Trustees
The GSG Board of Trustees is comprised of twelve Trustees, including a Chair, Vice Chair, and the President. Together, these leaders represent eight countries and four continents.
The global leadership of our Board is crucial to our movement’s success. Our Trustees bring the innovative vision and energy they have demonstrated in their home countries to leading our global movement. Learn more about their work by clicking on their profiles below.
Nick Hurd, Chair
Nick Hurd, Chair
Nick Hurd served as a Member of Parliament in the UK for fourteen years. During that time he served three different Prime Ministers as a UK Government Minister for nine years. As one of the longest serving Minister for Civil Society, he led the Government work that helped establish the UK as a world leader in developing the impact investment market. That included the setting up of Big Society Capital as the first impact investment wholesaler, and the establishment of the first social outcome funds to support Social Impact Bonds. Having stepped out of politics in December 2019, he is the Chair of the Access Foundation for Social Investment; a Global Ambassador for the GSG , and serves on the Advisory Council for the UK Institute for Impact Investment.
Sir Ronald Cohen, President
Sir Ronald Cohen, President
Sir Ronald Cohen is co-founder Chair of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG), The Portland Trust, and the recently-created International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI). He is also a former co-founder Chair of Bridges Fund Management, Big Society Capital, and Impact Weighted Accounts (IWA) at Harvard Business School and a co-founder Director of Social Finance UK, USA, and Israel.
Ibukun Awosika, Vice Chair
Ibukun Awosika
Ibukun Awosika is an African Entrepreneur, Author, International Leader, and Global Culture Shaper. She is the Founder of The Chair Centre Group, a leading furniture and security systems provider in Nigeria. She is the Founder of Ibukun Awosika Leadership Academy, the Convener of The International Woman Leadership Conference in Dubai, and also the Founder of the Christian Missionary Fund, a faith-based organization spread across Nigeria to change lives.
With an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University of Ife Nigeria and advanced degrees from various global institutions, including Lagos Business School, IESE Business School, Wharton, and China European International Business School (CEIBS).
She serves as Chairman or Board member on various Corporate and non-profit boards around the world, across Education, Energy, IT, Manufacturing, Retail, Financial Services, Corporate Governance, and Advocacy.
She is a woman of many firsts; she is the first Chairperson of the Nigerian National Advisory Board for Impact Investing, the first Female Chairperson of Nigeria’s Premier Bank, First Bank, the first Nigerian recipient of the prestigious International Women Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC) Award, and the first African recipient of the International Friendship Award 2019 by the Queen of Spain.
She is committed to serving nations; and was recently appointed to the UK G7 impact Taskforce, a member of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, and served on the pioneer board of the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Her recent recognitions are the 2020 Forbes Woman Africa Chairperson Award; and Beta Gama Signa 2020 Business Achievement Award. She is a fellow of the African Leadership Initiative, Aspen Global Leadership Network, and a recipient of 4 Honorary Doctorate Degrees.
She is happily married to Abiodun Awosika and they are blessed with three wonderful sons.
Juan Bernal
Juan Bernal
Juan Bernal is CEO of CaixaBank Asset Management since 2016, the leading asset manager in Spain not only by AUM, but also by promoting impact investment in liquid assets with over 3.300M€ under management in the impact range.
As part of the socially Responsible Banking model of CaixaBank, he leads the outstanding transformation of the company in the field of sustainability. His commitment to Excellence and Quality has positioned CaixaBank AM as the first asset manager in Spain to obtain both the Sustainable Finance Certification granted by AENOR for the investment process under ESG criteria and the prestigious EFQM certification. The EFQM Model is a globally recognized management framework that supports organisations in managing change and improving performance. Created in 1988 by the European Foundation for Quality Management as a model of excellence it provides a blueprint for organisations across and beyond Europe to develop a culture of improvement and innovation.
Chairman of SpainNAB since June 2019, he has been promoting the impact investment ecosystem which has grown significantly, reaching 2.4 billion euros under management in 2020 throughout Spain.
He holds a BBA from the EU Business School, and an Executive MBA from Universidad de Alcala.
Nicola Cobbold
Nicola Cobbold
Nicola has spent the last 12 years in the not for profit sector, with a particular focus on improving outcomes through sustainable economic development and social impact investment.
Since October 2015, Nicola has been exploring the role impact investment tools might play to help create solutions at scale to the global refugee and migration challenge. This follows nearly eight years as CEO of The Portland Trust, a British non profit ‘action tank’, working with a range of partners to help develop the Palestinian private sector and relieve poverty in Israel through entrepreneurship and social impact investment. Previously Nicola worked as a lawyer, specialising in media and copyright. Between 1995 and 1999 she lived in South Africa. In 1998 she headed up the legal team which bid for and won the first private South African free to air terrestrial television license, subsequently launching e.tv in a record breaking six months. Prior to specialising in media, Nicola worked as a corporate lawyer at Linklaters in London and Paris.
Interspersed with her legal career, Nicola worked in reconciliation and coexistence. In addition to compiling a report for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, she was a trustee (2001-2003) of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality. She has been a governor of the Hebrew University (2010-2013) and a Board Member of Seeds of Peace (2011 – 2014) and the Eastern Mediterranean International School in Israel (2013-15).
Nicola is a founding shareholder of Social Finance Israel and currently a Trustee of each of The Portland Trust, The Institute for Jewish Policy Research, The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, Mercy Corps Europe and Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe.
Nicola is a graduate of Cambridge University.
Cyrille Langendorff
Cyrille Langendorff
Cyrille Langendorff is Managing Director of the Private Equity and International Affairs Department of the French cooperative bank Credit Coopératif (CC), member of BPCE banking group and has over 20 years of experience in the banking sector.
After achieving a masters in finance from Paris Dauphine University, Cyrille began his investment banking career working for Banque Paribas and ABN AMRO Bank in Abidjan, London and Paris for 15 years. Prior to his current role as managing director at CC, Cyrille worked for four years in analysing and monitoring for CC the solidarity investments portfolio of investment funds managed by Ecofi Investissements (an asset management company of CC Group) in France, and the European investments done with CC’s partners of the European Federation of Ethical and Alternative Banks (FEBEA) and the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV).
He’s been rapporteur of the French national advisory board’s report on social impact investment (2014) and is now chair of the French National Advisory Board (NAB) representing France on the executive committee of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment under the chairmanship of Sir Ronald Cohen.
Chul Woo Moon
Chul Woo Moon
Chul Woo Moon is Professor in Strategy at the School of Business, Sungkyunkwan University.
Professor Moon has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University during 2019-2020. Professor Moon also serves as Chair of Korean National Advisory Board for Impact Finance. Before joining Sungkyunkwan, he also taught at Cleveland State University, as a full-time tenure track faculty member.
He received a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, an M.I.B.S. from the University of South Carolina, and a B.B.A. from Seoul National University. Recently, Professor Moon writes heavily on the issues that conjoin corporate strategy, impact economy and impact investing.
He is a member of the GSG Working Group for Impact Wholesale Fund. Professor Moon published his book “Impact: Definition and Measurement – IMP” in September, 2020.
Shannon Music
Shannon Music
Shannon Music is Director of Operations and Strategic Partnerships of VIVA Idea, a think-action tank that contributes to solving the key sustainability issues in Latin America through research, capacity building, and knowledge management.
She is co-chair of the Plataforma de Inversión de Impacto Centroamericana (PiiC), the Central American chapter of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investing (GSG). Shannon also serves on the boards of VIVA Trust, FIFCO, the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE), the International NGO Water for People, and her family’s roller-skating rink. She also sits on the innovation and entrepreneurship committee of the Lincoln School board.
She was interim COO for the Social Progress Imperative (SPI), where she helped develop the methodology for measuring social and environmental progress around the world. Prior to that, she worked as a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group and was Program Manager at New Sector Alliance. Shannon is a Fellow of the Central American Leadership Initiative (CALI) and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
She has an MBA, MPA, and bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard University. Shannon lives in Costa Rica with her husband and three children, ages 13, 11, and 8.
Tracy Palandjian
Tracy Palandjian
Tracy Palandjian is CEO and co-founder of Social Finance US, a national impact finance and advisory nonprofit that builds innovative partnerships and investments to measurably improve lives. Building on the work of its UK sister organisation, the firm led the development of the Social Impact Bond ecosystem in the United States. Prior to Social Finance, Tracy was a managing director for eleven years at The Parthenon Group and worked at Wellington Management Company and McKinsey & Company. Tracy serves as vice chair of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, vice chair of the Global Steering Group on Impact Investing, an independent director of Affiliated Managers Group (NYSE: AMG), a trustee at the Surdna Foundation where she chairs the Investment Committee, and a director at the Boston Foundation. A native of Hong Kong, Tracy received her B.A. from Harvard College and holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Maria Laura Tinelli
Maria Laura Tinelli
María Laura Tinelli is the Director and Founder of Acrux Partners (www.acruxpartners.com), an impact investment intermediary and market developer focused in South America. She founded and heads the Impact Investment National Advisory Board for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. She is an Investment Committee Member for NXTP Impact Investment Fund in Latin America. Together with Social Finance UK, Acrux and the IADB has structured the first Social Impact Bond for Argentina in 2018, and is currently working on the second one. She currently serves as Impact Investment advisor to the UNPRI.
Ambassadors
The GSG Global Ambassadors are leading figures who advise the GSG board and help to drive progress on GSG’s initiatives. Learn more about their work by clicking on their profiles below.
Rosemary Addis
Rosemary Addis, Ambassador for Impact Governance
Rosemary is a globally recognised director and strategist at the forefront of innovation and investment for impact. In the international portfolio of Board and Advisory roles she holds as Executive Director of Impact Strategist, Rosemary is bringing impact to the tables where decisions are being made. Her current portfolio includes Senior Strategic Adviser to UN Development Programme’s SDG Impact, Director, Impact Investing Australia, and Chair, Climate Ready Initiative at Griffith University.
Rosemary’s work is the subject of international case studies and she is extensively published, including developing the Handbook for establishing and leading a highly effective National Advisory Board. She has provided expert advice to impact related initiatives of the OECD and World Economic Forum and collaborated with Social Finance UK, Skoll Centre at Oxford University and Initiative for Responsible Investment at Harvard Kennedy School.
Rosemary was made a Member of the Order of Australia (2020) for significant services to social innovation, impact investment and the law, ranked among Australia’s AFR 100 Women of Influence for achievements in innovation (2015) and top thought leaders as finalist for Women in Finance Thought leader of the Year (2017). Impact Investing Australia, which she co-founded in 2014 was named Market Builder of the Year 2018.
Clara Barby
Clara Barby, Ambassador
Clara is currently on secondment at the Impact Management Project (IMP), where she oversees strategic direction and leads its technical facilitation across a broad range of collaborating organisations.
Previously, she led Bridges’ sustainable and impact strategies across all fund types. Clara also led the firm’s research and development efforts to promote the growth of the wider sustainable and impact investment sector.
Prior to Bridges, Clara focused her career on investing in sustainable businesses – most recently on the management team of a healthcare chain in India, an Acumen portfolio company. Clara previously worked for Acumen’s Capital Markets team where she played a lead role in designing an innovative investment vehicle and later co-led the Acumen renewable energy portfolio.
Clara holds a BA (Hons) in Greats from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD.
Dolika Banda
Dolika Banda, Ambassador for Women
Dolika Banda is an Independent Consultant based in Zambia and South Africa. She is a Zambian national and has extensive and deep experience in capital markets development, managing portfolios of several billion US dollars, often focused on the MSME space. She has served with Citibank, Barclays Bank, the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), the UK’s Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC Group) and the African Union’s African Risk Capacity Insurance Company Ltd (ARC Ltd). With a focus on banking and finance, her international banking and financial management experience combines operational investments as well as policy advice. She has worked across the globe, including Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Central Asia and the United States of America.
Current Board Roles
– CDC Group, the UK’s Commonwealth Development Company
– Harith General Partners, South Africa, fund manager of a US$1 billion pan
– African platform for infrastructure development across the African Continent.
Recent Awards
– Zambian Woman of the Year Award 2018
– Africa Femmes Performantes (Africa’s Performing Women) Dream Catcher’s Award for Courage 2012.
Saori Dubourg
Saori Dubourg, Ambassador
Saori Dubourg is a Member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE, a position she assumed in May 2017. She is responsible for BASF’s global businesses in Agricultural Solutions, Nutrition & Health, and Care Chemicals. Furthermore, she oversees, the region Europe, the startup trinamiX, and the BASF Corporate Sustainability Board.
Saori Dubourg worked at BASF in various positions since 1996, several years in USA, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Her professional experience includes strategy and the management of operational businesses, for example in the field of Dispersions, Monomers, Superabsorbers, but also Health and Nutrition. In addition, she ran the global executive HR department of BASF and was president for Asia Pacific. From 2009 to 2013 she led the BASF Nutrition and Health division.
In 2018 Dubourg was instrumental in the company’s acquisition of a range of businesses and assets from Bayer strategically complementing BASF’s Crop Protection, Biotech and digital farming activities. Being in charge of BASF’s Construction Chemicals, she was responsible for the divestiture of the Construction Chemicals business to an affiliate of Lone Star, a global private equity firm in 2020.
As a member of the Industrial Policy Group of the EU Commission, Saori Dubourg together with experts contributed to a joint industry vision paper for Europe 2030. The report, which was published in June 2019, sets out a vision of European industry in 2030.
Driving new standards in corporate accounting to incorporate a more holistic view on environmental and societal impact for future business steering, also called ‘Value to Society’, has been one of her major contributions. Saori leads the steering committee of the non-profit organization, Value-Balancing Alliance founded in June 2019. Together with major partners the alliance aims to create a standardized model for measuring and disclosing environmental, human, social and economic value companies provide to society.
Since January 2020 Saori Dubourg is a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development, which advises the Federal Government on the implementation of the sustainability strategy.
Alejandro Preusche
Alejandro Preusche, Ambassador for Latin America
Industrial Engineer at Universidad Católica Argentina, MBA at Stanford University. Over 45 years of business and civil society experience. McKinsey Senior Partner, Partner at PE Firms, and President of ACDE (a Christian business leaders association), member of Justice and Peace Commission. Founded Almado in 2003 to develop innovative businesses and investment programs to make substantial impact on vulnerable populations in Argentina, Chile and Paraguay, with a distinctive focus on value creation at the territory level. Currently GSG Ambassador. Has helped set up various GSG NABs in South America. Board roles at Foundations. Married to Maria Dolores Morad, 7 children and 18 grand children.
Paul Romer
Paul Romer, Ambassador
Paul Romer is an economist and policy entrepreneur and co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economics Sciences. He has spent his career at the intersection of economics, innovation, technology, and urbanization, working to speed up human progress. His title is University Professor at NYU, with an affiliation in the School of Law. Before coming to NYU, Paul taught at Stanford, and while there, started Aplia, an education technology company he later sold to Thomson Learning. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Laurie Spengler
Laurie Spengler, Ambassador
Laurie J. Spengler is an impact investment banker, board member and active contributor to the impact investing industry. Among her current board engagements, she serves as a non-executive director of the CDC Group (the UK DFI), the UK Impact Investing Institute and Bridges Insights. Laurie serves as Global Ambassador to the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment and is Senior Fellow and Advisory Council member at Casei3 at the Fuqua Business School. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Previously, Laurie was CEO of Enclude Ltd. and Enclude Capital UK Limited, formerly part of the Shore Bank and Triodos family of companies, and now a Palladium Company. Prior to building Enclude Capital, Laurie was founder and CEO of Central European Advisory Group, a regional advisory firm she sold to her management team in 2005. She also worked as an attorney with the New York, Brussels and Prague offices of White & Case. Laurie has a JD from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree from Stanford University.
Laura Tyson
Laura Tyson, Ambassador, Global Policy
Laura D. Tyson is a Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and she chairs the Blum Center for Developing Economies Board of Trustees at UC Berkeley. She is the co-chair California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Council of Economic Advisors. From July 2018 to December 2018, she served as Interim Dean of Berkeley Haas. Previously, she was the Dean of London Business School (2002-2006) and the Dean of the Berkeley Haas (1998-2001). Tyson was a member of the US Department of State Foreign Affairs Policy Board and a member of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. She served in the Clinton Administration as the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (1993-1995) and as Director of the National Economic Council (1995 – 1996). She is a member of the Board of Directors of CBRE Group Inc., Lexmark International Inc., and Apex Swiss Holdings SARL. She is the co-author of Leave No One Behind, a report for the United Nation’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment.
Masataka Uo
Masataka Uo
Masataka UO is the Vice Chair of the Japan National Advisory Board for the Global Steering Group for Social Impact Investment. He is also the founder and CEO of Japan Fundraising Association, a nationwide platform that promotes social impact investment and philanthropic giving in Japan, and the founder and CEO of Fundrex.Co.Ltd, a leading consulting company for social impact organizations. The Social Impact Center at the Japan Fundraising Association is performing a pivotal role in creating Social Impact Bonds projects, facilitating Social Impact Measurement Initiatives and advocating a dormant bank account utilization policy.
Aside from serving at the Economic Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, he also worked for Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Peter Maurer
Peter Maurer
Peter Maurer is a leading voice internationally on humanitarian and related issues. He is a currently President of the Board of the Basel Institute on Governance, Senior Fellow of the Advisory Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a Member of the Board of Directors of Zurich Insurance, a Member of the board of trustees of the Vontobel Foundation. He is President of the Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation (CCHN), Geneva. Peter is a member of the Leadership Council and Co-Chair of the Global Futures Council on Governance at the World Economic Forum (WEF), where his work focuses on global governance, humanitarian resilience, and innovative financial investment instruments. Peter launched the world’s first humanitarian impact bond scheme, in which private investors lend five-year funding and their repayments depend on what difference the project makes to its clients’ lives.
Peter served as President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 2012 to 2022, where he prioritized strengthening humanitarian diplomacy, engaging States and other actors for the respect of international humanitarian law, and improving the humanitarian response through innovation and new partnerships. Prior to his role at the ICRC, Peter served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Switzerland and headed the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs.
Giovanna Melandri
Giovanna Melandri
Giovanna Melandri, President and founder of Human Foundation, was a member of the Italian Parliament from 1994 to 2012 and has held the position of Minister for Culture (1998- 2001) and Minister for Youth and Sport (2006-2008).
During her political career, she has been mostly engaged in international relations, cultural affairs, human rights, youth policies, sport and environment. She has developed close cooperation with other multilateral organizations, such as UNESCO and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency).
Since November 2012, Giovanna was nominated President of the MAXXI Foundation for contemporary arts. Giovanna graduated cum laude in Economics at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”.
Giovanna served as a GSG Trustee until 2022 and continues to serve GSG as an Ambassador.