“My view is that bringing risk-return-impact into decision-making today leads to higher investment returns than ignoring impact and focusing solely on risk-return, as we’ve always done. ”
— Sir Ronald Cohen
My guest today needs no introduction. Sir Ronald Cohen has often been referred to as “the father of British venture capital” and “the father of impact investing.”
And now, in his current role as Co-Founder and President of GSG Impact, he is leading a revolution. It’s a revolution to transform the methodology by which the financial world measures and reports a company’s value by including its net impact on people and our planet.
Early in Sir Ronald’s career, he co-founded Apax Partners, one of the oldest and largest international private equity firms. His ability to anticipate market shifts – a principle which he calls “the second bounce of the ball” – was key to his success.
However, over time, he saw that his financial investing success was increasing wealth but also increasing inequality. That realization led him to develop new financial tools, including the Social Impact Bond, which links investor returns to measurable positive social impact.
Now, through his latest initiative, the International Foundation for Valuing Impact (IFVI), Sir Ronald has developed a set of rules and procedures to standardize impact valuation in financial terms in the same way that Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are used to standardize the financial disclosures of US publicly traded companies.
IFVI is working to establish a global framework that quantifies social and environmental impact in monetary terms. By doing so, investors, companies, and policymakers can make better-informed decisions that drive meaningful change in addition to financial returns.
The foundation provides open-source data, methodologies, and valuation metrics to ensure transparency and consistency in impact measurement across industries.
Launched in collaboration with industry leaders, IFVI is already gaining traction among major financial institutions, corporations, and regulators. By integrating impact into core business and investment strategies, IFVI aims to reshape markets – ensuring that companies reducing carbon emissions, improving labor conditions, and fostering social equity are rewarded not just ethically, but financially.
This marks a fundamental shift in capitalism, one that aligns profit with purpose and empowers investors to accelerate the transition toward a more sustainable and equitable global economy.
With over $40 trillion invested in ESG and impact funds today, he believes we are on the brink of a financial revolution – one where companies are no longer valued solely by net income as we do today but by the total financial value that their operations contribute to people and our planet.
Bringing over 50 years of experience in the field, a wealth of knowledge, and a true passion for impact investing and creating a difference, Sir Ronald Cohen is reshaping capitalism as we know it.
Join me in this episode today and meet the true visionary of impact investing, Sir Ronald Cohen!
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. You can watch the interview on YouTube here.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- Connect with Sir Ronald Cohen: LinkedIn, Website, Twitter
- GSG Impact website
- GSG Impact on LinkedIn
- IFVI website
- Book: “Impact: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change”
- Yuka App
- Adam Swersky on the SRI360 Podcast
SHOW NOTES:
[00:00] Introduction
[03:48] Sir Ronald’s background and education
[13:17] Discovering venture capital at Harvard and early career
[19:28] Founding Apax Partners and shaping the European VC landscape
[33:16] Co-founding IFVI and developing a system to standardize impact measurements
[45:41] The potential for impact accounting to drive innovation
[54:09] The “brown-to-green” transition and the role of impact measurement
[01:04:23] The challenges of aligning IFVI’s methodology globally
[01:09:05] Sir Ronald’s advice for impact investors
[01:17:19] Rapid Fire Questions
MORE SIR RONALD COHEN QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW:
“If we want our entire economy to adopt the risk-return-impact model, we need impact accounting just as much as profit accounting. We have to be able to measure a company’s performance in delivering impacts as well as profits. ”
— Sir Ronald Cohen
“IFVI addressed how to value company impacts on environment and society, realizing the need for a vast dataset – over 100,000 values for 530 impacts in 268 locations. By linking this data to emissions, we can measure monetary and environmental impacts. We launched these 100,000 value factors as open source, free for anyone to use. ”
— Sir Ronald Cohen
