Tech visionaries and other wealthy entrepreneurs with a focus on the overall impact market are the focus of today’s two stories.
Rockefeller’s Rodin Says Musk Visionary Drawing Capital
Margaret Collins & Kelly Bit – Bloomberg
Tesla Motors Inc. CEO Elon Musk is a pioneer when it comes to attracting money aimed at improving society and generating a profit, said Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin.
“Elon Musk is a visionary in figuring out how to attract investment capital,” Rodin said Tuesday at the Investing With Impact conference at Bloomberg LP headquarters in New York. Tesla appeals both to investors who seek a purely financial return and to those who believe the company’s electric cars can benefit the environment, she said. Its stock has surged more than tenfold since the company went public in 2010.
Rodin, who was interviewed by Bloomberg News editor-in-chief emeritus Matthew Winkler, said opportunities ranging from certain public equities to social-impact bonds are drawing investors to a strategy that targets societal or environmental good along with financial returns. Social-impact bonds can finance public and private partnerships targeted at issues ranging from education to reducing prisoner recidivism.
The impact investing industry may reach $1 trillion by 2020, according to a 2010 report by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the Rockefeller Foundation, which coined the phrase in 2007. Billionaires such as Jean and Steve Case, who co-founded AOL Inc.; EBay Inc. founder Pierre Omidyar; and Shari Arison, owner of Arison Investments, have put their money into impact investments.
Wealthy Entrepreneur Focused On Impact Investing
Devin Thorpe – Forbes
James Lee Sorenson, whose late father was listed among Forbes’ billionaires and left his fortune to charity, has focused his significant personal wealth accumulated through his own entrepreneurship on driving impact around the world, by “building a comprehensive impact ecosystem that has the appropriate tools whether that is a philanthropic grant, a social impact bond, or an equity investment to address different societal challenges and create sustainable scalable impact.”
At present, Sorenson, via the Sorenson Impact Foundation, is working on three separate but closely related projects, including the Sorenson Global Impact Investment Center (commonly known as the SGII Center), pay for success financing and an impact investing fund.