Jed Emerson has been an influential leader in changing the way capital is invested in order to drive social change, and coined the terms Blended Value and Total Portfolio Management. He has been awarded a Life Time appointment to North America’s Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior, and selected twice as one of the 50 Most Influential People in the Sector by NonProfit Times. He is a Senior Advisor to family offices in Asia, the United States and Europe. He is a Senior Fellow with both Toniic, a global impact investing network, and ImpactAssets, a nonprofit financial services firm, and a Senior Research Fellow with the Center for Social Investment at Heidelberg University in Germany.

Dr. Charly Kleissner is a pioneer in the field of impact investment. He believes that the deeper meaning of wealth is to make a positive contribution to humanity and the planet. Dr. Kleissner co-founded KL Felicitas Foundation (www.klfelicitasfoundation.org), and Social-Impact International (www.social-impact.org), which help social entrepreneurs worldwide to accelerate and increase their impact. Dr. Kleissner co-founded Toniic and the 100% Impact Network, global networks for impact investors. Dr. Kleissner serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Global Hub Company (www.the-hub.net), and as Board Director and Chairman of the Investment Committee of ImpactAssets (www.impactassets.org).

In this extended and wide-ranging interview, Charly paints an enthralling picture of the state of impact investment today, talks about the importance of “deep impact investing”-and shares his abiding belief in the potential of changing the financial system to build a better world. Charly talks about his experience at TONIIC and the 100% impact network and highlights the results that have been achieved at the KL Felicitas Foundation (that impact investors can construct a 100% impact portfolio and achieve competitive financial returns in all asset classes while making a big impact). Charly highlights some of the important work the Foundation is doing supporting the impact investment ecosystem. Finally, he discusses how modern portfolio theory should be re-conceptualized to integrate positive impact.

Garvin is the Chief Investment Officer of Green Alpha Advisors, an asset management firm that aims to use science-driven, fundamentals-based research to invest in companies whose innovative products and services will enable the transition toward a sustainable economy (the Next Economy).

Prior to co-founding Green Alpha Advisors in 2007, Garvin worked at Forward Management, LLC where he managed the Sierra Club Stock Fund and the Sierra Club Equity Income Fund. Before Forward Management, Garvin served as Vice President of Strategic Services at Morgan Stanley Garvin studied in the Ph.D. program in physical anthropology and archaeology for five years at the University of Utah.

In this interview, Garvin discusses the importance –and attraction — of investing in new areas of the economy that will drive a new sustainable economy. (Green Alpha is focussed on five broad industries within what the firm terms “The Next Economy” including renewable energy, recycling, and resources management.) Garvin contrasts this with the more traditional broad-based investment approach focussing on companies in today’s economy that have in effect given rise to all of these big risks the world is facing. Their strategies seek competitive returns from the growth of these investments as Next Economy firms gain market share from their legacy economy predecessors.