[January 12, 2017]

The Economist Events' Impact Investing Conference to Explore Major Opportunities and Obstacles to the Mainstreaming of Impact Investment

The Economist Events is pleased to announce the debut of its 2017 Impact Investing conference being held on February 15, 2017, at 10 on the Park at Time Warner (News - Alert) Center, in New York City. Along with editors from The Economist, the event will bring together more than 200 leading financiers, institutional investors, policymakers, academics, impact investors and philanthropists to analyse the opportunities and obstacles to the mainstreaming of purpose-driven finance.

The conference will cover topics such as measurement challenge, regions on the frontier of impact, shareholder engagement with public companies, corporate culture transformation, gender and impact investing, and the relationship between the public and private sectors.

"Impact Investing has emerged from being a niche activity largely practiced by wealthy and philanthropically-inclined individuals, to now being championed by a growing number of leading institutions in the capital markets," said Matthew Bishop, Senior editor, The Economist Group. "With trillions of dollars of potential investments at stake, the discussions among global leaders in impact investing that will take place on February 15 will be critical in helping to move the industry forward."

Some of the confirmed speakers at this year's event include:

• Amit Bouri, Chief executive and co-founder, GIIN
• David Blood, Co-founder and senior partner, Generation Investment Management
• Neil Blumenthal, Co-founder and chief executive, Warby Parker
• Olivier Brousse, Chief executive, John Laing
• Mark Campanale, Founder and executive director, Carbon Tracker Initiative
• Audrey Choi, Chief executive, Morgan Stanley's Institute for Sustainable Investing
• Catherine Howarth, Chief executive, ShareAction
• Amy Jadesimi, Managing director, LADOL (Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base)
• Sallie Krawcheck, Chief executive and co-founder, Ellevest
• Andrew Kuper, Founder and chief executive, LeapFrog
• Roland Lescure, Chief investment officer, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
• Joshua Levin, Co-founder and chief strategy officer, OpenInvest
Ela Madej, Managing partner, Fifty Years
• Jessica Matthews, Managing director and head of mission-related investing practice, Cambridge Associates
• Colin Melvin, Global head of stewardship, Hermes Investment Management
• Arif Naqvi, Founder and chief executive, The Abraaj Group
• Jacqueline Novogratz, Chief executive, ACUMEN
• Tracy Palandjian, Chief executive and co-founder, Social Finance
• Deval Patrick, Managing director, Bain Capital Double and former governor of Massachusetts
• Nancy Pfund, Managing partner and founder, DBL Partners
• Vineet Rai, Founder, Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group
• Jean Rogers, Chief executive and founder, SASB
• Debra Schwartz, Managing director, MacArthur Foundation
• Andy Sieg, Head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management
• Ian Simmons, Co-founder and principal, Blue Haven Initiative
• Sonal Shah, Executive director, Beeck Center, Georgetown University
• Brian Trelstad, Partner, Bridges Ventures
• Jackie VanderBrug, Managing director and investment strategist, U.S. Trust
• Matthew Weatherley-White, Managing director, The CAPROCK Group
• Deborah Winshel, Managing Director, Global Head of Impact Investing, BlackRock
• Sarah Williamson, Chief executive, Focusing Capital on the Long Term (FCLT)

Additionally, you can view The Economist Events' Impact Investing blog page (http://www.economistimpactinvesting.com/) for more content and Q&As with some of our panelists. Follow the event on Twitter (News - Alert) via #EconImpact.

Bank of America is the event's Founding Sponsor, IESE Business School is the event's Silver Sponsor and Orrick is the event's Host Sponsor. The event PR agency is BackBay Communications.

Supporting associations include B the Change, Calvert Foundation, The Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association, Columbia Financial Investment Group (CFIG), Impact Alpha, Invest with Values, Next Billion, The South Pole Group and The Yale Student Investment Group (YSIG).

The event is open to the media - please contact Tylor Tourville at BackBay Communications (information below) for media registration details.

About The Economist (www.economist.com)
With a growing global circulation and a reputation for insightful analysis and perspective on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognised and well-read current affairs publications. The paper covers politics, business, science and technology, and books and arts, concluding each week with the obituary.

The Economist Events brings the publication to life. As the leader of debate in the pursuit of progress, Economist Events tackles leading issues with an insightful, forward-looking and distinctly global perspective. It provides the necessary tools for business leaders, senior executives and policy makers to make informed decisions and to stay ahead of the game in a rapidly changing world.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170112005239/en/

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