Sponsors
Cicero Impact Capital solves both capital and capacity constraints in emerging markets to unleash human potential and to maximize social impact. Geoff Davis, Cicero Capital’s CEO & Managing Partner, has decades of experience providing essential products and services in emerging markets. Geoff was the president & CEO of Unitus in the early days of microfinance, co-founded the predecessor to Elevar, was on the founding board of Kiva, ran a global education loan fund providing higher-education loans in 100+ countries, and developed a microenterprise bootcamp that started 50,000 small businesses a year in 110 countries. He’s a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, and advisor at MIT Solve & a member of the MIT Solve Fund Investment Committee, and a member of the Fast Company Impact Council. In addition to his role at Cicero Capital, he’s the Chairman of Align17, an impact investing platform that spun out of UBS. With Cicero Capital, Geoff had a vision of advancing the UN SDGs by combining world-class consulting services with flexible, entrepreneur-friendly revenue-based financing to unlock growth potential of small & medium enterprises serving poor and middle-class households. Revenue-based financing avoids the need for a traditional liquidity event for an exit and aligns all parties around growth in client outreach.
Marcum LLP is one of the largest independent public accounting and advisory services firms in the nation, with offices in major business markets throughout the U.S., as well as Grand Cayman, China and Ireland.
The Wege Foundation’s main focus is Western Michigan, mainly in Grand Rapids.
Peter M. Wege, founder of the family foundation, felt strongly about keeping the mission local because it honored the wishes of his father Peter Martin Wege, who created the Foundation’s resources. Peter Martin Wege founded Metal Office Furniture, today’s Steelcase, in 1912.
Peter Martin Wege’s metal-working genius and entrepreneurial gifts started the company that became the world’s largest producer of office furniture. As his son Peter M. Wege put it, “Dad said the money was made right here in Grand Rapids by Steelcase and he wanted it to stay here to do all the good we can. I feel exactly the same way.
Terra Alpha Investments is a public equity manager founded in 2014 by highly experienced investors who share the conviction that our rapidly evolving world requires a change in investment thinking. Our rigorous and proprietary Environmental Productivity (EP) analysis values our planet’s natural resources and sits at the center of our successful investment process. Our innovative process of quantitative and qualitative analysis helps us identify leading companies with the optimal combination of enduring business models and superior EP. We believe this process is the primary driver of our ability to deliver superior long-term investment returns for our investors.
JanaJal is India’s premier technology enabled water services company focused on potable safe drinking water. Serving the largest market for safe drinking water in the world, JanaJal’s commitment to sustainability and impact helped the company create a unique business model that lowers the cost of safe water by 80% and dispenses safe water to millions of Indians without using plastic bottles.
Over the past 3 years, the company has served over 1M Indians and dispenses over 300M liters of safe water.
EcoTech Visions is Miami’s first green incubator and makerspace.
We assist entrepreneurs in creating, planning, and launching innovative and “green” manufacturing businesses in South Florida. More than just some business workshop, we offer high-quality business resources, maker space, office space and event space to support the development of products made with recycled materials.
We built EcoTech to provide an intense incubation experience for entrepreneurs that greatly enhances the potential for success upon launching into the market. We will launch innovative and environmentally-conscious ideas that would otherwise remain dormant and inactive due to limited resource availability.
We are undertaking the creation of the first green city in America with goals of spreading the development framework globally. Our flagship location is within the Green corridor in Miami Florida. The Green Corridor helps focus economic development in order to encourage companies and entrepreneurs dealing with renewable energy, energy efficiency, and environmentally beneficial technologies to locate within Miami-Dade County.
Stakeholders Capital is a wealth management firm committed to integrating our clients’ values with their financial goals. Our clients are concerned with not just how their portfolio is doing, but what it is doing, to the environment, and to society.
Our team provides comprehensive financial planning and exceptional service.
We combine traditional investment strategies with in-depth knowledge of socially responsible investing. Our investments are carefully selected within a sophisticated framework of broad-based global diversification. Stakeholders Capital also provides access to high-impact, private and local investment opportunities to complement traditional investing.
The Case Foundation, created by digital pioneers Jean and Steve Case, is a diverse and dynamic institution by design. We create programs and invest in people and organizations that embrace the Be Fearless principles and harness the best impulses of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and collaboration to drive exponential impact. In particular, we focus on catalyzing movements and collaborating to bring forward ideas that have transformative potential and can lead us to uncover new, more impactful ways of addressing chronic social challenges.
Vanderbilt Financial Group is an investment firm disrupting traditional finance by focusing on socially and environmentally responsible, ethical, and impactful investments. We do this while keeping our advisors front and center, providing a world-class level of service with a “family office” feel. Headquartered in a LEED-certified Platinum building, our commitment to changing the world begins at home in our office and within our culture. We are a unified team driven by shared values of gratitude, respect, innovation, teamwork, and trustworthiness which we constantly apply to our clients, our community, and our environment.