If you are interested in social enterprises, impact investing, start-ups, Asia, empowerment, and stories of unreasonable people committed to make the world a better place, then you may decide to read on.


I will explore the intersection of many different worlds that typically don’t intersect. At this intersection where traditional finance meets non-profit, start-up meets government, Silicon Valley meets Dhaka, there is a new type of ecosystem being built. I have found beauty in such contrasts, where in one conference room, the lady to my left may be a Goldman Sachs executive, to my right, an Indian market weaver, across the table, a member of the Singapore ministry.


This all occurs in a city called Singapore, which I have found to be quite a surprising intersection of many different worlds itself. Often referred to as the “benevolent dictatorship”, one might wonder whether Singapore might just be the ideal place to build a “benevolent capital markets”, a capital markets organized for the purpose of doing good.

Friday, June 3, 2011

It’s a different type of capital markets



The World’s First Stock Exchange was in Bruges, Belgium in the 14th century.

Since then the stock exchange has undergone transformational change and evolution. Having spent several years on Wall Street, I have my own personal impressions of the Wall Street exchange and the bank’s trading floors and capital markets. I experienced one version of it first hand.

It is particularly exciting for me to be returning to capital markets where businesses with social and environmental impact are invested in, given a valuation by global research firms, a rating or score card by ratings agencies, and even traded. It is a joy to help build an alternative capital markets where social and environmental companies are not viewed as inefficient business models.
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