field. He knew he was on to
something big.
“From that moment, I never lost
conviction in ChargePoint,” says
Romano. “I like to call it my profound
parking lot moment,” he recalls. A
trained engineer, Romano relies on
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WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
CEO SUCCESS

first-principles thinking, meaning he makes decisions

without hedging but remains mindful of the core
facts underlying his decisions and adjusts his strategy
as necessary. By formulating his beliefs on data rather
than noise, he tunes out the critics. “Once I make a
decision, I don’t doubt it,” he says. “I’ll revisit it when
I receive new information — and even challenge my
decision — but never in the context of doubt.”
On reflection, Romano identified three main
challenges. The first was raising capital from
investors, which was particularly hard because the
market for electric vehicle charging was not yet
established. With a new financing round being raised
every 18 months, Romano often had to take a lower
valuation for his company. The second challenge in
the early days was convincing talented people to take

Right: Audi has embraced Formula E as a way of proving that race

performance is not restricted by electric power. Their Audi e-tron FE07 has a
fully-electric drive, goes from 0 to 62 mph in 2.8 seconds and can reach a
top speed of 150 mph. The electric motor generator unit weighs less than
77 lbs. Much of this technology has filtered down to their hybrid and electric
consumer vehicles.

the risk and join his young company. Lastly, the third
challenge Romano faced was managing the capital.
ChargePoint required hundreds of millions of dollars

to scale and needed to continue expanding to avoid
investors giving up too early — which would have
killed the company.
As ChargePoint grew, the early difficulties
subsided. Much of this had to do with the confidence
shown (before their IPO) by private investors, from
which they raised $660 million. These included
American Electric Power, BMW i Ventures, Chevron
Technology Ventures, and the California Pension
Plan Investment Board. Attracting talent once the
company hit critical mass also became easier, and
cash constraints significantly lessened once the
company raised $300 million in its IPO.
Romano remains undaunted by the new
challenges before him now that he is CEO of a public
company. He wakes up every day at the same time
and rarely misses a workout. For the last 13 years,
he has competed in triathlons. Family remains a top
priority, and he stresses the importance of seamlessly
interweaving home and work priorities into a mosaic
of highly ordered, interworking parts.
His cobbling skills are rusty nowadays, but he
hasn’t forgotten working in his father’s shop gluing
soles on torn-up loafers and buffing dull leather
until it gleamed. His father closed the shop when he
retired years ago, but Romano recently accompanied
his parents to the site of the old family business for
sentimental reasons. As he drove into the parking
A U D I C O M M U N I C AT I O N S M O T O R S P O RT
lot, he noticed the adjoining store fronts had all changed,
and their old building had undergone some healthy
renovations. It wasn’t until he parked the car that he saw a
familiar metal structure jutting from the ground: There, in
the same lot that his father’s customers used to park, were a
set of ChargePoint charging stations. “It was an emotional
moment,” Romano recalled. “It brought my whole life
full circle.” n
Samantha Huang is a principal at BMW i Ventures, where she
focuses on investments across AI and big data, autonomous
driving, Industry 4.0, sustainability, and the next generation
of human experiences. She is also head of content at the
Emerging Venture Capitalists Association (EVCA) — an
association for pre-partner venture capital investors.
The membership base comes from a diverse assortment
of backgrounds to share insights on industry verticals,
co-investment opportunities, career planning, and
personal interests.

64
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
 STORYTELLING

Speak with Impact

G E T T Y I M A G E S / N I C K D AV I D

AS WE EMERGE FROM LOCKDOWN,

OUR SPEECHES ALL RISK SOUNDING
THE SAME BECAUSE WORK FROM
HOME HAS DENIED US FRESH
PERSPECTIVES FROM TRAVEL,
INTERACTIONS, ETC. HOW CAN I
STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD? SUBSCRIBE HUMOR IN A SPEECH IS RISKY,
Our free weekly Words of Wisdom BUT THOSE WHO GET IT RIGHT
email gives regular speaking tips: CAPTURE THE AUDIENCE’S FULL
Just last week, I decided Real-Leaders.com/subscribe ATTENTION. WHAT SHOULD I
to begin a speech with a CONSIDER BEFORE ATTEMPTING
focus on something almost
everyone has experienced
THIS APPROACH?
— and you referenced in
your question — lockdown
I don’t generally consider myself to be a
madness and its effects on
jealous person. The one exception may
our families. The idea may
be listening to an audience convulse
sound boring, but people
in laughter at a joke shared in a
never tire of hearing about
speech — given by someone else. Sure,
the struggles and just James Rosebush I make my attempts at humor, mostly
plain color of the stories is founder of the self-deprecating and personal, but I’m
experienced by others. Trust me; it works to Intersection Impact always fully aware of the risk of falling
reveal your vulnerabilities and humorous mistakes Fund, a best-selling completely flat. Just last week, at a Winning Your
that are self-deprecating. While it’s approaching author, speaker, and
Audience book talk, I started with a little laugh-
borderline boring to talk about the pandemic, CEO of GrowthStrategy,
seeker that worked. Boy, did my confidence rise.
you still have some runway on this. We may not a corporate advisory
I could feel my adrenaline kick in. The rest of the
have been traveling to exciting places or even firm. He managed the
Reagan White House
speech was a cakewalk. I had made the audience
holding employee meetings on-site, but we are
Office on Impact happy. My old boss, Ronald Reagan, got a delivery of
still humans — and remember, humans relate
and has a personal new jokes once a week from a well-known stand-
to other humans as long as they are relatable!
passion for coaching up comedian. But even with this stable of new
Next, pivot away from the opening pandemic
executives to speak material, they didn’t always work. I have three rules
small talk to something you experienced years
like Ronald Reagan. I share with my coaching students: 1) If you are
ago or predictions for the future. Don’t forget
He has also enjoyed not confident the joke will work, drop it like a hot
to substantiate your stories and statements by
unique access to potato. 2) The best jokes are self-deprecating and
featuring quotes from people wiser than you. Keep
Queen Elizabeth II, will not only make the audience laugh but relate to
your energy up and be hopeful. This is the time for
from which he has you; and 3) Make sure you try out your material on
that. People will remember you for it.
learned much about your spouse, best friend, or dog. If they don’t laugh
leadership. or wag their tail, mark that joke for the trash bin. n

65
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
PODCAST PEOPLE
WELCOME TO THE REAL LEADERS PODCAST, YOUR
NO. 1 SOURCE FOR IMPACT LEADERS WHO HARNESS
CAPITALISM TO SUSTAIN PLANET, PEOPLE,
AND PROFITS.
Ep. 189: Values, Ethics, and Cancel Culture
DR. PAT HARNED | CEO of Ethics &
Compliance Initiative (ECI)
“Cancel culture is swift and harsh, but
part of the reason it happens is that
people who have overstepped have
opted to either not speak at all, or people
don’t believe they’re telling the truth.
Build up trust with your stakeholders, be
transparent, and respect others in the
workplace. It will pay off when problems
occur because you’ve shown them your
character before the problem appeared.”
Ep. 172: Uncomfortable Conversations Need to be Had
MEESHA BROWN | President of PCI
Media Impact
“I keep coming back to the importance
of dialogue. We like to say that content
is only as powerful as the conversation it
creates. It’s in these conversations that
meaning is negotiated, people reorient
perceptions and consider how they can
behave differently. That’s where the
magic is.”
66
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
Ep. 193: The Algorithmic Leader
MIKE WALSH | CEO of Tomorrow
“Our real job is not to work. Our real job
is to design work. You should go to work
thinking how you can leverage technology
to ensure that your job doesn’t need to
exist. Why on earth would you be so crazy
to do that? Because you are showing
how valuable you are as a human being.
Because you are designing systems that
scale up your function. That was your
whole job in the first place.”
Ep. 199: Create Possibilities
PHILIPPE DUNSKY | President of Dunsky
Energy Consulting
“There are many people who are driven to
do good but don’t see a lot of opportunity to
do good; until recently. Increasingly, the role
of business is giving people that opportunity
— creating that possibility. People shouldn’t
have to go to work and pretend otherwise
just to make a living for their family.”
Ep. 200: Plug Into What’s Important
AY YOUNG | Activist, Artist, and UN
Sustainable Goals Leader
“I love music, but how can I use music to
make a change and to help people? Music
is a universal language and everyone’s an
outlet — so let me get them plugged in.
But, I discovered that over a billion people
lack access to energy. So, I use music
to get everyone plugged in. I’m going to
take my passion and do that every day to
change the world — and to help someone.”
Ep. 204: Generational Thinking
MEGAN KAISER | Farmer-Director at the
United Soybean Board
“Agriculture is unique because we think
in generations. I’m the fifth generation
and we’re raising the sixth, measuring
as we go. Will this be here for the sixth
generation or the seventh? We know that
if we deplete the soil, it won’t perform for
us, or the next generation.”
Raj Allie
PODCAST PEOPLE

“I wanted to show
that we had to
go outside of our
comfort zones
to be able to do
things that are
meaningful.”

The Ultra
— MINA GULI

Runner Bringing
Attention to the
Global Water
Crisis
A SWIMMING POOL PRANK GONE WRONG WOULD
PROVE TO BE AN ACCIDENT THAT CHANGED MINA
GULI’S LIFE. SHE HURT HER BACK SO BADLY THAT
DOCTORS TOLD ME SHE’D NEVER RUN AGAIN.
CHALLENGED TO CREATE A STUNT THAT WOULD
CAPTURE THE WORLD’S ATTENTION AROUND THE
GLOBAL WATER CRISIS, HER GLOBAL, ULTRA-
RUNNING CAMPAIGN FOR WATER WAS BORN.

“I knew that this was what I was going to do for the rest of my life. That I
was going to dedicate my life to solving our water crisis. At that point I knew that
I would do whatever it takes to make that happen. I don’t want this future for the
next generation,“ says Mina Guli.
Guli is a global leader, entrepreneur, water advocate, and ultra runner, dedicated
to raising awareness around the global water crisis. Though she wasn’t a runner to
begin with, after a life-changing accident dictated she might never run again, Mina
decided to prove her doctors wrong. She created an opportunity to push herself
beyond what she thought possible to highlight a bigger cause — water scarcity. In
2016, to bring attention to the global water crisis, Mina ran 40 marathons across
7 deserts on 7 continents in 7 weeks. Along the way, she interviewed locals and
water experts. Her goal was to tell the stories of people affected by the crisis and
those working to solve it. Another running awareness project was the #RunningDry
movement — 100 marathons in 100 days. And another recently completed run
was the 6 River Run, along the banks of 6 of the world’s greatest rivers, across 6
continents, in 6 weeks — inspired by the UN’s 6th Sustainable Development Goal —
Clean Water & Sanitation.
“It’s so weird for me to be in this situation where running has become what I do,”
MINA GULI

she says. “I did it because we needed to have a way to create a hook for people to

68
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
 PODCAST PEOPLE

JOIN THE
MILLION
TREE
pay attention to water. I wanted to show that we
should go beyond our comfort zones to do things
that are meaningful. I wanted to show that every
one of us is capable of things that we have never
dreamt of. I want to show that you don’t have to be
anyone to be someone.” Mina
stresses that water is one of
the biggest risks facing society
today, and that the ramifications
CHALLENGE
of the global water crisis should
be a great cause for concern.
By 2030 there’s forecast to be a
40% gap between the amount of
water we need and the amount
PLANT 10K TREES
of water available. Motivated by
the perceived inaction she sees
around her, Mina has dedicated
her life to this problem. Her non- While some leaders talk about
profit, Thirst, raises awareness of sustainability, you can actually
the water crisis among the next
generation.
get trees in the ground.
“I don’t want the next
generation to grow up and have Join the Million Tree Challenge
their future limited by their ability to support reforestation in our
to access water, they should
only be limited by their ability iconic National Forests.
to dream the dreams that they
want to dream.” n
ONETREEPLANTED.ORG/MILLION
800-408-7850
BIG
PICTURE
Looking at the world from a different perspective can give us a whole new story

Delhi Grid
New Delhi, India, population 22 million. Population density: 30,000 people per square mile. India is
the world’s most populous democratic country with a population of 1.4 billion inhabitants. According to
the World Health Organization Delhi is the fourth most polluted city in the world in terms of suspended
particulate matter. The growing pollution is responsible for increasing health problems, and the
deteriorating environment is the result of population pressure and haphazard growth. Photo courtesy of
Global Population Speak Out. PopulationSpeakOut.org
Feedlot
Brazilian ranchers traditionally clear land to raise animals in large pasture areas. When using
feedlots to fatten animals before slaughter, farmers do in 90 days what would take them a year
in natural pastures. Brazil is the world’s largest beef exporter, exporting one-fifth of its total
production, and the sector is a major driver of deforestation.
Photo: Peter Beltra / courtesy of Global Population Speak Out. PopulationSpeakOut.org
 73
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
LEADING LEADERS

74 MONEY
75 INNOVATION 76 CLIMATE ACTION 79 SOCIAL IMPACT 80 INVESTING
& TECHNOLOGY

Money
How your money and spending can change the world for the better

Smart Money Sees the Post-pandemic World as a

Chance to Rethink Our Values particularly devastating
impact on people in
the informal sector,
Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus has who make up 70% of
called for “outrageously bold” thinking to workers in countries like
reshape post-COVID society. Bangladesh and often
have no savings.
This includes the creation of a new type He said informal
of bank to help millions of workers whose sector workers should
livelihoods have been hammered by the be recognized as
pandemic. The Bangladeshi economist, entrepreneurs and
nicknamed “banker to the poor,” says the called for the creation of
crisis presents an opportunity to carve out “social business micro-

a fairer, greener future for the world, which
is “a ticking time bomb.” He highlights
three priorities: halting climate change,
tackling wealth inequality, and preventing
mass unemployment as artificial
intelligence threatens to wipe out jobs.
According to Yunus, the pandemic has
shown up the weaknesses in the global
economy and society. But he adds: “When
you hit the darkest part, you come up with the
brightest ideas. “Why don’t we throw away all
the old thinking? We have to be outrageously
bold... to adopt things which were never
adopted before.”
Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in
2006 with Grameen Bank, a microfinance
organization he founded in 1983 to provide
loans to poor people who cannot access
mainstream banks — an initiative that has
since inspired similar programs worldwide.
The 80-year-old economist says that a
post-COVID future should be built on social
businesses and enterprises dedicated to
tackling social and environmental problems
through commercial means. People are not
“money-making robots” and collective interest
— not maximizing profits — should be the
driving force for business, he says.
Yunus says the pandemic has had a
U N I T E D N AT I O N S / G R E G O R I O C U N H A
entrepreneurial banks”
to help them get back
on their feet. Social
businesses could also
be a solution for flawed
healthcare systems
whose failures had
been exposed by the
pandemic. He criticized
“selfish” rich countries buying up the production of COVID-19 vaccines,
but warned that the pandemic could only be defeated together. “If you
keep one person unprotected, nobody’s protected,” he says. Yunus says
it is also time to rethink the world’s “urban-centric” economy, which
forces many people to seek work hundreds of miles from their homes.
In an age of modern technology, he questions why many businesses,
including call centers, can not be built in village areas. The economist
says he does not understand everyone’s eagerness to rush back to
a pre-COVID era. A world where about 1% of the population owns
99% of the wealth is a ticking time bomb and will “explode in anger,
dissatisfaction, and political upheaval,” he says.
“Why do you want to go back to that world? That world was a terrible
world,” he adds, alluding to climate change as well as the growing
wealth gap. “That world was like we (were) riding a big train, rushing to
our death... We want to go back to ride that train again?” Yunus calls
instead for a “world of three zeros” — zero net carbon emissions, zero
wealth concentration, zero unemployment. “This is the time to do it,”
he says. n
Emma Batha is a journalist specializing in humanitarian crises and
women’s rights at the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

74
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021

74 MONEY
75 INNOVATION 76 CLIMATE ACTION
& TECHNOLOGY
Innovation &
Technology
What’s-next economies, getting
future-ready, and visionary thinking
How Can Artificial
Intelligence Help Fight
Climate Change?
Algorithmic machine learning systems are being lauded as an
integral part of the new clean energy economy.
As climate change intensifies the devastation from storms,
wildfires, and droughts, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital
tools are increasingly seen as a way to predict and limit its
impacts. Governments, tech firms, and investors are showing
growing interest in machine-based learning systems that
use algorithms to identify patterns in data sets and make
predictions, recommendations, or decisions in real or virtual
settings.
In June, the Rise Fund, an impact-investing arm of private
equity firm TPG, invested $100 million in a data- and AI-driven
“nowcasting” system devised by Kentucky-based startup
Climavision to predict weather patterns with granular accuracy.
And an intergovernmental roadmap on AI’s role in fighting
global warming is due to launch at November’s COP26 climate
summit in Scotland.
The technology is already being used to send natural
disaster alerts in Japan, monitor deforestation in the Amazon,
and design greener smart cities in China.
AI applications could also help design more energy-efficient
buildings, improve power storage, and optimize renewable
energy deployment by feeding solar and wind power into the
electricity grid as needed. On a smaller scale, it could help
households minimize their energy use, automatically switching
off lights not in use or sending power from electric vehicles
back into the grid to meet anticipated demand.
By 2030, the tech could help cut global greenhouse gas
emissions by 4%, according to a recent study by accounting
firm PricewaterhouseCoopers for Microsoft, which is
developing machine learning products for the climate change
LEADING LEADERS
79 SOCIAL IMPACT 80 INVESTING
GETTY IMAGES
market. AI can process huge amounts of unstructured
data like pictures, graphs, and maps, opening “huge
possibilities for understanding the dynamics around sea-
level rise and ice sheets.”
The high cost of AI computational resources has
pushed research largely into the private sector, where the
market is “extremely vibrant,” according to Chris Goode,
Climavision’s CEO.
Climavision’s system uses a high-resolution radar
network along with data from satellites and high-altitude
weather balloons to fill in what the company says are
“hundreds of gaps” in existing weather-forecasting
networks. Energy and transport businesses, farmers, even
the U.S. military will have access to “real-time elements of
the atmosphere, what’s happening at this very moment,
because it’s updated on a second-by-second mode,”
Goode says.
Ari Cohen, the external affairs director for TPG, which
recently announced a new $5.4 billion Rise Climate fund
to invest in “climate solutions around the world,” says the
AI market is likely to grow as countries and corporations
transition toward low-carbon energy.
From electricity grids to smart appliances, “Data
and AI-driven software will be integral to predicting
market behavior, balancing operations in real time, and
maximizing energy yield,” he said. The European Union
has signaled that it, too, is considering these issues. For
the moment though, the threats posed by climate change
ensure that efforts to find a fix using AI will continue. n
Arthur Neslen is the Europe correspondent for the
Thomson Reuters Foundation, based in Brussels.
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LEADING LEADERS

74 MONEY
75 INNOVATION 76 CLIMATE ACTION 79 SOCIAL IMPACT 80 INVESTING
& TECHNOLOGY

Climate Action
How business and leaders are impacting the planet — climate action, life below water, and life on land

4 Business Opportunities to Help

Solve the Climate Crisis

1
Science has made clear the wholesale transformation
needed to address the climate crisis. At present, Climate solutions are interconnected as a
global efforts come nowhere near the scale, speed, or system, and we need all of them.
scope required. Yet, many of the means to achieve the
necessary transformation already exist. Almost daily, The notion of “silver bullets” has persistent
there is promising evolution and acceleration of climate appeal — “what’s the one big thing we can do?”—
solutions, alongside growing efforts to sunset fossil but they simply don’t exist for complex problems
fuel infrastructure and prevent the expansion of these such as the climate crisis. Rather, a whole system
antiquated and dangerous energy sources. Here are of solutions is required. Many climate solutions
four key insights and the business opportunities found combine and cooperate, leveraging or enabling
within each. others for the greatest impact. For example,
efficient buildings make distributed, renewable
electricity generation more viable. The food
system requires interventions on both supply and
Where the Opportunities Lie demand sides — e.g., better farming practices
• Smart Thermostats • Water Distribution and reduced meat consumption. For the greatest
• LED Lighting Efficiency benefit, electric vehicles need 100% clean power
• Insulation • Net-Zero Buildings on which to run. We need many interconnected
• High-Performance Glass • Micro Wind Turbines
solutions for a multi-faceted, systemic challenge.
• Green & Cool Roofs • Geothermal Power
• Solar Hot Water • Ocean Power
• Landfill Methane Capture • Waste-to-Energy
• Low-Flow Fixtures

GETTY IMAGES

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REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
 “There is no

2
economic
rationale
for stalling
The financial case for climate solutions is crystal
clear, as savings significantly outweigh costs.
on climate
solutions —
Unfounded arguments about the economic and every
inviability of climate action persist but are patently reason to
false. Project Drawdown analyzes the financial
implications of solutions: How much money will a forge boldly
given solution cost or save when compared with the ahead.”
status quo technology or practice it replaces? That
financial analysis looks at the initial implementation
of a solution and the use or operation of that
solution over time. Overall, net operational savings
exceed net implementation costs four to five times
over an initial cost of $22.5 – 28.4 trillion versus
$95.1 – 145.5 trillion saved. If we consider the
monetary value of co-benefits (e.g., healthcare
savings from reduced air pollution) and avoided
climate damages (e.g., agricultural losses), the
financial case becomes even stronger. So long as Where the Opportunities Lie
we ensure a just transition for those in sunsetting Given our economic system, money is a necessary fuel
or transitioning industries, such as coal, there is no for making change. Public and private investment and
economic rationale for stalling on climate solutions philanthropic giving can stimulate and sustain climate
— and every reason to forge boldly ahead. solutions and move them forward. Divestment is also
powerful, shifting capital away from sources of the
problem, essentially restricting their blood flow. Impact
investing is one such opportunity.

3
The majority of climate solutions reduce or replace the
use of fossil fuels. We must accelerate these solutions
while actively stopping the use of coal, oil, and gas.

The use of fossil fuels for electricity, transport, and

Where the Opportunities Lie
• Plant-Rich Diets
• Indigenous Peoples’ Forest Tenure
heat currently drives roughly two-thirds of heat-trapping
emissions worldwide. Alongside accelerating these vital
solutions, such as solar and wind power, retrofitting
buildings, and public transit, we must actively stop
fossil fuel production and expansion — including ending
billions of dollars in subsidies and financing and, ideally,
directing those funds to climate solutions instead.
Reaching Drawdown depends on concurrent “stop” and
“start” paths of action. A similar stop/start dynamic
exists within food, agriculture, and land use, ending
harmful practices (e.g., deforestation) and advancing
helpful ones (e.g., regenerative agriculture methods).
• Bioplastics
• Bicycle Infrastructure
S O L A R I M P U L S E F O U N D AT I O N

• Farm Irrigation Efficiency • Efficient Aviation

• Improved Rice Production • Efficient Ocean Shipping
• Recycled Paper • Electric Cars
• Alternative Cement • Abandoned Farmland Restoration

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LEADING LEADERS

4 Some of the most powerful climate solutions

receive comparably little attention, reminding
us to widen our lens.

Many climate solutions focus on reducing and

eliminating fossil fuel emissions, but others
are needed too. Among the top solutions, we
find some “eye-openers” that are on par with
solutions that often get the spotlight, such as
onshore wind turbines and utility-scale solar
photovoltaics.

Where the Opportunities Lie

Food waste reduction and plant-rich
diets, which together curb demand,
deforestation, and associated emissions
also serve to: The estimated total value of the
world’s forests is as much as $150
• Prevent leaks and improve disposal of trillion — nearly double the value of
chemical refrigerants, which are potent global stock markets.
Source: Boston Consulting Group
greenhouse gases, the use of which is
projected to grow significantly;
GETTY IMAGES
• Restore temperate and tropical forests,
which are powerful, vast carbon sinks;

• Provide access to high-quality,

voluntary reproductive healthcare and
high-quality, inclusive education, the
many ripple effects of which include
climate benefits.
These results are a reminder to look
beyond the obvious to a broader suite
of solutions and beyond technology to
natural and social systems.
Founded in 2014, Project Drawdown is a
nonprofit organization that helps the world reach
“drawdown” — the future point in time when
levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
stop climbing and start to decline steadily. The organization has
emerged as a leading resource for information and insight about
climate solutions. These insights are from its latest report, The
Drawdown Review: Climate Solutions for a New Decade.
Drawdown.org

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 LEADING LEADERS
74 MONEY
75 INNOVATION 76 CLIMATE ACTION 79 SOCIAL IMPACT 80 INVESTING
& TECHNOLOGY

Social Impact
Leadership in gender equality; reduced inequalities; peace, justice, and strong institutions

82-Year-Old Engineer Extracts Drinking Water

from Thin Air

An innovative device, which cools air

until it condenses into water, is delivering
clean, safe water to communities in
Namibia and a Lebanese refugee camp,
proving that simple ideas can help solve
complex social problems.

A Spanish company has devised a system

to extract drinking water from thin air
to supply arid regions where people are
in desperate need. “The goal is to help
people,” says Enrique Veiga, the 82-year-
old engineer who invented the machine
during a harsh drought in southern Spain
in the 1990s. “The goal is to get to places
like refugee camps that don’t have drinking
water.”
Veiga’s aim is to provide drinking water
where no other sources of water are
available, whether salty or otherwise. The
devices made by his company, Aquaer,
are already delivering clean, safe water to
communities in Namibia and a Lebanese effectively, Veiga’s machines work in temperatures of up to 104F and can
refugee camp. “In the villages we visited in handle humidity of between 10% and 15%.
Namibia, they were astonished, they didn’t A small machine can produce 50–75 liters a day, and be easily carried on
understand, asking where the water came a trolley, but bigger versions can produce up to 5,000 liters a day. “Our idea is
from,” he says. not only to make a device that is effective, but also to make it useful for people
The generators work in desert areas, who have to walk for miles to fetch water or make wells,” Veiga explains.
without any adverse effects on the Switzerland-based Vietnamese refugee Nhat Vuong joined the cause after
environment and without emitting any meeting Veiga and visiting a refugee camp near Tripoli in Lebanon in 2017. He
pollution. The machines use electricity founded a nonprofit organization, Water Inception, which brought a 500-liter-a-
to cool air until it condenses into water, day machine to the camp.
harnessing the same effect that causes “It’s working beautifully, I’m really happy,” says Nhat, who is now raising
condensation in air-conditioning units. funds to install solar panels to bring down electricity costs and reduce the
While other water generators based on environmental impact of the project.
similar technology require high ambient
humidity and low temperatures to function Emma Pinedo is a writer for the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

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 LEADING LEADERS
74 MONEY
75 INNOVATION
& TECHNOLOGY
Investing
Innovative companies that have found ways to generate a measurable and
beneficial social and environmental impact alongside financial returns
The Investment Lessons I Learned from
My 4-Year-Old Son
My quantitative mind and fondness for
spreadsheets drew me to finance from an
early age.
Later on, as I developed my career on Wall
Street, books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad helped
reframe my thinking, especially for when I
became a parent. If we are not the ones to talk
to our kids about seemingly difficult topics,
then who will? The more my consciousness
grew, the more I wanted to share with my kids.
I quickly learned that this kind of openness
often creates a two-way dialogue. We learn as
much from them as they do from us. At the
age of four, my son, Alessandro, learned about
“Trash Island” in school and was so affected
by it that he came home with concerns and
questions.
Trash Island is also known as the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch or the Plastic Trash
Vortex. It is a large collection of relatively
small pieces of plastic and other trash in
the Pacific Ocean, covering almost 1 million
square miles. Animals can become trapped
in plastic nets and rings, and some long-
lasting plastics also end up in the stomachs
of marine animals, which can lead to greater
problems throughout the food chain. The
problem is so severe that the United Nations
Ocean Conference estimated that the oceans
might contain more weight in plastics than
fish by the year 2050.
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76 CLIMATE ACTION 79 SOCIAL IMPACT 80 INVESTING
“The Great
Pacific Garbage
Patch is a
large collection
of relatively
small pieces
of plastic and My son takes these conversations seriously.
other trash He would hate to think that something he
did contributed to making Trash Island even
in the Pacific worse than it already was! However, he does
Ocean, covering not always understand what actually creates
almost 1 million trash or where it comes from. It’s up to me to
square miles.” connect those broader lessons to everyday
reality. If we are at a restaurant and he starts
playing with plastic straws, or when he uses
polystyrene cups lying around at his tennis
lesson, I gently mention that these items may
one day end up in Trash Island.
Inspired by our conversations, I decided
to tie in my conscious investing with
Alessandro’s passion for positive change. I
began investing a small amount of money
with him each month — $100 at first, and
later $250 — into the Aspiration Redwood
Fund. This fund, which is accessible to
anybody, invests in public companies that
are screened for ESG criteria. According to
Aspiration, also a B Corporation bank, “Smart

companies know that if they act better,
they will do better.” To live up to that value,
the Aspiration Redwood Fund focuses on
fossil-fuel-free fund investing, as well as on
businesses that care about their people, the
planet, and creating a green purpose and
mission.
By making small, regular contributions, I
feel good about money that I hardly notice
now, but that I know will add up over time. A
$250 monthly investment compounding over
20 years should easily be worth $80,000 —
and likely $100,000 or more. One day, that
investment capital will become Alessandro’s
and his sister’s. When that day comes,
hopefully he will feel empowered to make
his own informed choices and become a
conscious investor himself.
If I were to hand him that sum as a young
adult, that kind of gift could be detrimental
to his own wealth consciousness. As part
of a family with all our needs met, I am
mindful of raising a child who, on one hand,
does not exhibit the traits of affluenza
(that is, he is not spoiled) but who, on the
other hand, knows his place as a global
citizen, understands wealth consciousness,
and has a mindset of abundance. However, by
talking to him about the financial return of his
money, as well as the good it can accomplish,
the investment becomes a tool to teach him
about awareness, service, and passion in a
meaningful and tangible way — in other words,
money has value beyond solely financial return.
“A $250 Of course, much of that payoff will not come
monthly until he is older. For now, I simply explain to
investment him in broad terms how I invest and spend my
compounding resources and why. Slowly, the idea that money
can have an impact on the issues he cares
over 20 years about will begin to take shape in his mind and
should easily provide him with a solid foundation for using
be worth money to do good later in his life. For now, he
$80,000 — wants to grow up to be an inventor working with
ocean plastic.
and likely Not only is it important to teach our children
$100,000 or this level of awareness but to also set up a
more.” mindset of possibility that conscious investing
— EVA YAZHARI is possible, can be rewarding, and can allow
for our children to find meaning and purpose
in their lives. In the end, we get to approach
money as a topic in our household that has a
far broader reach than just financial return. n
Eva Yazhari (above) is general partner of
Beyond Capital Ventures, a women-led impact
venture capital firm that offers diversified
portfolios to conscious leaders. Her new book
is The Good Your Money Can Do: Becoming a
Conscious Investor.
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WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
 MENTAL HEALTH

While deeply fulfilling,

growing a business can
pose mental health dangers
for entrepreneurs and
executives. During an
expansion stage, a founder
will often face brutally
long workweeks and
pressure from multiple
angles while raising funds.
So it isn’t surprising that
many entrepreneurs find
themselves with mental
health challenges.

By Gleb Tsipursky

TAKING EXECUTIVE MENTAL

HEALTH SERIOUSLY CAN
GETTY IMAGES

AVOID BAD BUSINESS

U
OUTCOMES
nfortunately, mental health
still has a severe stigma within
entrepreneurial circles and is not
often discussed. It’s usually hidden
behind “founder burnout” or
“work-life balance” discussions,
but it’s essential to identify when
you are on the verge of burnout and
take immediate steps.
When he hired me as a coach, Mike (not his real
name) founded a fast-growing direct-to-consumer
startup at the mid-stage of expansion, valued at just
under $7 million. He had already gone through a few
rounds of fundraising, and Mike retained 32% of the
equity, while those on the board held more than 57%.
Mike wanted to shift from the rapid growth stage
of burning through cash to seizing market share,
focusing on more gradual growth funded by revenue
rather than investment capital to profitability.
However, his board of directors overwhelmingly
wanted him to keep growing the company rapidly.

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REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021

“While there’s
plenty of advice
for entrepreneurs
on asking people
for money and
facing rejection,
it doesn’t address
the clinical anxiety
and depression
that can develop
from this.”
While both positions have merit,
the challenge Mike experienced was
a sense of growing dread over asking
investors for more money. An introvert
by nature, he had always felt fear in
doing so. Unfortunately, while there’s
plenty of advice for entrepreneurs on
asking people for money and facing
rejection, it doesn’t address the clinical
anxiety and depression that can
develop from this.
Mike started going to therapy and
taking psychiatric medication. While
I strongly urged him to reveal his
mental health condition to the board,
he refused. He was confident that the
board wouldn’t support him and shared
stories of other startup founders who
had hidden mental health challenges
from a fear of getting adverse reactions
from their boards.
He thought they might question his
competence in leading the company
if he revealed his weakness. His
pessimism did not serve him well,
and the board continued to pressure
him. Despite his wise decision to seek
professional help, the anxiety and stress
undercut his fundraising ability.
Pretty soon, Mike was close to
burnout. At that point — when he told
me he was thinking of quitting — I
finally convinced him to reveal his
condition. And guess what? The board
expressed its support. Several board
members admitted they had pressured
him because of their own anxiety —
they were fearful of larger competitors
Community Cure.
After returning from his studies
in medicine and anthropology
in France twenty years ago,
Dr. Adalberto Barreto began
volunteering in a favela in Fortaleza,
Brazil, where he saw many people
seeking treatment for emotional
problems that medication alone
could not resolve. He created the
Brazilian Association of Community
Therapy, where people share
their experiences in groups of 30
to 40, learn from each other and
gradually deal with problems in
their families and neighborhoods.
Issues include alcoholism, family
violence, depression, and insomnia.
Through this methodology, now
used all over Brazil, he has proved
that most people who suffer from
emotional and psychological
troubles in favelas can be treated
by the community itself, thus
significantly reducing the need for
medical treatment. More than three
million people have participated
in his sessions, and 88% of them
have successfully overcome their
problems through community
therapy. Adalberto aims to develop
community health indicators that will
increase adherence to his model
and is now looking to disseminate
his methodology throughout Latin
America and Africa. By using
lay people instead of expensive
professionals he hopes to scale his
social impact faster to those that
need it most.
“I learned in the
school of life —
I am a doctor of
my pain.”
— DR. ADALBERTO BARRETO
MENTAL HEALTH
who might catch up to their early
mover, startup advantage. As veteran
investors, they had seen such scenarios
before and were pushing for rapid
growth fueled by investor capital.
A few members even revealed their
own mental health conditions, and
the board agreed to step back from its
fundraising goals and instead focus
on more gradual growth. But, badly
burned out, Mike couldn’t even achieve
these goals. He lost his passion for the
company and started hating his work.
Eventually, he resigned.
The company launched an extensive
search for Mike’s replacement, but
the new hire didn’t work out very well
because he lacked Mike’s credibility.
In addition, many startup employees
felt unhappy with Mike’s resignation,
and blaming the board, left with Mike,
further crippling the startup.
In the end, without Mike’s drive and
guidance, the company foundered. A
larger company wanting to enter their
sector bought the startup for less than
$2.5 million — a fraction of its earlier
valuation. The whole fiasco could
have been prevented with a timelier
revelation by Mike. An earlier strategic
shift to gradual growth could have
solved the need for fundraising, thereby
letting Mike focus on his passion for
customer satisfaction and building the
brand. Instead, he was forced to deal
with his most hated task — soliciting
investor cash.
Mike is one of many brilliant startup
founder executives pushed past their
breaking point by stakeholders, and
I hope you will never travel in Mike’s
shoes. It should serve as a warning to
major investors and board members to
support founders and prioritize their
mental health. n
Gleb Tsipursky is a disaster avoidance
expert and is on a mission to protect
leaders from dangerous judgment errors
known as cognitive biases by developing
the most effective decision-making
strategies.
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WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
DESTINATIONS Compiled by Maggie Walker

Often, we go on cushy guided tours and retreat to

L
EL I G our hotels for meals. Instead, try these alternatives:
V

HT

Walk around, even if only in the streets closest

T RA

LY

to your hotel; eat in local restaurants; talk to the

EEN TRAVEL
GR locals, even if it’s only with your taxi driver; and
2021
learn a few words of the local language, and use
MALDIVES
them. Remember, the places we visit are homes to
people who live and work there. How would you Preserving Nature with Unforgettable
want visitors to behave in your own home? Experiences
When you arrive at Soneva Fushi Resort,
you’ll be asked to remove your shoes
and to let your inner child run free. The
resort’s motto is “No News, No Shoes,”
and they believe that real luxury is about
feeling the sand between your toes or
enjoying dinner under a canopy of a
billion stars. Their aim is to reconnect you
with yourself and the natural world, and
the guest experiences they have created
are as far removed from urban living as
possible. Not only are they focused on
making your experience unforgettable,
but they are also committed to preserving
the natural environment. The resort has
been completely carbon-neutral since
2014, has an on-site recycling program,
G E T T Y I M A G E S / D AV I D E G . S E D D I O

and adds a 2% sustainability tax on all

stays. They are involved in supporting
the local women of Soneva, practice
sustainable pest management, and run
marine conservation projects. When your
business is based on the pristine beauty
of nature, there is no better incentive
to convert guests to the importance
SLOVENIA of conservation than giving them an
unforgettable, natural experience.
One of the Greenest Countries on Earth Soneva.com
Ljubljana, Slovenia, is known for its focus on eco-friendly and
sustainable tourism. For six years in a row, Ljubljana has made the
Global Top 100 Sustainable Destinations list, maintaining its position
as one of the world’s most sustainable destinations. A remarkable
53.6% of Slovenia is protected land, a higher percentage than any
nation on Earth except Venezuela. The city was honored at the
International Travel & Tourism Awards in London for its Green Supply
Chains project, which incorporates three sub-projects: locally grown
food exchange, culinary calendar, and the Ljubljana Breakfast. The
Ljubljana Breakfast has provided a local, authentic, and sustainably
focused gastronomic experience for citizens and visitors alike
and has given hotels and restaurants an opportunity to offer more
variety. With local food being a highlight of any vacation, tourists
appreciate dishes based on tradition that also add to the authenticity
of their experience. By collaborating on this tourism marketing idea,
restaurants in Ljubljana are stimulating the local economy, attracting
more customers, and reducing their carbon footprint.
VisitLjubljana.com
SILO

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REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021

UNITED KINGDOM
Food at Its Pre-Industrial Best
Silo began in Australia In 2011 with artist Joost Bakker,
who proposed the idea of “not having a waste bin.”
Since then, Silo’s chef and owner has built up the
business as the world’s first zero-waste restaurant. The
London-based restaurant trades directly with farmers,
using reusable delivery vessels and selects only local
ingredients that generate no waste in their production.
“We’ve adopted a more primitive diet with techniques
both modern and ancient,” says Bakker. “We choose
food sources that respect the natural order, allowing
ingredients to be themselves without unnecessary
processing. By creating everything on site, we can
capture real food, and real food tastes better. The natural
world doesn’t generate waste; people do.” All waste is
composted in an aerobic digester, which generates up
to 130 lbs of compost within 24 hours. SiloLondon.com
S O N E VA F U S H I R E S O RT
BOLIVIA
Into the Trees
Looking to unplug and experience Mother Earth to the
fullest? Head to the Chalalán Ecolodge in Bolivia, which
is entirely managed by the Quechua-Tacano indigenous
community and is committed to the sustainable use of
natural resources. You’ll become immersed in a forest
that is home to 11% of the world’s flora and fauna species,
with a share of your contributions going toward helping
indigenous families. The vice president of Conservation
International for Latin America, James D. Nations,
had the following to say about his visit to the Chalalán
Ecolodge: “In all my life, I have not found so much
preservation ethic, so much respect and affection for
life, and so kind and respectful a people.” After a 5-hour
scenic boat ride to the lodge, enjoy more than 30 miles
of hiking trails, canoeing in Lake Chalalán, and taking a
nap in a hammock beneath the expansive Amazonian
canopy. Chalalan.com
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WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
GIFTS FOR GOOD Compiled by Maggie Walker

STEPPING OUT

Stylish, Sustainable Footwear

When designers Pamela Costantini and Domitilla
Rapisardi (below) fused their joint passion for luxury
shoes with their passion for sustainable sourcing,
IINDACO was born. “We’re not just a new brand of
footwear made in Italy,” says Costantini. “We’re a
challenge, a new way of doing business in the fashion
world.” The pair were confused and upset about
the stubbornness of the fashion industry when it
comes to addressing environmental sustainability
and decided to do something about it in 2017. The
materials are chosen as a mix of recyclability and
innovation and show that eco-sustainability is a

HIVER HONEY BEER

dynamic process that demands creativity. Their shoes
are composed of regenerated, recycled and recyclable
material and 100% pure cellulose fibers. IINDACO’s
upcycling practices also helped keep three small
Italian factories afloat during the pandemic. “New
NATURAL BUZZ
luxury is responsibility,” says Rapisardi. “The future
must be part of our daily lives, starting from small
Drink Hiver, Save Bees gestures to the most important choices.” Iindaco.com
Hiver Honey Beer is a British company that combines an
environmental need for sustainable urban beekeeping
and high-quality craft beer. It sources raw honey from
independent beekeepers that helps nurture the growth
of healthy urban and rural bee colonies. “I came to
understand that bees pollinate over 30% of the food that we
eat; and that this ecosystem is critical to the wider health
of the planet,” says founder Hannah Rhodes (above). The
honey is an integral part of the company’s brewing process,
which creates delicious, non-pasteurized craft beer. The
brand donates 10% of profits to pollinator and green
spacing projects throughout London. While Hiver ships
its brews internationally, it also offers hands-on tasting and
beekeeping experiences for those looking to learn about
the bee-to-beer brewing process. MadeOfEngland.co.uk

IINDACO

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 GIFTS FOR GOOD

R I Z B O A R D S H O RT S
PLASTIC BOTTLE SHORTS

Using Less, But Better

Riz Boardshorts creates swim shorts made from 100%
recycled fabric — made from recycled plastic bottles.
Inspired by a vision to create “the most beautiful and
environmental boardshorts possible,” the certified B
Corporation donates 2% of its proceeds to the Marine
Conservation Society, proactively working to restore
the oceans to their natural beauty. Inspired by Savile
Row and surf culture, a pair of Riz Boardshorts blend
elegant tailoring with a laid back mood and hitting
the waves has never felt better — when you know
your investment is giving back to the water around
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WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
COMMON GROUND

Politicians all over the world

are misleading us by using
fear and nationalism to divide
us. By focusing on what we
have in common, we have
the opportunity to solve our
shared challenges. Here are
some ideas that promote
common ground.

By Dr. Eileen Borris

HOW TO OVERCOME
POLARIZATION WHEN
RELATIONSHIPS
BREAK DOWN
We see it in the news, on
social media, and in our daily
lives. America’s divisions are
deepening and are becoming
a profound threat to the very
core of American democracy.
This is polarization, and it
is ripping apart the social are small things we can all
fabric of this nation — making do to help bring our divided
it exceedingly difficult for mindsets that nation closer together.
Americans to come back make it difficult Feel comfortable being
together. The events of recent to engage in uncomfortable. It is difficult
years have only furthered divisions that began meaningful conversations having conversations about
long ago. or to listen to one another in issues we feel strongly
Polarization happens when people become a constructive way. In short, about, especially during
divided into opposing groups and hold on to our entrenched positions and times of heightened
ideological extremes over everything else. It warped perceptions lead to us polarization. Take a deep
occurs when subsets of a population adopt dehumanizing one another. breath and remember that
increasingly dissimilar attitudes toward Can we overcome the person you are talking
certain issues and each other. Unfortunately, polarization? To answer to is feeling uncomfortable
polarization in the United States has become this simply, yes, we can. as well. If we can have the
more about identity than disagreement on Remember: United we stand, difficult conversations with
issues, and it has become extremely toxic. divided we fall. We need to each other and discuss the
This is clearly demonstrated when connect with each other to issues, that is the first part
Americans identify themselves as either heal the rift so prevalent in of the battle won.
Republicans or Democrats. Either camp views our society today. If we can all Do not react — respond.
the “other” less as a fellow citizen and more like take some responsibility for Intense feelings and rhetoric
an enemy, setting up an us vs. them mentality. the divisions that face us and shouted at someone gets
Once this takes root, it deepens polarization make some small changes in us nowhere. If you disdain
to the point where it becomes toxic. Certain our behavior, it can ultimately FOX news and enjoy Rachel
psychological processes come into play and have a profound effect. How Maddow or vice versa — and
distort the way we see one another and how can we do this? How do we try to convince the “other”
we view the world around us. We develop change our behavior? There that your news source

88
REAL-LEADERS.COM / WINTER 2021
 Hiring Your Enemy Can Create Sustained Peace
As a lawyer and former minister of justice in
war-torn Colombia, Mónica de Greiff (right)
was appointed president of the Chamber of
Commerce of Bogotá in 2013. Shortly after, she
started a program that hired ex-combatants from
rebel FARC militants who had laid down their
arms. Many young people were recruited into
violent militias during the 50-year civil war, and
de Greiff recognized that economic inclusion
was an effective way of integrating people back
into society. What better way to show those
fighting you that building a stronger society
through business is a superior alternative to war?
“Many people prepared for the post-conflict era
question whether they are prepared to employ

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF BOGOTÁ

ex-combatants,” says de Greiff. “It’s not just a
question of signing a peace treaty — there needs
to be alternatives for all people too.”
GETTY IMAGES

is the only source that is not “fake” news —
you will not get very far. People with strong
feelings associated with polarized issues are
not responsive to facts, especially when there
is a lot of talk about “fake” news. Logic in these
instances is meaningless. What does help is
reaching out to one another in a friendly way
and finding the common ground that exists.
This common ground is the foundation from
which we can build.
Remember that these divisions have
been caused over time — which has been
heightening our anxiety and deepening our
divisions — so it is not something that can be
fixed quickly or easily. There have been forces
at play feeding into these divisions, and they
are not going away any time soon. These forces
include politicians only focusing on political
gain, news media wanting to increase ratings
and revenues, and algorithms at work on the
Internet to steer us to those who think like us
— which deepens the divide. These forces are
hard to resist and sometimes even harder to
recognize.
How we choose to come together and set the
stage for how we will engage with one another
will have an immense effect on the outcome of
what we are trying to achieve. We need to pay
attention to these factors and set our intention
toward a more peaceful and equal society
where we are not defined by our political
beliefs. When we can recognize and understand
how we have been pitted against one another,
“When we
perhaps we can finally say enough is enough.
can believe in Change is possible. We all can change, and
change, we are it is this belief in change that will help us
more prepared get through these trying times. When we can
to approach believe in change, we are more prepared to
others in a approach others in a productive and engaging
productive and way. The more we can give others the space
to say what they need to say, to voice their
engaging way. concerns, and help them feel heard, the more
The more we they will let their defenses down. As people
can give others feel heard, they will be more willing to listen. If
the space to we can allow this and move forward together,
say what they then polarization will lose its grip and present
us with a chance to move forward in a more
need to say, peaceful way.
to voice their There is an old tale about a Cherokee elder
concerns, and teaching his grandchild about life who said,
help them “A fight is going on inside you. It is a terrible
feel heard, fight between two wolves. One wolf represents
the more they fear, anger, envy, greed, arrogance, and ego. The
other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, kindness,
will let their generosity, and faith. The same fight going on
defenses inside you is inside every other person too.”
down.” The child thought about it for a moment and
then asked, “Which wolf will win?” The old man
replied, “The one you feed.” n
Dr. Eileen Borris is a clinical and political
psychologist specializing in international
conflict resolution. She has helped peace
efforts in more than 15 of the world’s most
volatile and war-torn countries.

89
WINTER 2021 / REAL-LEADERS.COM
IMAGINE

Imagine Encouraging Young People to Achieve the Impossible

Some people spend their lives deciding on a career, but for 20-year-old Alyssa Carson, the goal has been clear since she was three years old:
Be among the first humans to explore Mars. Carson has spent most of her life preparing to go to Mars by attending space camps and advanced
preparation programs, building a presence on social media, and meeting with former female astronauts. “When I was nine, I met Sandy Magnus at
a Sally Ride Festival, a local festival they used to have in the Louisiana area,” Carson explained. “Sandy told me that she had decided at the age of
nine to become an astronaut, but at the time it was very difficult for women to become an astronaut. She eventually succeeded and went to space
three times. “For her deciding at nine and me being nine, it really showed me that you can start young, and you can decide what you want to be
when you are younger and then eventually grow up to realize your dream. It can become a reality.” In 2013, at age 13, she was recognized by NASA
NASA / JASON HOOK

for visiting all 14 NASA Visitor Centers in the United States and sat on the NASA Mer 10 panel at age 12 discussing future missions to Mars in the
2030s. Today, Alyssa has her rocket license, advanced scuba certification, pilot license, skydiving class A license, and is a certified Aquanaut.
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