Pan Pacific Sonargaon
Dhaka, Bangladesh

Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX), in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is hosting the Impact Forum for Social Change on January 10th, 2011, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The forum will inform social enterprises about the various alternatives to raising investment capital, as well as developing their understanding of the requirements that social enterprises must meet to raise investment capital through a social stock exchange or otherwise. Participants will be introduced to the impact investing movement, impact measurement tools, and reporting standards. The Impact Forum will be feature prominent speakers from the Social Innovation space, including Dr. Alex Nicholls (Oxford University) and Margot Brandenburg (Rockefeller Foundation). Notable names from the field of social venture finance and private equity will also be present. The forum will aim to bring together participants from the government, development agencies, SEs in Bangladesh, impact investors and ecosystem players.

For more information about covering this event, please contact Mr. Alvin Loke.

About our Panelists:

Dr. Patricia Tan Shu Ming:  Director of the Como Foundation, the corporate philanthropy arm of the Como Group. The foundation focuses on NGOs and social enterprises that address issues of income generation, education and skills development for at-risk women and girls in developing countries. Ming’s career has focused on two areas: cooperation between the public and private sectors for social good, and the role of ideas and values in shaping corporate identity.  In the area of public/private cooperation, Ming’s academic interests have focused on institutions charged with shaping public understanding of abstract issues such as science, technology, and ethics.  Ming obtained her bachelors and masters degrees from Stanford University and her doctorate from Oxford University. She was Singapore’s Rhodes Scholar for 1997.

Ms. Jenny Santi:  Head of Philanthropy Services, Southeast Asia at UBS AG. At UBS, Jenny is involved in the development of the overall strategy for some of Asia’s newest foundations; and has played a key role in delivering the UBS Philanthropy Forum twice in Singapore, a landmark event which convenes over 250 global philanthropists and leaders of civil society.  Formerly a tv presenter and university lecturer, she is a frequent media commentator on the topic of philanthropy in Asia. Jenny did her MBA at INSEAD and at Wharton, with a special focus on marketing and social entrepreneurship.

Dr. Ting Hway Wong:   General Surgeon, Singapore General Hospital.  She previously worked on the ground in Angola as a volunteer through Doctors Without Borders and is the first Singaporean to work as a medical delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross.  Dr. Wong is a 2007 Lee Kwan Yew Scholar, a 2009 Asia Society ‘Asia 21 Fellow’ and after obtaining her medical degree from Cambridge, she also received her Masters in Public Health from John Hopkins University.

Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) presents the Impact Chat series: a monthly discussion series that invites leading experts and innovators to discuss the newest developments from the social enterprise and impact investing field.

This month, IIX is proud to present Pakistan: Growth After Recovery, where the discussion focused on how innovative solutions like microfinance and agricultural cooperatives can empower the people to help themselves through its recent flooding disaster and contribute to rebuilding Pakistan.

Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) and Impact Investment Shujog (Shujog) opened its office doors Thursday evening, November 11th, to host its third monthly Impact Chat.

This month’s topic, “Investing for Impact” focused on the growth and challenges in the impact investing sector of Asia from the investor’s perspective.  Impact Chat invited Mr. Oscar Moreno, founder and chairman of Qi Global and Mr. Christian Luetkehaus, managing director and partner of Portelet to speak about how their social philosophies influence their investment philosophies.

The evening discussion was hosted by Robert Kraybill, Managing Director of IIX and welcomed over 30 guests with evening drinks and lively discussion.

The Impact Chat series is made possible from support of Corum, helping IIX and Shujog “Unlock and Conquer” the social issues of today.  For more information and to receive an invitation for the next event, please contact Lina Tang at ltang@asiaiix.com.

Earlier this year, IIX Founder Durreen Shahnaz was selected to be a 2010 Ted Fellow, joining a group of “outstanding individuals who have shown unusual accomplishment, exceptional courage and moral imagination.” At TED, the Fellows share their work on the conference stage; these talks are recorded and shared online, free to the world.

In this talk, Durreen details the creation of Impact Investment Exchange – the very first stock exchange for social enterprises – and how her defiant optimism has gotten her to where she is today.

View more Ted Talks by other Fellows here.

For more information about this event, please visit the symposium website.

On Tuesday, November 5, IIX Founder and Chairperson Durreen Shahnaz took a break from a busy conference schedule in New York to speak at her alma mater, the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. She presented the story behind IIX, and how the right combination of defiance and optimism can revolutionize how capital markets can be used for social good.

Read a recap at The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn’s undergraduate independent student newspaper: “For alum, optimists can make a profit.”

Durreen Shahnaz, IIX Founder and Chairman, was interviewed by writer Lisa de Bode for “De Tijd,” (The Times), a business and economics daily newspaper in Belgium.

Read the English translation of the Dutch article below – another great example of how IIX is garnering attention across the world through its unique business model.

“The world’s first exchange for social enterprises will open in Singapore” (translated by Magnus Young)

Impact Investment Exchange (IIX), established by the Singaporean
entrepreneur Shahnaz Durreen, is creating the social equivalent of the
ordinary stock exchange. It is the world’s first exchange for social
ventures.

They will be active from September 2011. The exchange will serve as a
trading platform for buying equities and bonds from social enterprise
firms in Singapore, Thailand, and Bangladesh. Both profitable and
companies with a social mission, as well as not-for-profit companies
can go there.IIX will create a liquid and transparent market where social companies can easily access capital in order to increase their impact on their environment. It also intends to grant investors both social and financial “dividends” from the same investment.

The possibilities are enormous. These could include the possibility of investing in bonds of a local homeless business, or to buy shares in a firm that recycles office furniture. From projects in Singapore with mainly an economic perspective, to sustainable solutions to changing society. “We are not a charitable institution,” says Shahnaz.

“Every dollar is paid back.”

The concept appealed particularly to investors who have been entrepreneurs themselves. From their successful career they want give back to the society, but also see their hard-earned money making adequate returns. Bill Gates is the best-known entrepreneur today,with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supporting philanthropic projects. John Rockefeller had similar intentions, and his finances (e.g. the Rockefeller Fund) funded the establishment of the exchange with a one-time donation of $ 495,000.

In Portugal, a similar initiative is underway with the upwards direction of BVS Portugal (SSA Portugal) after Brazil’s social stock exchange model Bovespa. Here it is an online platform where investors can buy shares in social projects in the region at a fixed price of 1 million euro.
“In these cases, they are not real investments because you can not earn financially,” says Shahnaz. The United Kingdom is also planning to establish a ‘real’ social stock exchange that would be trading social stocks and bonds.

In Belgium more and more philanthropic funding is projected in the near future by a growing number of estates. “For now this money is invested for example in cooperative companies for good goals, and we see no need in Bel20 for an NGO in Belgium,” Dirk Dalle says of Jack, a financier and and advisory organization for social projects. ”We do see more space in the future for citizens to invest in such projects. Especially in the field of social welfare, we see a growing need. ”

(click to enlarge the original article)

The second official IIX Impact Chat,”Pakistan:Growth After Recovery,” was  held at the IIX Singaporean office on October 14, 2010. Featured speakers included Pakistani High Commissioner Fauzia Mazhar Sana and Professor Mahboob Mahmood of the INSEAD School of Business.

IIX Impact Chats are a monthly discussion series focused on advancing and broadening the themes around impacting investing and social enterprise by creating a space where industry and thought leaders can come together to share their latest developments and ideas.

This month’s discussion, sponsored by Corum, focused on the rebuilding of Pakistan and the role social enterprise and innovation has taken in helping empower its people through this crisis.

Top: Durreen Shahnaz, IIX Founder and Chairman.

Bottom: Pakistani High Commissioner Fauzia Mazhar Sana and Professor Mahboob Mahmood of INSEAD.

For more photos, view the entire album on our Facebook page. All photos are property of our photographer, Sir Michael Culme-Seymour. Many thanks to MCS Lifestyle Photography for taking documenting this wonderful event for us (www.mcslifestylephotography.com).

Durreen Shahnaz‘s alma mater, Smith College, covers Durreen’s work with IIX in their Fall 2010 Alumane Quarterly for their “Alumane on Our Radar” feature.

An excerpt from her interview:

Q: Given your focus on disadvantaged communities, why not start a more direct-service organization? Why do it through a social stock exchange?

DS: There is room for charities in the world, but I am interested in sustainable development, thus the interest in social enterprises – for-profit or not-for-profit companies focused on a social mission with a market orientation. They need to be able to attract investments for which they can give a return, and really show they can be financially viable as well.

Check out the full story, “Trading Up: Dureen Shahnaz ’89 creates Asia’s first socially responsible stock exchange” and flip the page for her interview.