Pensions for Purpose was delighted to invite Place-Based Impact Investing (PBII) Forum members to its online all-stakeholder member-only event on 22 February 2023.
We were pleased Joanne Donnelly, Head of Pensions at the LGA and Secretary to the LGPS Advisory Board, provided this update, after which we then opened the conversation and invited our audience – members, partners and sponsors – to contribute to the discussion.
Our partners and sponsors include The Good Economy, The Impact Investing Institute, Legal & General and Triple Point.
Martin Pattinson, Lead on the Place-Based Impact Investing Forum at Pensions for Purpose moderatered the event to encourage open dialogue and ensure our forum members have a greater understanding of the government's position on the levelling up agenda.
The outcomes from this session and the broader work of the PBII Forum, is invaluable in helping to shape the PBII agenda across all UK stakeholders. We are particularly keen to receive contributions from asset owners.
John Godfrey, Director of Levelling Up, Legal & General
John has worked in the City of London for over 35 years, including for US, Japanese and European financial institutions. He joined Legal & General in 2006, and over the following decade was responsible for group communications, public policy issues and the group brand.
From 2016-17 John worked at Number Ten Downing Street as Head of Policy for Prime Minister Theresa May, where his team was responsible for advice on a broad range of issues. He re-joined Legal & General as Corporate Affairs Director following the 2017 General Election. John was educated at Lochaber High School and Oxford University and has also served as a special advisor to the Home Secretary.
Mark Hepworth – Co-Founder and Director of Policy and Research, The Good Economy
Mark has 40 years of UK and international experience in urban and regional development, spanning academia, public policy and strategic consultancy.
Mark created the Place-Based Impact Investing (PBII) model and is now actively promoting and supporting the establishment of PBII partnerships that bring together local authorities, investors and other stakeholders. PBII offers investors in private markets a clear, direct route to sustainable development in the UK and other regions of the world.
Mark Hall, Programme Manager, Place-Based Impact Investing, Impact Investing Institute
Mark joined the Institute as Programme Manager for place-based impact investing in January 2023. He is focused on making it easier for investors to do effective place-based impact investing (committing to investments within a target geography that generate a financial return as well as positive social, environmental and economic impacts for local communities).
Mark joined the Institute from Waltham Forest Council where he was Policy and Projects Manager in the Leadership Office. Mark previously spent 10 years at the Royal Society of Arts, most recently leading research and impact projects in the economy team. He led the RSA's community banking movement and Collective Defined Contribution Pensions (CDC) Forum, paving the way for new models of banking and pensions to be adopted in the UK.
Mark has co-authored several RSA reports including 'The road to resilience: how community financial services can help level-up Britain' (2020) and 'The cash census: Britain's relationship with cash and digital payments' (2022).
The Place-Based Impact Investing Forum
The Place-Based Impact Investing Forum was established by Pensions for Purpose and The Good Economy and is run in partnership with the Impact Investing Institute to help pension funds and other asset owners make informed decisions about place-based investments. We do this by sharing place-based-related thought leadership written by our members (asset managers, consultants and lawyers), by running training workshops for trustees and by engaging in industry-wide conversation through our quarterly all-stakeholder and asset-owner events.
To join the Place-Based Impact Investing Forum please email the Forum Lead.