Radical Truth

Mark Campanale is one of the true pioneers and champions of sustainable investing and using capital to address the climate challenge. Join us as he will show us how to move the needle in capital mobilization away from a carbon-intensive economy What will you learn? - The energy system is changing now that renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels. How big is the ‘carbon bubble’ and why $100 trillion of lost fossil fuel revenues means something - Manufactured energy vs commodity energy, why electrons are more important than molecules and what the future will look like - Investors lose money – and make money – when a whole system changes. Where are the risks for investors in “business as usual” with fossil fuels?

Marko Oksanen is CEO of Coventures and an experienced product leader. Marko has been involved in building digital products and ventures his whole career. As co-founder, product manager or venture designer he has been hands-on building 20+ fast growing digital ventures in Helsinki & Berlin. Now as Coventures CEO Marko has been in the deep end of Corporate Venture Building and has seen many different approaches for building impact in cooperation with established companies and entrepreneurs.

In his talk he will share his learnings on how corporations can successfully build new ventures and which pitfalls to avoid.

What will you learn?

• What role corporate venture building can play in the impact ecosystem.
• Reasons why corporate venture building initiatives doesn't succeed.
• Different types of partners in corporate venture building ecosystem, why and when to partner with them.

Johan is one of the Founder of the largest Food Festival (30 years old and 400k visitors), Sweden Foodtech (SFT). We will discuss how he and SFT are changing the food system that is less destructive, more healthy, more innovative and more supportive of small holder farmers.

Most pension funds have realised that they need to look at all risks in their investment strategy; i.e. financial, environmental, social and governance risk.  Brunel Pension Partnership Limited (Brunel) is one of eight national Local Government Pension Scheme Pools, bringing together more than £30 billion of investments of 10 likeminded funds. Denise Le Gal, Chair of Brunel Pension Partnership will share her experience as a thought leader in the responsible investing space. TBLI is the world's leading ESG/Impact Investing network/authority. We have been educating, advising, and connecting investors for 25 years.

Wayne Silby founded Calvert Investments, a $15 billion investment management group in Bethesda, MD noted for their leadership in the area of socially responsible investment. Though he is no longer active in most of the day-to-day business of Calvert Investments, he supervises its private equity activities.

Mr. Silby also co-founded Social Venture Network, a group of socially oriented entrepreneurs and investors, and Calvert Social Venture Partners, one of the first socially oriented venture capital funds. He also started the Emerging Europe Fund for Sustainable Investment, a $60 million OPIC private equity fund focused on Central Europe.

Mr. Silby chairs ImpactAssets, a $200 million donor advised fund, and SynTao, Ltd., a CSR consulting firm in Beijing, China.

What will you learn?

- How to start an Impact Investing Fund management

- What will be the next iteration of impact and ESG?

- How to build the Impact Ecosystem in China?

Capitalism is broken. The relentless pursuit of more has delivered climate catastrophe, social inequality and financial instability—and left us ill prepared for life in a global pandemic. Weaving together philosophical reflection, economic insight and social vision, Tim Jackson’s passionate and provocative book dares us to imagine a world beyond capitalism—a place where relationship and meaning take precedence over profits and power. Post Growth is both a manifesto for system change and an invitation to rekindle a deeper conversation about the nature of the human condition.

Prof. Tim Jackson will share his vision for a Post Growth Economy

Through a regenerative portfolio, Barney Swan accelerates ecosystem protection, carbon drawdown and leadership expeditions. He is currently in Far North Queensland, Australia, leading a project to restore 450 acres of the world’s oldest rainforest: Daintree. Prior to Founding the charity, ClimateForce Limited, Barney skied 1000km over 60 days to the South Pole, pulling a sledge with supplies and shelter. Surviving off clean technologies including a NASA-designed solar ice melter, biofuels made from waste products, vacuum flasks, and solar batteries. With a spirit of collaboration, he connects audiences to better understand their environmental footprint and the responsibility to do more about it. Open-sourcing solutions and making sustainable development inclusive to businesses, students and families.

Barney Swan will share his solutions of Regenerating Nature in Australia.

With ESG winning ground with money flows, there has been more talk of ESG failing in addressing the environmental and social challenges we face. In this podcast, futurist and Investor Hazel Henderson discussed a more science-based investing approach.

Hazel Henderson passed away in 2022. This podcast was one of the last interviews she gave. She will be missed.

Futurist and evolutionary economist Hazel Henderson was president of Ethical Markets Media (USA and Brazil), author of nine books, a syndicated and author of over 200 articles in Harvard Business Review, New York Times and other publications. She was  profiled in Wired (were she was nominated as “one of the 50 people most likely to change the world”), Christian Science Monitor, Science and many international journals. She served on the advisory boards for the U.S. National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Engineering and the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, as well as the Calvert Group of responsible mutual funds. She founded the EthicMark Award for Advertising that Uplifts the Human Spirit and Society."

Germany has started a mega fund of fund to fund  decommissioning all German Nuclear Power Plants.  Jochen Wermuth, our next speaker on the Radical Truth podcast is on the Investment committee member of Germany's new €24bn SWF "KENFO".  He shares his solutions for using finance to address the climate challenge.

What will you learn?

- What are the alternatives to corporate governance?

- How does steward ownership contribute to build lasting businesses that preserve their mission?

- How does an alternative governance structure protect companies from extractive capital?

Oceans are dying. The combination of pollution, climate change, over fishing are creating death zones destroying plant and other life forms. Coral reefs are disappearing.

Can this be turned around? What opportunities are there to address this environmental disaster and create opportunities for mobilising action and investment?

Learn how ING Group approaches Sustainble Investment in Infrastructure (Green Bonds). Leonie Schreve, Managing director, Global Head Sustainable Finance will share her thoughts and discuss the risks and opportunities.

Michael Madden is an experienced investor in emerging and frontier markets. He will share his experience operating in various countries going through turmoil and upheaval, including coups, genocide and insurrection.  His latest investment is in Myanmar.

Michael is the Chairman and Founder of Ronoc and Chairman of Teneo Capital & Restructuring (New York). Michael was the founding CEO of Renaissance Credit – a Russian bank start-up which grew into a hundreds of millions dollar lending business. He established the American Express card business across the former Soviet Union, and served as Director for a portfolio of franchise markets and as Vice President for the American Express franchise business in EMEA. He is a board member of XacBank and TenGer in Mongolia.

When there was no ESG or Impact Investing ecosystem, Amy Domini started Domini Social Investments and the Domini Index. ESG and Impact has grown significantly in the past 3 decades, and going mainstream. Nearly all financial institutions are offering their clients Responsible Investing products. How has the industry evolved? Has ESG and Impact improved things? What will the industry look like in the next 30 years. Pioneer Amy Domini will share her thoughts and vision for taking Impact to the next level.

“Global sustainable finance volumes will approach $425 billion in 2020 after a strong third quarter,” says Matthew Kuchtyak, AVP-Analyst in Moody’s Investors Service’s ESG Group. “We now forecast around $250 billion of green bonds, $100 billion of social bonds and $75 billion of sustainability bonds for the full year.”

What are Green or Climate Bonds? Are they really green or low to ero carbon? How will the new EU taxonomy impact the growth of Green Bonds. Sean Kidney one of the thought leaders in this secot and  the CEO at Climate Bonds Initiative will share his vision and thought of a climate bonds and a net zero economy.

Often called The “Erin Brockovich of Sewage” tells the riveting story of the environmental justice movement that is firing up rural America.

Catherine Coleman Flowers grew up in Lowndes County, Alabama, a place that’s been called “Bloody Lowndes” because of its violent, racist history. Once the epicenter of the voting rights struggle, today it’s Ground Zero for a new movement that is Flowers’s life’s work. It’s a fight to ensure human dignity through a right most Americans take for granted: basic sanitation. Too many people, especially the rural poor, lack an affordable means of disposing cleanly of the waste from their toilets.

Flowers calls this America’s dirty secret. In this powerful book, Waste, she tells the story of systemic class, racial, and geographic prejudice that foster Third World conditions, not just in Alabama, but across America, in Appalachia, Central California, coastal Florida, Alaska, the urban Midwest, and on Native American reservations in the West.

Prior to resignation in 2008, Wendell Potter was vice president of corporate communications for the health insurance company CIGNA. He was one of the main forces to prevent the Clinton Administration to pass health care legislation. During his tenure, he was instrumental in preventing the health care system to work for those who were ill.

Potter is the first and only "health insurance insider" to have publicly criticized the industry's stance on the Obama health care reforms. A supporter of the Affordable Care Act, Potter correctly predicted in 2010 the final version of the law would increase health insurance industry profits and argued they would find a way to "game the system." He became a vocal advocate for Medicare for All in 2018, saying in September 2019 that "it's time to move to a program that makes a lot of sense economically as well as morally"

We are thrilled to welcome back Wendell for another discussion on how to break from the destructive healthcare system in the USA

There is a lack of finance for breakthrough and disruptive innovators in Europe, with an estimated equity funding gap of about Euros 70 billion. Many European start-ups can't find high risk capital needed to get to the stage where private sector investors gets involved.To address the challenge, the EU launched the European Innovation Council (EIC), The EIC can help innovators from the stage of idea and invention to investments and scale-up of their companies.Funding up to  2.5 million in Grants and 15 million euros in equity, is availalble. TBLI has invited an expert in this field, Mauro Andriotto to explain the program and the process to apply.

What will you learn?

1. The EU has launched one of the largest startup investment fund in the world
2. What companies can apply for 2.5 m Euros in grants or 15m in equity?
3. What is the chances of getting funded by EU-European Innovation Council?

Will Allen played 12 years in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers where he developed meaningful relationships with athletes, influencers, CEOs and brands.

He is now one of the founding partners of MVP-Magarac Venture Partners and is looking to invest and support small businesses in the American mid-west, with a focus on businesses run by people of color. This podcast outlines his journey going from a professional football player to impact investor.

Will Ruddick is a development economist focusing on currency innovation. After completing graduate school researching high energy physics as a collaboration member at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, he found his analysis skills and passion drawn to alternative economics and development. Since 2008 Will has lived in East Africa and managed several successful development programs in environment, food security and economic development. He  is an advocate for, and designer of currencies for poverty eradication and sustainable development. Mr. Ruddick has pioneered Community Currency programs in Kenya since 2010 and is the founder of the award winning Sarafu and Bangla-Pesa programs.

Peter S. Goodman is the global economic correspondent for The New York Times, based in New York.

He is the author two books, the best-selling DAVOS MAN: How the Billionaires Devoured the World (HarperCollins, 2022), and PAST DUE: The End of Easy Money and the Renewal of the American Economy (Times Books, 2009), which was named one of Bloomberg’s top 50 business titles.

THIS MASTERWORK OF REPORTING IS THE FIRST BOOK TO EXPOSE HOW THE WEALTHIEST LEFT OUR HEALTHCARE, ECONOMY, AND GOVERNMENTS VULNERABLE TO THE PANDEMIC—AND HOW THEY HAVE EXPLOITED COVID-19 TO MULTIPLY THEIR FORTUNES WHILE THE WORLD SUFFERS

Marko Oksanen is  CEO of Coventures and an experienced product leader.  Marko has been involved in building digital products and ventures his whole career. As co-founder, product manager or venture designer he has been hands-on building 20+ fast growing digital ventures in Helsinki & Berlin. Now as Coventures CEO Marko has been in the deep end of Corporate Venture Building and has seen many different approaches for building impact in cooperation with established companies and entrepreneurs. In his talk  shares his learnings on how corporations can successfully build new ventures and which pitfalls to avoid.

What will you learn?

1. What role corporate venture building can play in the impact ecosystem.
2. Reasons why corporate venture building initiatives doesn't succeed.
3. Different types of partners in corporate venture building ecosystem, why and when to partner with them.

Seventy percent of the food of the world is produced by smallholder farmers and 70% of the poor are smallholder farmers. Increase soil concentration by 2% we can offset climate change. We need a multi pronged approach to address climate change, food security, rural poverty and soil restoration Regenerative Ag does all and no one does it better than Shared-X.

John Denniston, Chairman of Shared-X shares the solution that they have developed over 7 years. Absolutely brilliant and by far the cheapest way to address all of the challenges listed.

What will you learn?

-How to truly help small holder farmers get out of poverty?

-How can regen ag drawdown carbon cheaper, faster and more effectively?

-What is difference between organic ag and regen ag?

John Kluge the founder will show how Refugees are an asset not a liability and how RIN has creative financial instruments to help both society and refugees

Clara Miller writes and speaks about sustainable finance, impact investing, business models and accounting in the nonprofit and for-profit arenas, and advises projects and individuals working for progress on same. She is President Emerita of the Heron Foundation (2011-2017), and was Founder and President/CEO of Nonprofit Finance Fund (1984-2011).

Miller was named seven times to the Nonprofit Times “Power and Influence Top 50,” (2006-2017), to Inside Philanthropy’s “50 Most Powerful Women in U.S. Philanthropy for 2016 and 2017 and as Social Innovator of the Year by the University of New Hampshire in 2017.

Martin Rapaport has worked tirelessly to create Fair Trade Diamonds in West Africa. Rapaport Fair Trade defines a “conflict” or “blood” diamond as a diamond which comes from a mine located in or providing profits to any of the following: civil conflict; illegitimate rebel movement; oppressive regime; or a violation of the Rapaport Minimum Human Rights Standard.

At Rapaport, it means a product which has met the following four conditions:

1. Fair wages to all those working along the supply chain
2. Community benefit to the people who live in the area of the mine
3. Do No Harm – no displacement of peoples, fully upheld labor regulation, no aiding conflict or violence
4. Monitoring of the mining and production sites

Andrea Pizziconi is the Founder & Managing Principal of the Christie Company as well as its subsidiaries, Africa Integras and Girls First Finance. An accomplished social entrepreneur and TBLI Hero.

She has worked tirelessly to address the challenges of expanding access to higher education in Africa by investing in public universities on a grand scale. She will share some of the many challenges she faces working in Africa and the education sector and how she has flipped the script on a nightmare outcome to create the most impactful venture she’s taken on yet.

What will you learn?

1. What if your political risk insurance works too well and creates a moral hazard incenting your investor to walk?
2. How do you balance investor fiduciary interests with vulnerable stakeholder interests?
3. What happens when extreme negative headlines and corruption risk prevent the parties from working things out?

Mats Andersson, former CEO of Swedish Pension Fund AP4 will share his vision as to how asset owners and manager can de-carbonize their portfolios, and still achieve alps.

What will you learn?

1. How to de-carbonize portfolios?
2. What are the challenges for investors in de-carbonising?
3. How can we scale investment addressing climate risk?

Social entrepreneurship on steroids.

Thierry Sanders is one of the most successful social entrepreneurs. Having worked on several continents having set up a global crowdfunding platform, Indonesia's 1st online lending company, an impact fund and now a waste management company. In this podcast, we will discuss his experiences as a social entrepreneurs and key lessons learned.

What will you learn?

-How to convince a billionaire to fund a Social Enterprise Bank?

-How to build a large scale Social Enterprise in Emerging Markets?

- How & when to pivot?

- Case study of financing of financing Social Entrepreneurs in Indonesia and starting a waste management company with waste pickers.

Former Group Sustainabilty Officer of DWS, Desiree Fixler discusses if ESG is doing anything, other than making fees for fund managers.

What will you learn?

- Are ESG funds actually addressing the climate challenge?

- What do many of the institutional investors feel about ESG?

- It is all greenwashing?

Gustaf Brandberg started Gullspång Invest. An early stage investor in disruptive companies in sustainability. When nobody wanted ot invest in Oatly (10 billion dollar IPO), Gullspång invested. His  new vehicle https://refood.vc/ is investing in entrepreneurs solving the foodsystem’s structural problems for generations to come.

What you will learn?

How to find the next food unicorns?

Can the present food system be repaired?

How to convince other families to get on board?

Marlene Engelhorn (29) comes from a family of wealth. She has been active in campaigning and raising societal awareness about the dangers of wealth concentration is a few hands.

There is nearly 4x more wealth than there is GDP. This vast wealth is concentrated in very few hands who often use that wealth to avoid paying taxes and influence the political process at the detriment of society. This needs to change.

What will you learn?

1. You can't abolish poverty without abolishing uber-wealth
2. Why is a wealth tax critical to society?
3. Why are seven digits in private wallets more important than the common good?

Father Séamus Finn OMI has been one of the most vocal and active in getting the Catholic Church to allocate their financial resources towards responsible investments. For the past 3+ decades, he has actively engaged the Church and mobilized capital for investments that addressed poverty and climate change.

Often looked at as the rock star of the Catholic Church with regards to changing the mindset of the Church on investment

Impact Investors struggle to find, do due diligence,  invest, report, and support impact opportunities For many it is a new initiative. Audrey Selian, Head of Artha Impact (Hindi for goal, sense, purpose) will discuss how she has been able to address many of these challenges and dramatically increase interest and money flows.

What will you learn?

-What is Artha network technology about?

- How is this more 'than just another platform'?

- Can discovery and dilligence scale impact investing

With supposedly 40 Trillion being committed to ESG and Impact, one has to ask why haven't we seen improvements in society or environments. Perhaps the methodology for determinin what is a sustainable company or investment needs to be re-evaluated.

Geoff is an entrepreneur whose experience spans sustainability consulting, high-tech startups, and academic research. He holds a PhD in artificial intelligence, and has co-founded two software businesses, the second of which was acquired by a global technology company. Geoff switched careers in 2010, joining London-based think-tank SustainAbility, where he oversaw communications and advised some of the world’s biggest corporations on transitioning to sustainable business models. In late 2013 Geoff co-founded Future-Fit Foundation, a UK-based charity whose mission is to translate systems science into free tools to help companies and investors accelerate the transition to a flourishing future.

Peter Koenig, a global expert on the meaning of money. In this episode of Radical Truth, we invite Peter to discuss what he has learned, in educating thousands about what is money.

Relationship, to self, other, Nature and money is at the heart of this, not as philosophy or a nice-to-have but as a hands-on practice.  Aside from the usual exchange and discussion in these sessions, Peter is offering to give a practical demonstration to any participants who would like to try his system out in situ.

Ruben Vardanyan is a Russian business leader, social entrepreneur and venture philanthropist of Armenian origin, Co-founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. He and his wife Veronika invest in large-scale multifaceted projects in the sphere of global education, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and solving humanitarian problems. Ruben and his family, together with partners from various countries, have invested about $600M in projects in Armenia, developing a commercial approach that relies on involving blended financing to find solutions to social problems.

Africa is a fast growing continent, in population and economically. With this prosperity, comes great wealth. The Family Office industry is quite nascent and only starting to evolve. Are these successful entrepreneurial families interested in Impact Investing.  

This episode of Radical Truth will be a deep dive with Tsitsi Mutendi, the co-Founder of African Family Firms. Founded in 2019 by family business owners to create a safe and non-solicitous environment where they could get together to talk openly about their challenges and share their experiences to help others. As a not-for-profit organisation they put the needs of our members at the heart of everything they do. 

 AFF provide the family businesses with the support, tools, knowledge and environment to help them survive and thrive. In addition, they offer membership to family businesses and hold the space for families, managers, experts and relevant organisations to come together as a community. Exclusive networking following the Talk.

In this week's episode of Radical Truth, Tensie Whelan, Director of NYU Stern School of Business’s Center for Sustainable Business, will discuss her work on proving the Business Case for Sustainability.

Tensie will discuss latest research in proving the business case for embracing sustainability in the corporate strategy.

ESG and Impact Investing has become the buzz words for the investment community. With tens of trillions pouring into this pace, have we made any real progress with adressing environmental and social challenges (climate, food, water, poverty, inequality, etc.)

Regenerative Investment attempts to achieve social and environmental balance as well as financial returns.  We will discuss this with B. Lorraine Smith, a thought leader in this space.

C. Hoare & Co. is the United Kingdom’ s oldest privately owned bank, founded in 1672. Founded in 1672 by Sir Richard Hoare, C. Hoare & Co. is still owned and led by 10th and 11th generation members of the Hoare family. Alexander S. Hoare is a family member and on the Board of Directors. Alexander will share his personal journey that led him to launch Snowball, an Impact Investing Initiative for sophisticated investors.

Celia Ouellette is the founder and CEO of the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ), which works with companies to champion fairness, equality and effectiveness across systems of punishment and incarceration.  She has dedicated her career to representing and fighting for those most disadvantaged by broken criminal justice systems.

 She is a dual US-UK qualified lawyer who started her career in the US working on criminal defense cases. She then joined the UK human rights charity Reprieve as a Staff Attorney for their death penalty team. Before forming RBIJ, she founded and directed The Powell Project, an organization designed to empower and equip trial teams with the knowledge and skills to level the playing field in capital cases.

In October 2005, Paul Watchman, working at Freshfields Law Firm,, published a paper called, for the United Nations Environmental Program The Freshfields Report. This report title was A Legal Framework for The Integration of environmental, social and governance issues into institutional investment. This report profoundly changed the landscape and laid the basis for ESG Investment.

In this episode of Radical Truth, we've invited Paul Watchman for a discussion on his insights regarding the development of the ESG space since his report has been published.

Bhutan is not that Shangri-la that many perceive. In this talk, Dr. Rieki Crins, one of the world's leading authorities on Bhutan discusses the massive human rights abuses in the Himalayan country. There are over 120.000 Refugees.

Many in the financial sector are well compensated, but often asked to push product that are not in line with their values. 

Dr. Giulio Franzinetti will explore these personal challenges and torments. Dr. Franzinetti is a 30 year financial services veteran. He worked at Banca Intesa, he worked on trying to rationalise the Catholic Church portfolio. In addition, he created the Gum Arabic Fund, to create a fair trade for this essential commodity fund. For the past few years, Dr. Franzinetti is a personal coach for those in the corporate and financial sector.