Ben Thornley
Bio
Ben Thornley is the Director of InSight, the thought leadership practice in high-impact investing at Pacific Community Ventures (PCV). PCV is a preeminent San Francisco-based Community Development Financial Institution and growth equity manager deploying $60 million in three funds with the aim of creating quality jobs in low-income areas of California.
Ben is responsible for PCV's policy research and non-financial performance evaluation initiatives, working with prominent institutions including the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), The Rockefeller Foundation, and Omidyar Network. InSight assesses the social impact of over $1.2 billion of private equity investments by 40 individual money managers and $19 billion invested by CalPERS in California, across asset classes.
Prior to joining PCV, Ben worked for a decade documenting and advancing the role of financial services in economic development. This included as New York correspondent for a leading Australian business journal, as a policy associate with the United Nations Association of the U.S.A., responsible for coordinating Wall Street's formal participation in the UN's Financing for Development conference, and as an investment director in the Australian Consulate-General, New York, charged with positioning Australia as a regional financial services center.
Ben sits on the governing strategy and adoption committee of the Impact Reporting and Investment Standards and holds a Masters of Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley, where he taught graduate and undergraduate classes in political economy and leadership for the former US Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich.
All Ben's Posts:
Ben Thornley says:
Live coverage of speeches by John Williams, Judith Rodin, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, and a panel featuring Dave Chen, Allan Emkin, Audrey Choi, and Luther Ragin begins at 9.15am Pacific, Monday October...In Reference To:
Watch Live! Capital Markets for Impact at Scale: October 1st, 9.15am Pacific
Ben Thornley says:
In the UK, entrepreneurs, advocates, public officials, funders, and investors know categorically that 7 percent of all small businesses are social enterprises, representing 68,000 enterprises, contributing £24 billion to the British economy and employing 800,000 people. We urgently need the equivalent data in the US,...In Reference To:
The Great Social Enterprise Census
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This is the first clear picture of the diverse ways in which a reasonable sample of investors are measuring impact. It's what IRIS is all about; providing data on concrete best practices and a level of standardization and comparability that has been lacking to date.In Reference To:
New IRIS Registry
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Surveys show that Millennials have a very different perspective on wealth - one that is sure to fuel tremendous interest in impact investing. If you had to pick the one, most influential driver of growth in impact investing, this is a very strong candidate.In Reference To:
Millennials Keen on Impact Investing | Institutional Investor
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Rapid urbanization presents an especially notable challenge for impact investors and policymakers -- but also a unique opportunity to coordinate efforts. This blog from Katie Grace provides an excellent overview of recent developments and news... In China, the city of Guangzhou has introduced a license plate auction...In Reference To:
Sustainability in Cities from Naples to Guangzhou
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A definitive overview of the recent growth of impact investing from Ted Jackson and Karim Harji. Ted and Karim interviewed literally hundreds of key players in recent years -- including dozens of attendees at SOCAP11 -- and describe the new era of "acceleration and execution" in impact investing.In Reference To:
Harnessing the Power of Impact Investing
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Great overview of social impact bonds. One of the key ongoing questions will be the role of intermediaries. In New South Wales, a state of Australia, the government chose in at least a couple of new pilots to contract directly with the service provider, which it determined had sufficient capacity to manage the...In Reference To:
The Promise of Social Impact Bonds - NYTimes.com
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The impacts of the UN Global Compact provide an important data point. The influence on company behavior is strongest when a company first joins. And it's tough translating words into actions.In Reference To:
United Nations Global Compact Survey Findings
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Pension funds and other institutions are not up to the task on sustainable investment. The new Project Telos seeks to make the necessary governance improvements and will interesting to follow.In Reference To: