Entrepreneurship is one of the driving engines to accelerate prosperity and an essential building block in impact investing. It has been a tool for many individuals born into poverty to improve their living standards. At the same time, successful enterprises can deploy resources in the form of capital or intellectual property to people in need.

However, the pursuit of economic gain to date has come to a large extent at the expense of our planet’s resources and often by disregarding the impact operations can have on communities. The context in which businesses operate nowadays has shifted significantly. Cultural changes and stakeholder pressure have reshaped expectations towards companies and their footprint on society as well as our planet. Fancy marketing catchphrases will not lead to success as expectations increase internally and externally, holding leaders accountable for their organisation’s impact. Therefore, impact management and measurement must be an integral part of all organisations striving to achieve long-lasting positive impact by incorporating ESG risk factors.

Diversity is the cornerstone of solving complex issues. Hence, we have invited the heads of businesses spanning leading NYSE-listed corporations and cutting-edge start-ups whose mission goes beyond financial performance. Each of these organisations incorporates sustainability as a part of its business strategy without compromising growth. Additionally, entrepreneurs from the field will share their stories of how their lives have drastically transformed as impact investments empowered them and their entrepreneurial ventures.

The panel will be centred around questions on how these organisations balance their bottom-line growth with doing good, how they define their societal responsibility, their method to measure their impact and what innovations they believe are required to lift more communities out of poverty while protecting “Planet A”. Regardless of our size, collectively, we can all be part of the solution.