IMM Heated Discussion

Katinka Leiner has been heading Ferd Social Entrepreneurs since its establishment in 2009. She was at the board of EVPA for 5 years and is a long standing board member of The Social Capital Fund in Denmark. Ferd SE is primarily investing in social entrepreneurs in Norway, with a broad array of investment tools ranging from grants to loans, SIBs and equity. Katinka has a Masters degree in engineering and was previously for 11 yrs the Director of Strategy and Communications at Innovation Norway, the Norwegian governmental body for industrial development and entrepreneurship. She has also held political positions in Oslo as a Labour Party member.

Peter Beez is a Program Manager and Regional Thematic Advisor for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. His work for this organisation aims to drive inclusive economic development through innovative and impact-linked finance.

Ben oversees the strategic direction Social Value International and leads our technical facilitation across a broad range of collaborating organisations. Ben is dedicated to reducing inequality and improving the well-being of people and the planet. He is honoured to be leading the global network of inspirational people changing the way the world accounts for value.

Paige Nicol is BlueMark’s European Director, responsible for building out the firm’s client verification services, business development and strategy in the region.

Paige has a decade of experience across professional services and the social sector. Most recently, she was the Director of Strategy & Insights for Luminate, a philanthropy of the Omidyar Group. In this role she led the development of the organisation’s global strategy and shaped their approach to impact measurement and learning. Prior to her time at Luminate, she co-led the development of the Omidyar Network’s experimental impact investing strategy on digital identification.

Paige began her career in management consulting at Deloitte, before returning to her undergraduate alma mater, Georgetown University, where she received her Masters in International Business & Finance at the Walsh School of Foreign Service.

With almost a decade of experience in the social investment space, Alessia is the Director of Knowledge and Programs at EVPA. As part of her role, she is responsible for research activities, content development, data collection, and community engagement.

Alessia co-authored publications, practical cases, and articles on topics such as venture philanthropy, impact measurement and management, impact strategies, the European impact ecosystem and tailored and hybrid finance. Thanks to her research, she prominently contributed to the EVPA narrative around investing for impact, and she has been invited to speak at international conferences and give guest lectures at European Universities and Business Schools (e.g. Nova School of Business and Economics, Luiss - Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli, INSEAD Business School in Paris, Solvay Brussels School Economics & Management).

Alessia also started the EVPA initiative "Foundations Along the Spectrum of Capital" in collaboration with Philea, which she now co-leads. She cooperates with EVPA's sister organisations in Latin America, Asia and Africa (IVPC, Latimpacto, AVPN and AVPA) to strengthen the collaboration among actors active in the global impact ecosystem, by sharing learning, facilitating the exchange of experiences and contributing to scale successes across regions. Alessia was a blue book trainee at the European Commission, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, specifically working on social enterprises and SMEs market assessment and on funding opportunities to support social investment.

Gianluca Gaggiotti is Knowledge Manager at EVPA. He focuses on data analysis and content development of several research-related initiatives.

Gianluca joined EVPA in 2017, and since then has developed an in-depth knowledge on the impact ecosystem and all the actors involved in it. Gianluca has previously worked as a Research Assistant for several project related to development and social network economics at Bocconi University.

He holds a Master degree in Economics and Social Sciences at Bocconi University with a thesis on the effect of terrorism on political outcome in the US.

Arnau Picón is Knowledge and Learning Associate at EVPA. Since joining EVPA in February 2019, Arnau has conducted research on topics related to the impact ecosystem, such as impact measurement and management and the role of crowdfunding platforms within the impact sector.

Previously, Arnau worked in the Social Policy Area of a Local Government and in the communication sector as a Journalist. He holds a Msc in Economic Development from the University of Glasgow and a Bachelor Degree in Journalism from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He speaks Spanish, Catalan, English and French.