Speakers

Alexa Blain
Organization: Deetken Impact


Alexa is co-Founder and Managing Partner of Deetken Impact, a Canadian registered investment fund manager with a 10-year track record of delivering strong, stable returns to investors by supporting businesses that make a meaningful contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. Together with its affiliate, Deetken Impact Sustainable Energy, Deetken Impact currently manages $100 million in impact assets. Prior to joining Deetken, Alexa was an executive with African Alliance, a pan-African financial services group and an associate with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Macquarie Group in Toronto. Recognized as one of Vancouver’s Top Forty Under 40 by Business in Vancouver magazine, Alexa is a CFA Charterholder, a Chartered Business Valuator and holds an MA in Financial Economics from the University of Toronto.


Garth Davis
Organization: New Market Funds


Garth is a member of New Market Funds management committee and is responsible for the New Market Funds platform. He has more than 25 years of experience in capital deployment including Vancity, Turtle Creek and Scotia. He holds Masters degrees from Johns Hopkins University and London School of Economics and a BA from Simon Fraser University.


Adam Jagelewski
Organization: MaRS Centre for Impact Investing


Adam Jagelewski is the Executive Lead and co-founder of the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing, housed within MaRS Discovery District. Over the last decade Adam has helped deploy more than $200M in impact-focused capital for investors, top executives and senior government officials. Adam has been published in the Financial Times, Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, and is a frequent guest speaker at CBC and top business and public administration schools across Canada. He hosts one of the most prominent conferences in the field globally, Canada’s annual Social Finance Forum. Adam represents Canada on the Global Steering Group for Impact Investing – a 30+ country leadership table - and is active on advisory boards of leading organizations, including the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Adam enjoys magic and golf in his spare time. He is trying to figure out how to combine the two.


Trish Nixon
Organization: Vancity Community Investment Bank


Trish leads commercial real estate lending, business banking and investments at VCIB, Canada’s first and only bank dedicated exclusively to supporting organizations driving positive social and environmental impact. She has spent the past decade working accelerate impact investing in Canada: as co-Managing Director at CoPower, she was instrumental in the development of the firm’s clean energy investment products, in building a client base of over 800 mission-aligned investors, and in facilitating the firm’s acquisition by VCIB. In prior roles at MaRS Discovery District, she provided advisory services to impact investors and intermediaries, and launched an impact venture accelerator and seed-stage fund. Trish is the 2016 Recipient of the Edward Newton Award for Social Innovation and co-recipient of the 2017 Clean50 Award for Environmental Entrepreneurship. She holds a Masters of International Relations from the University of St. Andrews.


Morgan Simon
Organization: Candide Group


Morgan Simon has close to two decades of experience making finance a tool for social justice. In that time she has influenced over $150B and is a regularly sought out expert on impact investing. Her book, Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change has been featured everywhere from Harvard Business School to the United Nations. She is a regular voice in media and an active investor as Founding Partner of Candide Group, a Registered Investment Advisor. Candide Group works with families, foundations, athletes and cultural influencers who want their money working for justice.