Impact Finance Fundamentals

Dr. Lisa Hehenberger is a lecturer in Strategy and General Management at ESADE. She is a renowned expert on venture philanthropy and social impact investment.

She is a member of the European Commission's Expert Group on Social Business (GECES) and of the OECD's Social Impact Investment Expert group. She served on the French National Advisory Board and the Impact Measurement Working Group of the Social Impact Investment Task Force established by the G8. Until recently, she was the Research and Policy Director of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA). EVPA is the pan-European association for venture philanthropy and social impact investment. She set up and ran EVPA's Knowledge Centre, conducting and publishing research, and collecting and disseminating data and knowledge. She also coordinated EVPA's policy initiatives, facilitating the transfer of knowledge between policy makers and practitioners.

Dr. Hehenberger's research focuses on applying organisational theory to study the evolution of venture philanthropy and impact investment.

Dr. Lisa Hehenberger is the director of 'The fundamental course on venture philanthropy and impact investing' whose complete agenda including the speakers' profile will be available soon.

Fabio Segura is Co-CEO at Jacobs Foundation (JF) where he shares the responsibility for the overall success of the organization, while leading the development and execution of its 2030 strategy. From 2015 to 2019 he was Head of International Programs, where he was responsible for the strategic, financial, and operative direction of programs across Africa and Latin America.

Previously he served as Senior Investment Manager at LGT Venture Philanthropy, where he was responsible to establish and grow the organization's investments and operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to his work in sustainability, Mr. Segura served as a peace and development worker in Colombia and as consultant for the United Nations.

Maria Raurell is ESADE alumni and has been working in the field of impact investing and financial inclusion since 2011. Today she holds the position of Director of Investments and Risk at MCE Social Capital - an impact investing firm that invests flexible capital in enterprises committed to generating sustainable livelihoods, with a focus on women and the environment. Previously, she has worked in Oikocredit International in the Netherlands as credit analyst, in Enclude as inclusive finance consultant, and as freelance consultant in the fields of financial inclusion and entrepreneurship. This work has allowed her to get exposure in multiple developing and emerging  markets such as Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mexico, Nicaragua and Pakistan among others.

In Spain, she has been collaborating with Stone Soup Consulting on impact evaluations and benchmark studies; she was also one of Oportunitas Foundation’s advisor, the first grassroots social microfinance institution in the country. 

With a decade of experience in the social investment space, as part of her long journey at EVPA, the European investing for impact network, Alessia contributes to build the impact investing market, by supporting impact investors and all impact stakeholders in connecting, exchanging, learning from each other, and providing them with research, data insights and capacity building opportunities. Alessia aims at accelerating impact by focusing on building partnerships with other networks and relevant actors in the field, sharing learning and good practices, breaking silos, and facilitating the creation and the exchange of knowledge.

In her capacity as EVPA Director of Knowledge and Programs, Alessia leads a team of 8 young enthusiastic professionals working on research activities, content and programs development, programs management, 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, tailored and hybrid finance. Thanks to her research, she prominently contributed to the EVPA narrative around investing for impact and to the debate on the different nuances of impact investing. Alessia is invited to speak at international conferences and give guest lectures at European Universities and Business Schools (e.g., ESADE Center for Social Impact, 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 cooperates with EVPA’s sister organisations in Latin America, Asia and Africa (GAIN, Latimpacto, AVPN and AVPA) to strengthen the collaboration among actors active in the global impact ecosystem, by sharing learning, facilitating the exchange of experiences, contributing to scale successes across regions.

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.