Webinar Corporate Social Initiative

Lorena Guillé-Laris has vast experience in the philanthropy and corporate social responsibility sector. In her career she has headed corporate areas and organizations such as Fundación Cinepolis, which she directed for fifteen years.

In addition to being an intra-entrepreneur, mentor, counselor in various civil society organizations and having experience as a professor of social responsibility, Lorena is a second generation FEMSA employee -the largest Coca Cola bottling company in the world- growing up with the company's values.

Guillaume Vaudescal has a long track record in both Finance and new mobility services. 10 years ago he created an SRI relations function inside the Investors Relations department, then worked 6 years on developing solutions to adapt Renault cars to mobility services such as car sharing.

He joined the CSR department a year ago to be in charge of Mobilize Invest. Mobilize Invest is an impact investment funds dedicated to inclusion and mobility.

Next to chair of EVPA, Steven is also chair of EVPA's Corporate Initiative. During his career, he has been working over 20 years with both executive teams of corporates to reshape their strategies towards an inclusive business, and social entreprises, to create impact at scale.

In 2011, he joined Ashoka Global, Washington, as strategic advisor. In this capacity, he focussed on how citizen sector organizations (and social entrepreneurs in particular) and corporations can work together successfully in creating social impact at scale in a commercially viable setting. Since then, he has been working together with many social entreprises, investing in some of them.

Having worked with both social and business actors, his focus today is very much on the sweet spot where doing business and doing good are coming together.

Steven is also an investor and member of the Investment Committee of SI², a for profit social impact fund, providing growth capital to European for profit social enterprises.

He is chairman of Kampani, a social impact investment fund to unlock the potential of entrepreneurial farming in the South, and board member of the Impact Investment Institute in UK.

Furthermore, he is board member of the Impact Investment Institute in UK and co-founder and chair of Iristick, an industrial smart glasses company blending Tech for Business with Tech for Good.

He is the (co-)author of papers and books on various topics dealing with the role of business in society, such as:

- EVPA's report on 'Corporate Social Impact Strategies - New paths for collaborative growth'; May 2016

- The book 'Everyone Social: Can entrepreneurs save the world', WPG/Manteau, 2016

- Stanford Social Innovation Review article: The Rise of the Corporate Social Investor; May 2020

Carolina is CEO of LatImpacto, the Latin America Venture Philanthropy Network, a regional community of social investors that connects and mobilizes capital (human, intellectual, and financial) committed to achieving the most significant social and environmental impact.

Mrs Suárez has over 14 years of experience in the fields of private social investment and philanthropy. Throughout her career and as an expert working with the social sector, she has played a strategic role in the international arena in promoting effective transformations by knowledge sharing and building effective partnerships. She is a reference on strategic approaches to philanthropy and is frequently invited to participate in high-level debates regarding private social investment.

Before heading LatImpacto, she was a Senior Adviser at the International Venture Philanthropy Center (IVPC), where she co-led and strategized the creation of the LatImpacto, based on the success of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EPVA) and the Asian Venture Philanthropy Association (APVN).

Mrs Suárez was also the Founder and CEO of the Association of Family and Corporate Foundations -AFE Colombia- since its creation in March 2008 until June 2018. During these years, she positioned, nationwide and internationally, the AFE as a leading entity and point of reference in philanthropic and social issues, projecting its reach all over Colombia and to international borders, where she contributed to achieving greater synergies and alliances to carry out projects with major social impact, and influencing public policy to promote social transformations through the collective work.

Karoline Heitmann is Corporate Initiative Manager at the European Venture Philanthropy Association's (EVPA). She is leading EVPA's research on corporate social investing and is a published author on topics such as employee engagement and strategic alignment between corporates and corporate foundations.

Next to this, she organises events for corporate social investors (such as corporate foundations, impact funds, accelerators, social businesses) across Europe and supports the organisation of the C Summit, Europe's first and only corporate philanthropy and social investing summit.

Sophie leads Impact Europe's corporate impact market development in Europe, supporting Corporate and Financial institutions in shaping their social investment strategies, benchmarking their initiatives, facilitating peer learning, enabling the co-funding or co-creation of projects through strategic collaboration. 

She is part of the National Advisory Board for Impact Investing in France and various local networks. She sits on the Board of a few non-profit organisations like PhiTrust Incubator, Article 1 (Education), Simplon (Coding school) and is part of the Expert Committee of Sanofi Espoir Foundation.

Prior joining Impact Europe in 2016, she occupied several senior positions at BNP Paribas: in charge of the Wealth Management strategy for Philanthropy, Impact investing & Social Responsible Investment and as an Investment banker for more than 15 years structuring fund raising for strategic Corporate & Institutional clients in Europe, Brazil and Asia (Shanghai).