Legal Issues in Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing— in the US and Beyond New York University School of Law Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Square South, New York City June 5–6, 2018 Conference Speakers Conference Organizers: Follow along and join the conversation using the hashtag #NYULawGrunin June 5–6, 2018 New York University School of Law #NYULawGrunin III Conference Speakers IV Legal Issues in Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing—in the US and Beyond Conference Speakers Abrams is an impact investing industry (2006) and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur pioneer and thought leader through of the Year in India—in the startup authorship of over 20 publications (2006) and business transformation and participation in 12 industry (2009) categories. He is a Young standards-setting groups, including Global Leader of the World Economic Julie Abrams the inaugural Global Impact Investing Forum and an Echoing Green Fellow. Network’s (GIIN) Impact Investing Founder and Managing Director, Akula is the founder of Vaya (www.vaya- and Reporting Standards (IRIS) Impact Investing Analytics india.com), which uses tablet-banking Financial Services Working Group Julie Abrams is founder and managing technology to deliver loans to low-in- and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s director of Impact Investing Analytics, come people in India. He is an angel Expert Panel on Financial Inclusion. a consulting firm specializing in impact investor in fintech startup ArthImpact, investing and innovative finance She was a fellow at the Lauder Institute which uses an app to provide credit globally, with a special focus on of Management and International to small entrepreneurs in India. He emerging and frontier markets. She Studies, where she earned an MBA is an angel investor in AgSri, which specializes in high-impact equity and from Wharton in finance and entre- helps small farmers in Africa and India debt impact investment transactions preneurial management, and an MA reduce water use. He is the founder of through the investment life cycle, risk in international studies focused on Bodhi School in India, which provides management, corporate governance, Latin America from the University of education for underprivileged children. financial and social impact perfor- Pennsylvania. She is a Certified Expert He has worked with McKinsey & mance, strategy, and training. Abrams in Risk Management by the Frankfurt Company and the Worldwatch has been involved in over $350 million School of Finance and Management, Institute, and he has authored Micro- in impact investing transactions in holds a BA from Oberlin College, and Meltdown: The Inside Story of the Rise, more than 40 countries. She serves is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. Fall, and Resurgence of the World’s as a senior property rights innova- Most Valuable Microlender (Ben Bella tive finance consultant to Omidyar Books and Harper Collins, 2018) and A Network, which also appointed her Fistful of Rice: My Unexpected Quest to the MicroBuild Fund investment to End Poverty Through Profitability committee since fund inception. (Harvard Business Review Press, 2010). Abrams served on Calvert Impact He has a BA from Tufts University, Capital’s investment committee for Vikram Akula an MA from Yale University, and a 12 years. She conducted a feasibility Chairperson and Promoter, PhD from the University of Chicago, study for a Brazil-focused impact Vaya Financial Services; Founder and he was a Fulbright Scholar. investment fund and was senior due and Chairperson, Bodhi School diligence consultant at ImpactUs, a Vikram Akula has been at the forefront FINRA broker-dealer online impact of creating market-based solutions for investing marketplace. At PwC’s financial inclusion. He began working Strategic Management Services, she in rural development in 1990, initially consulted to Fortune 500 companies as a grassroots social worker in India. and governments, with a focus on In 1997, he founded Bharat Financial Rick Alexander global investment, including sell-side Inclusion (http://www.bfil.co.in) in Head of Legal Policy, B Lab equity and privatizations. Her prior India, which is one of the world’s Rick Alexander is the head of Legal experience includes living and work- largest microfinance companies and Policy at B Lab. In that position, he ing in Brazil, Women’s World Banking has disbursed more than $12 billion works with lawyers, companies, inves- in the early days of microcredit, and in microloans. In 2006, TIME mag- tors, legislators, and regulators around a Chicago community center pilot azine named Akula one of the 100 the world, seeking to create sustain- women’s employment program. She is most influential people in the world. able corporate governance structures. a board member of WAM International. His awards include Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year in India June 5–6, 2018 New York University School of Law #NYULawGrunin 1 Conference Speakers Prior to coming to B Lab, Alexander SMEs, social enterprises, and impact counsel for The Working World and practiced law for 26 years at Morris, investors. With the integration, Seed lives in Philadelphia. Prior to joining Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell, including by EY would be able to further scale The Working World, he taught and four years as managing partner. He its presence in Latin American markets, practiced law in Africa. He orga- remains counsel to the firm. During his leverage tech-based solutions for legal nized a master’s degree program in time at the firm, he was selected as services, and strengthen its system- Community Economic Development one of the ten most highly regarded ic-approach to pro bono initiatives. at the Open University of Tanzania on corporate governance lawyers behalf of the Southern New Hampshire Before attending Oxford University, worldwide, as Delaware Mergers & University, taught business law at the Alfaro joined the largest corporate law Acquisitions Lawyer of the Year, as Kampala International University-Dar firm in Central America. He worked Delaware Corporate Law Lawyer es Salaam, served as special counsel as coordinator of a multi-field legal of the Year, and as one of the 500 to Mkono & Co Advocates and served practice in corporate and commercial leading lawyers in the United States. as a legal consultant to the African law, real estate, trusts and estates, Development Bank in Tunisia. Before In 2015, Alexander prepared the mergers and acquisitions, and litigation venturing to Africa, Arrington served as initial drafts of both the Delaware and arbitration. There, he founded chair, general counsel, and capital coor- public benefit corporation legislation the Costa Rican Pro Bono Committee, dinator of Equal Exchange, Inc. He also and the ABA Benefit Corporation which familiarized him with such served on the boards of the ICA Group, White Paper. He now serves as special NGOs as Techo and Grameen Bank. the Social Venture Network, and the consultant for Benefit Corporations In 2009, at the age of 21, he launched Cooperative Fund of New England. to the ABA’s Corporate Laws s.e.e.d. He coordinates legal affairs of Committee. He is a founding member outstanding ventures in various fields of the Delaware Access to Justice of the impact investing spectrum, such Commission, chairs the Content as sustainability, clean tech, conserva- Committee of the American College tion, microfinance, fair trade, culture, of Governance Counsel, is a research education, volunteering, health, sports, fellow of the British Academy’s Future and development. He also actively pro- of the Corporation project, and is Stephanie J. Bagot motes socially responsible investments a member of the Commonwealth Senior Attorney, and the enhancement of the social Climate and Law Initiative Advisory FINCA Impact Finance business ecosystem in Latin America. Board. He also serves as a board Stephanie J. Bagot is a senior attorney member of the Transgender Legal After completing his MBA at Oxford, at FINCA Impact Finance and the lead Defense and Education Fund. Alfaro was selected for Global Shapers attorney for cross-border mergers and Community, a world economic forum. acquisitions in the network. Bagot has over 15 years of legal experience as an international attorney and was a senior associate in the Business section at Holland & Knight prior to joining FINCA. She earned a law degree José Miguel Alfaro from the University of Paris-X, an LLM Gomez Clark R. Arrington in International Law from American University, and an MA in International Founder and Partner, s.e.e.d. General Counsel, Affairs from Georgetown University. Alfaro is an attorney at law in Costa The Working World USA Bagot is admitted to practice law Rica and founder of s.e.e.d., a bou- [email protected] in New York, Washington, DC, and tique law firm targeted to social impact Clark R. Arrington is an experienced France. She is a native French speaker ventures in Costa Rica. In 2018, s.e.e.d. attorney and educator with degrees and has good knowledge of Spanish. became Seed by EY, EY’s business unit from Pennsylvania State University in charge of serving “strategic growth and the University of Notre Dame Law markets,” including startups, School. He currently serves as general 2 Legal Issues in Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing—in the US and Beyond Center, a commissioner emeritus of the Supreme Judicial Court’s Access to Justice Commission, and treasurer of the Boston Public Market. Bal graduated from Williams College and Northeastern University School of Law. Navjeet Bal Ranajoy Basu Managing