My recap of the 100WF Impact Investing Symposium

Happy fall, everyone! I hope your October has started off as well as mine has. Right out the gate, on October 1, I had a phenomenal time attending the 100 Women in Finance Impact Investing Symposium in New York City!

Although the conference started back in 2013 (as the High Water Women Investing for Impact Symposium), this was my first time attending. I found myself delighted by the topics of conversation, which were very different from the usual emerging manager conferences I attend.

Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy gave some great insights into how to make clean energy legislation more effective (like actually focusing on compliance) and encouraged us to look at the investment that can be made, not just the problems themselves.

From a panel of experts in commercializing impact solutions, I learned a ton about climate investing. Did you know that the vast majority of climate finance has been focused on mitigation? It’s obvious that climate change isn’t going anywhere, so I’m of the mind that investing in resilience and adaptation is the right way to go. (And also that AI will be the death of our environment. Yes, I said it!)

As a PE fund formation strategist, I found the “Allocators’ Approach to Sustainable Investing” the most interesting, of course. Andrew Siwo, Head of Sustainable Investments and Climate Solutions at NY State Common, made a strong point about impact investing not being inherently concessionary: “Bad performance is not the same as concessionary.” Bad performance is inexcusable regardless of the impact you’re seeking. I so appreciated his candor and believe more of it is needed—investment performance speaks for itself, and if the world becomes better as a result of that performance, let us rejoice!

What a great panel!

I ran into October Emerging Manager RoundTable guest Nancy Vailakis there (so delightful!) and enjoyed making new friends (aka expanding my network).

Nancy and me!

Me explaining where to find the lil' Cokes

And the event photographer got me making some of my best pensive faces!

My best "I'm listening at a conference" face

Me, listening. And probably judging.

I look forward to this event next year, and I recommend you take a look to see if you need to put it on your calendar for 2025. 

There are plenty of other conferences this month, from the Maguire Woods Independent Sponsor Conference in Dallas (Oct 15-16) and GCM Grosvenor Consortium in New York City (Oct 22-24), so choose wisely and enjoy yourself!