Leadership Greater Hartford in partnership with reSET presents Beyond Business as Usual in response to a larger national shift in business away from profit as the only metric of success. In recent news, the Business Roundtable, an association of American CEOs, publicly stated that the purpose of business is no longer just shareholder value, but it is stakeholder value. This includes customer value, treatment of employees, ethical supply chains, care for the community, and the environment.
reSET chose this year’s theme of Impact Investing to involve Hartford-area change agents in increasing their knowledge of this growing field of social change. Impact investing is a mission-driven and community-based strategy that generates a return that includes both a profit and an impact defined by the investor and the business. This gathering is meant to be a catalyst in creating a financial ecosystem that includes CT investors, lenders, philanthropists, and entrepreneurs around positive and social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.
The morning includes a panel of impact investment stakeholders in order to start this important conversation in Hartford with many perspectives:
- Dorothy Adams is an investor interested in social impact investing and improving the funding of nonprofits, especially those serving Connecticut’s urban at-risk populations. She serves as Board Chair of Capital for Change
- Erika Frank is the Community Investments Officer at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, leading the implementation of the impact investing program, HFPG Impact!
- Galia Gichon is founder of Down to Earth Finance and author of “My Money Matters.” She is an independent personal financial advisor and angel investor with 20 years in financial services with Pipeline Angels, Astia, Topstone Angels, Next Wave Impact, Her Corner, and Refinery CT.
- Randall Strickland is the Director of Cornerstone Capital Group, LLC, specializing in Sustainable/Impact Investment, & Adjunct Professor, Bard College’s Sustainable MBA.