{"id":31054,"date":"2021-01-27T15:18:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T20:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=31054"},"modified":"2022-02-27T23:47:27","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T04:47:27","slug":"greenmoney-interviews-liesel-pritzker-simmons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/greenmoney-interviews-liesel-pritzker-simmons\/","title":{"rendered":"GreenMoney Interviews: Liesel Pritzker Simmons"},"content":{"rendered":"
>> Back to February 2022 Issue<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
(Originally published in February 2021)<\/b><\/h5>\n

\"\"Welcome to the latest \u201cGreenMoney Interviews.\u201d For this issue I spoke with Liesel Pritzker Simmons of Blue Haven Initiative, where she oversees an impact investing portfolio structured to generate financial returns and address social and environmental challenges.<\/h3>\n

The portfolio spans asset classes, from traditional equities and private equity to philanthropic programs. A longtime advocate for informed, conscientious investing, Liesel co-founded Blue Haven, a single-family office, with her husband, Ian Simmons. Their family office is considered to be one of the first to have been created with impact investing as its mission. She works closely with numerous organizations that support and advance the field of impact investing.<\/p>\n

CLIFF:\u00a0 In your July 2014 article for GreenMoney you talked about your experiences as a millennial investor and called on the financial services industry to stop talking about trade-offs, broaden their definition of risk, and understand that young people want to create real value. How have you seen progress on these fronts in the past six and a half years?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

LIESEL:<\/strong>\u00a0 I think there has been a big shift, at least in the rhetoric. There is no doubt that impact investing is here to stay. Financial performance of ESG has been pretty solid, both in market corrections and bull runs, so the knee-jerk \u201cBUT THERE ARE TRADE-OFFS!\u201d position becomes more and more hollow. In terms of risk, every major financial institution has at least published a white paper on climate risk<\/em>, which is quite something. And the #MeToo movement and Racial Justice conversations have mobilized employees and customers of major companies to clamp down on toxic and discriminatory cultures. These are all positive developments, I think. Are things happening fast enough? Of course not.<\/p>\n

I think my hottest take in my 2014 piece was that this generation of investors is not convinced by Milton Friedman\u2019s shareholder primacy doctrine. And I\u2019m even more sure of that now. Trickle-down economics is not working. Time for something new: more accountability.<\/p>\n

CLIFF:\u00a0 You and your husband, Ian Simmons, are co-founders and principals of Blue Haven Initiative. You\u2019re aligned in many ways, but how have you structured your family office and portfolio to reflect your individual interests?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/em>LIESEL:<\/strong>\u00a0 Ian and I were both interested in impact investing and aligned when it came to structuring a portfolio that was dedicated to it. But when forming our family office, we wanted to make sure to reflect our individual interests and impact-focused activities beyond investing. For example, I\u2019m extremely interested in supporting startups in sub-Saharan Africa. Our direct investment portfolio focuses on early-stage energy, fintech, logistics and human capital ventures there. We\u2019re really excited to help build the talent pipeline in Kenya and East Africa. In early-stage companies we saw how recruiting and empowering talent is one of the most import things to build to scale \u2013 and really see it as one of the biggest opportunities to accelerate impact.<\/p>\n

In addition to impact investing, Ian has also focused on civics, especially policy and accelerating civic engagement policy solutions. I think there\u2019s an argument to be made that our most important work on climate has been in engaging more Millennial and Gen Z voters to show up and vote for a clean energy future these last two elections. That kind of structural change, along with good policy and a healthy democracy\u2014something that we\u2019ve seen we can\u2019t take for granted\u2014are essential for markets over the long-term. And the way we\u2019ve structured our family office incorporates all of that.<\/p>\n

CLIFF:\u00a0 How has your approach to impact investing evolved, as the industry has evolved? How have your expectations and even definition of ‘impact’ evolved? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

LIESEL:<\/strong>\u00a0 Early on we really focused on \u201cknowing what we own\u201d and making sure our investments were aligned with our values. But increasingly we\u2019ve focused on how policy, philanthropy and investing are interconnected.<\/p>\n