A Critical Cross-sector Conversation presented by:
Carolinian Canada | WWF-Canada | VERGE Capital

Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Royal Ontario Museum | 100 Queen's Park | Toronto, ON
8:30 a.m. – 7 p.m.

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$175 | Early Bird $150 by January 31 | Student and membership discounts available

Join Today! Carolinian Canada Members get 20%
Early Bird discount!

The 2019 Shifting the Paradigm Forum will explore diverse perspectives in 5 panels. Look out for our e-blasts leading up to the event featuring details from each panel!

Feature Panel: STEWARD HEALTHY INVESTMENTS

How can we use social finance and impact investments to accelerate the growth of healthy landscapes?

Join us for a conversation on conservation finance

Together, we’ll discuss the steps that we can take together to unlock capital from the private sector, complement funding with financing, and proactively diversify the environmental sector options in the face of a changing funding landscape.

Forum attendees will learn:

• Conservation finance basics;
• How financial innovation can address existing and envisioned challenges in the environmental sector
• How to access high impact conservation finance tools and resources.

Confirmed panelists include Lina Bowden (founder of VERGE Capital and former partner of Highstreet Asset Management, Inc.); Jarret Leaman (founder of the Centre for Indigenous Innovation and Technology and Business Partner responsible for Philanthropy at Troon Technologies); Chelsie Hunt (Environmental Finance Specialist, Fair Finance Fund/Local Food and Farms Co-op) and, Lynn Davis (president of Alegria 3, Inc. and impact investor).

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Explore A Ground-Breaking Partnership

Carolinian Canada and VERGE Capital explore a long-term partnership of social finance value creation for the conservation sector, to grow habitat “bigger, better, and faster.” These organizations have created a conservation impact bond prototype that, within 3 years, aims at generating both environmental and financial returns by:

• Restoring 300 acres of habitat
• Creating a cost-effective maintenance and sustainability plan 
• A prototype to launch a conservation finance mechanism with the goal of engaging traditional and nontraditional stakeholders to restore 1,000 acres of land in Southwestern Ontario.

More about the Panelists:

Lina Bowden (VERGE Capital): Lina is one of the original partners who established the London-based investment counsel firm Highstreet Asset Management Inc., which has since grown to manage assets of more than $5 billion. Lina is also the founder of VERGE Capital, a social-finance intermediary managing two impact investment funds with a place-based mandate for Southwestern Ontario. 

Jarret Leaman (Centre for Indigenous Innovation and Technology): Anishinaabe (Ojibway) from Magnetawan First Nation, Jarret is currently a Business Partner responsible for Philanthropy at Troon Technologies—a digital innovation firm specialized in software development, blockchain solutions, and brand marketing— and the Founder of the Centre for Indigenous Innovation and Technology, an organization with the vision of fostering multisector collaboration to solve problems pairing technical and social innovation with the Indigenous community. 

Chelsie Hunt is the social finance specialist  for Local Food and Farm Co-ops working on the Fair Finance Fund, a non-profit social finance fund supporting local food and farm enterprises across Ontario. Her background is within the financial sector, working first as a quant then transitioning into environmental  finance. She has worked with experts researching the financialization of  the agricultural sector, at Mennonite Economic Development Associates on blended finance projects in countries around the world, and many consultancies in the impact investing sector.

Lynn Davis (Alegria 3 Inc.): Lynn is President of Alegria 3 Inc, an impact investment and property management company. Through her involvement with the Southwestern Ontario Angel Group, she has invested in numerous startups with local, national, and international reach. Lynn is an investor in London’s first ever community impact bond and VERGE Capital’s Breakthrough Fund, the first investment initiative of its kind in Canada, with a place-based mandate. Lynn has also collaborated with Ivey Business School as an Executive Mentor for business students.

Will you join us to discuss the future of conservation finance?
 

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This event is supported by Ontario Trillium Foundation and TD Friends of the Environment

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