Altura Capital https://www.alturacap.com Creating long-term value in high growth markets through the power of collaboration Wed, 01 Nov 2023 13:16:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.9.9 Altura Capital Makes Investment in Automation & Validation Solutions, Inc. https://www.alturacap.com/altura-capital-makes-investment-in-automation-validation-solutions-inc/ Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:35:34 +0000 https://www.alturacap.com/?p=2413 Ruben Taborda, former Chief Procurement Officer/Head of Supplier Diversity at Johnson & Johnson has been tapped as AVS’ new CEO

MIAMI, Oct. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Altura Capital, a lower and middle market credit enhanced impact investor, today announced it has successfully completed an investment in Automation & Validation Solutions, Inc., a leading diverse owned Pennsylvania-based consulting company specializing in Fortune-100 pharma, biotech, and med device companies. AVS enables customer growth via innovative engineering, automation, validation/compliance and clinical solutions to the healthcare industry. With the investment, Ruben Taborda, Altura executive operating partner and a former chief procurement officer and head of supplier diversity at Johnson & Johnson was appointed AVS’ new CEO.

“AVS has a great reputation and plays a critical role in helping in the development and approval of new drugs, vaccines and medical devices,” noted Jay Garcia, managing partner with Altura Capital. “We are very excited about this investment and Ruben’s leadership, as it opens new paths for diverse owners and talent to add value in high end solutions in the pharma and biomedical industries. We feel very confident in the continued opportunity for this company to grow while helping us to expand our relationships and bring great returns for our investors.”

Altura Capital believes in creating financial returns through economic empowerment and inclusive growth that can narrow the wealth gap. To accomplish this, Altura invests in scalable small businesses with a focus on those that can generate high quality jobs, are owned by women and diverse entrepreneurs, or are located in lower middle income areas, to build stronger, more resilient communities while generating commercial risk-adjusted returns. To date, the company and its affiliates have invested more than $225 million in 22 companies, supporting more than 1,400 high-quality jobs and providing 140 employees with equity ownership.

“We remain steadfast in being a results-driven social impact investment firm, working in close collaboration with corporate america and their supplier diversity programs in the categories of consumer, business services, manufacturing and healthcare, to build strong and scalable firms in value-add verticals in which diverse suppliers have frequently never been,” said Monika Mantilla, managing partner with Altura Capital. “AVS has built a unique business within the healthcare sector making them a perfect fit for our approach and our commitment to delivering returns and impact.”

About Altura Capital
Altura Capital is a results-driven, diverse impact investment firm, led by a team with 110+ years of collective experience in private equity, private debt, and company building. Our purpose is to transform societies through entrepreneurial success. We use an impact investing model to invest in businesses across the United States and in Puerto Rico, with a focus on diverse businesses and those located in low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities. Altura aims to continue to expand the strategy successfully employed by Small Business Community Capital, which was founded by two of the founders of Altura.

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ABOUT ROCKET HEALTH PARTNERS https://www.alturacap.com/about-rocket-health-partners/ Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:37:02 +0000 https://www.alturacap.com/?p=2414 Rocket Health Partners is a Houston-based dental support organization led by world-renowned and respected periodontists that have hand selected a highly committed group of founding practices. The network is comprised of master clinician dentists that provide comprehensive dental services. We believe our collective legacies will last for generations to come and positively impact the healthcare system worldwide.

Rocket Health Partners is the brainchild of Perio Health Partners. Dr. Todd Scheyer of Perio Health Professionals had a vision and passion to scale a highly differentiated platform with worldwide impact alongside his partners Dr. Michael McGuire and Dr. Andrew Rossi.

“Making this DSO a reality required leadership, credibility, and hard work. My partner Dr. Todd Scheyer and the Optimize Practice Services team brought all three in equal measure. I am so proud to see the legacy of my 40+ year career reach these heights and am forever grateful for the partnership it took to get here.”
Dr. Michael K. McGuire, DDS, FICD, FACD, Board Certified Periodontist, Founder.

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Altura Capital, An Impact Investment Firm and Platform to Launch Our Own Solutions https://www.alturacap.com/altura-capital-an-impact-investment-firm-and-platform-to-launch-our-own-solutions/ Tue, 21 Jun 2022 22:22:10 +0000 https://www.alturacap.com/?p=2011 I frequently think about the legacy we will leave behind— how will we improve lives and our world? How will we lift communities, build and manage ourselves and learn to collaborate in effective, meaningful ways? That is why we created Altura back in 2005 as an impact investing firm. We firmly believed that Diversity and Inclusion mattered greatly in the investment industry and that they could act as a lever to build significant value for investors and a better world for all. We have also believed in investing in low- and moderate-income communities and creating high-quality jobs. Those three beliefs emerged as the three pillars of our Impact thesis— focusing mainly on the “S” from an ESG perspective. What can be a more powerful engine to transform societies than enabling business owners to maximize their value-creation potential?

We founded Altura with my husband Jay Garcia, a partner in life and business. We were later joined by our partners Carlos Signoret and Judy Frodigh— all stellar private equity professionals and business builders. Since inception, we asked ourselves: how can we generate long-term value and build strong partnerships with our investors and our ecosystem at the same time? We began our journey in data and analytics of diverse money managers and then pivoted into asset management. We chose private equity and private debt impact investing because we saw a large and growing market opportunity to team up with Corporate America to help them build solid and scalable diverse suppliers. The road has been rewarding, and we are scaling up a model that has proven to effect change. We are building to leave behind a meaningful organization that will be a force for good and transformation for generations to come.

We have continued to enhance our systems, infrastructure, and team to seize the opportunity at hand, recognizing that playing a role in scaling the businesses we invest in is one of the most inspiring and meaningful endeavors. It is an opportunity to open corporate doors and share proven models and systems to help management build value while continuously improving them. Building businesses requires tenacity, discipline, and hard work, and we team up with business owners to climb the mountain together. There is no job more rewarding.

The world has changed dramatically in the past two years— the pandemic altered our lives and productivity, stress-tested supply chains and manufacturing, accelerated technology enablement and transformation. Racial and social equality, impact investment management, and ESG as a force for good and long-term value creation became boardroom topics and priorities. In tandem, millennials and new generations are driving behavioral changes. They are elevating degrees of consciousness about the need for increased access to healthy food and its direct impact on health outcomes and quality of life. They have raised awareness about the importance of financial planning and investment to create more vital lives, families, and communities. Finance can and should be a powerful source for good, including impact and ESG investing and public-private initiatives that can move markets. Turmoil and dislocation in the market have brought phenomenal opportunities for new models and meaningful human progress. I have great hope that these forces will lift our communities and others that are underserved. We must continue to work together to utilize our institutions and our businesses as a source for good and positive outcomes for investors (for whom we act as fiduciaries) and the world.

We must make every effort to ensure that the paths we travel are accessible to more people. We must teach the power of finance so that more kids from early ages are exposed to these careers and encouraged to expand on the paths we have helped open. Thanks to our education and our parents, who taught us principles and values with their love and example, we have the blessing of being where we are today.

Businesses and communities take years to build. Institutions and scalable, diverse businesses matter because they become the vehicle of collaboration, promoting the exchange of ideas and designing new futures. They become influential voices that can drive change.

We can and should be architects of our own solutions. That is why we believe the impact investing work we do is important and meaningful, and that is why we believe the work that NAA does is critical. NAA is an institution that has allowed us to be there for each other, share best practices, have a voice to effect change and build a platform for future generations. It’s an engine to improve ourselves, our community, and our country. Thanks to our CEO, Solange F. Brooks, a dear friend with whom we have a history of building value together and being there for each other. After a short depart, I’m glad to be back at NAA. I look forward to working together with the NAA community to envision and act towards maximizing the human capital potential of our community and our country, especially in business, finance, academia, and public policy. They are all intertwined, and only sophisticated and intentional collaborative models will allow us to create a new future together. It’s in our hands. I invite Institutional Investors, including foundations, family offices, and corporations to join us on this quest.

 

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Altura Partners at Merck Economic Inclusion Virtual Lab 2021 https://www.alturacap.com/altura-partners-at-merck-economic-inclusion-virtual-lab-2021/ Thu, 13 Jan 2022 15:13:24 +0000 https://www.alturacap.com/?p=1504 This is a session you don’t want to miss at the Merck Economic Inclusion Virtual Lab 2021. Join the conversation about Scaling with Capital with Altura Capital Management along with Partners Jay Garcia , Carlos Signoret and Judy Frodigh.

The conference was held on November 3, 2021 but its available for a year (for free! Thank you Merck!) so you are still on time.

Watch the conference:

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WTTL Presents Leading Latinas in Business https://www.alturacap.com/wttl-presents-leading-latinas-in-business/ Fri, 29 Oct 2021 12:44:30 +0000 https://www.alturacap.com/?p=1272

29 OCTOBER THURSDAY
2:00PM ET 3:00PM

Join Women Taking the Lead and the American Council of Life Insurers on Thursday, October 29th at 2pm ET to highlight Latinas leading in business and beyond.  Hispanics are a powerful force in the business community. They are the fastest-growing segment of small business owners in the country — 75% of new businesses in this country are created by Hispanics.

On October 29th, we will hear from Latina business owners and Learn how they navigating their careers, building successful companies, and what their advice is for future Latina leaders.  Panelists include:

  • Maria Rios, President & CEO, Nation Waste, Inc.
  • Monika Mantilla, Managing Partner, Small Business Community Capital; President and CEO, Altura Capital; and Board Member at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
  • Maria Gomez, President and CEO, Mary’s Center
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Racism and the Economy: Focus on Entrepreneurship https://www.alturacap.com/racism-and-the-economy-focus-on-entrepreneurship/ Wed, 02 Jun 2021 12:50:10 +0000 https://www.alturacap.com/?p=1275 June 2, 2021
12:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. ET | 11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. CT
Virtual video event presented by all 12 District Banks of the Federal Reserve System

The sixth installment of our virtual event series focuses on the impact of racism on entrepreneurs of color. The session will examine solutions that challenge persistent disparities and explore the potential for entrepreneurship to serve as one pathway to transform economic outcomes for communities of color and the broader economy.

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Toward a New Capitalism: Investing in Innovation, Impact & Inclusion https://www.alturacap.com/toward-a-new-capitalism-investing-in-innovation-impact-inclusion/ Sat, 27 Feb 2021 12:32:13 +0000 https://www.alturacap.com/?p=1238

The Aspen Institute and Prudential present a half-day Summit on the future of capitalism and impact investing. We’ll explore the ways in which impact investing has been a catalyst for change in capital markets, and where the field must go next to help drive greater financial security and more deeply shared prosperity in a rapidly changing economy. Alongside 150 leading investors, influencers, and innovators, we’ll reflect on key lessons learned about the field of impact investing, and begin to imagine the evolution of the work in 2020 and beyond. By invitation only.

Livestream:

Agenda:

Toward a New Capitalism Summit,Willard InterContinental Hotel

  • 1:30pm, Registration desk opens
  • 2:00pm-5:00pm, Program (speakers and agenda to be announced)

Celebrating Prudential’s $1Bn Milestone in Impact Investing, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

  • 6:30pm-10:00pm, Cocktails and program (heavy appetizers will be served)

Kimberly Adams
@KA_Marketplace
Kimberly Adams is a host/ correspondent at Marketplace, America’s largest broadcast business program. She covers the intersection of politics and the economy from Washington, D.C., where she also serves on the Board of Governors of the National Press Club. Before moving to D.C., Kimberly reported on the political, social and economic upheaval in Egypt following the Arab Spring as a freelance journalist based in Cairo. Her work aired on multiple networks in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Germany, Hong Kong and elsewhere. While reporting in Cairo, she received awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, the Religion Communicators Council, and the Association for Women in Communication. Prior to freelancing, Kimberly worked as a producer for NPR from the D.C. headquarters, covering politics, arts, culture, and breaking news as a producer for “Weekend Edition” and the Washington Political Unit.

David Bank
@ImpactAlpha
David Bank is CEO and editor of ImpactAlpha, “Investment news for a sustainable edge.” ImpactAlpha’s high-quality content serves investors and entrepreneurs who are outperforming on positive social and environmental impact. The Brief, ImpactAlpha’s daily newsletter, has become the go-to source for the growing community of “Agents of Impact” across the capital markets. As a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, David wrote the book on Microsoft (“Breaking Windows,” 2001) and broke stories across tech and philanthropy. At Encore.org, he helped establish the category of “encore careers,” second acts for the greater good. David was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and UC Santa Cruz.

Marla Blow
@Marla_Blow
Marla Blow is a Senior Vice President in the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, the company’s philanthropic hub, as lead for North America Social Impact. In this newly created role, Marla will build strategies, partnerships and programs that advance the Center’s priorities to promote financial security; make economic development more inclusive; support the economic mobility of workers; and leverage the power of data for good.

With nearly a decade of experience in entrepreneurship and financial inclusion work, Marla most recently served as Founder and CEO of FS Card, a startup credit card company (sold to strategic acquirer in December 2018), and as a Partner with Fenway Summer. In February 2018, Ms. Blow joined the Board of Directors of Care.com (NYSE: CRCM), the world’s largest online marketplace for finding and managing family care.

 

Ms. Blow won the EY Mid Atlantic Emerging Company Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2018, and has been listed as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. Marla was featured in the April 2018 Vanity Fair “26 Women of Color Diversifying Entrepreneurship” photo shoot, and she is a Henry Crown Fellow as part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Previously, she was part of the Implementation Team to stand up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and ultimately served as the Assistant Director for Card and Payment Markets, where she shaped the CFPB’s regulatory priorities in these markets.

Prior to joining the CFPB, Marla spent seven years in a variety of functions at Capital One in the credit card business. Ms. Blow is a member of the US Capital Chapter of YPO, and previously served on the Board of Directors of FactorTrust, a provider of underbanked consumer data, analytics and risk scoring solutions. Marla holds an MBA from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ellis Carr
@EllisCarr2
Ellis Carr has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services and mortgage industries. Mr. Carr served as Capital Impact’s Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer from July 2012 until his appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer in May 2016. Prior to joining Capital Impact, he held various positions in the investments, capital markets, strategy and corporate finance areas within Freddie Mac and in fixed income fund management both domestically and abroad at Deutsche Bank.

Mr. Carr is an Aspen Institute Finance Leader Fellow; serves on Morgan Stanley’s Community Development Advisory Board; is the Board Chair for Martha’s Table; and Board Treasurer for HPN (the Housing Partnership Network). In 2015, he was recognized as one of the “Top 40 under 40” business executives by the Washington Business Journal. Mr. Carr graduated from Towson University with an undergraduate degree in accounting, and from Georgetown University with a master’s degree in real estate with a concentration in finance.

Jean Case​
@jeancase
Jean Case, Chair of National Geographic and CEO of the Case Impact Network, is a businesswoman, investor, philanthropist and impact investing pioneer who believes in the power of business to do good, advocating for the embrace a Be Fearless approach to innovate and bring about transformational breakthroughs. Her career in the private sector, including as a senior executive at AOL, spanned nearly two decades before co-founding the Case Foundation in 1997. Jean launched the Case Impact Network to expand efforts to usher in a new era of more inclusive capitalism, focusing on unleashing business and capital as powerful forces for change and serves on the boards of National Geographic Partners and the White House Historical Association as well as on advisory boards of the Brain Trust Accelerator Fund, and at the Smithsonian and Georgetown. Jean authored the national bestseller Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose.

Andrea Chen
@GoPropeller
Andrea is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Propeller: A Force for Social Innovation, a social innovation incubator in New Orleans focused on systemic change in sectors such as food access, water, public health, and education. Propeller has accelerated over 90 new ventures that have generated over $60mm in revenues and financing in the last five years. Successes include the Healthy School Food Collaborative, which has brought healthy school meals to 43% of New Orleans public schools. Propeller’s 10,000 s.f. Propeller Incubator facility is now home to over 150 socially minded companies. Andrea was named “40 Under 40” by Gambit Magazine, 2014 Aspen Institute Scholar, 2014 BALLE Fellow, 2014 Norman C. Francis Institute Fellow, and 2010 City Business Women of the Year. She completed her B.A. at Stanford University and M.Ed. at UNO and Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Audrey Choi
Audrey Choi is Morgan Stanley’s Chief Marketing Officer and the firm’s first Chief Sustainability Officer. She serves on the Firm’s Management Committee and is the founding CEO of Morgan Stanley’s industry-leading Institute for Sustainable Investing.

As Chief Sustainability Officer, Audrey oversees Morgan Stanley’s global efforts to promote sustainability through the capital markets. Over the last decade, she has been a pioneer in bringing sustainable investing into the mainstream. As Chief Marketing Officer, Audrey is responsible for stewarding the global brand to reflect the firm’s core values of leading with integrity and exceptional ideas across its businesses and geographies.

In a career spanning the public, private and nonprofit sectors, Audrey has become a proven thought leader on how finance can be harnessed to protect the environment, strengthen communities, and create economic opportunity. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Audrey held senior policymaking positions in the Clinton Administration, including serving as Janet Yellen’s Chief of Staff at the Council of Economic Advisers and Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Gore.

Previously, Audrey was a foreign correspondent and bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal. She serves on the boards of several national nonprofit organizations focused on sustainability, community development and social justice. Audrey is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. She was a Fulbright Scholar and a White House Fellow.

Cathy Clark
@cathyhc
Named in 2014 one of the top 20 women in the USA working in philanthropy, social innovation and civic engagement, Cathy Clark has been an active pioneer, researchers, educator and consultant for over 25 years in the fields of impact investing and social entrepreneurship. She serves as Faculty Director at the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where she founded and directs the CASE i3 Initiative on Impact Investing and co-leads the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke (SEAD), an accelerator working to scale impact of global health ventures in India and East Africa. She is also lead author of CASE’s online learning series for impact entrepreneurs, CASE Smart Impact Capital, and co-author of CASE’s #ScalingPathways series, in partnership with the Skoll Foundation, USAID’s Global Development Lab and MercyCorps.

A former impact investment fund manager and private foundation program officer, who taught at Columbia Business School for 9 years before coming to Duke, Clark’s work has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, intermediaries, and governments around the globe improve their ability to use business as a tool for good. She helped develop the standards for B Corporations, and has coordinated global research across 15 universities using data from $4.5 billion of impact assets under management and from over 11,000 impact entrepreneurs in 29 countries. Clark was also the sole academic member of the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce US National Advisory Board, and was invited to track $2.5 billion in new impact investments by the Obama White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Engagement. She is co-author of The Impact Investor: Lessons in Leadership and Strategy for Collaborative Capitalism, which reached #18 in finance textbooks on Amazon in 2014. Cathy holds a BA from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Columbia Business School, and has published over 25 books, articles and case studies. She publishes #OnImpact, a weekly newsletter on impact investing and social innovation read in over 100 countries, and tweets at @cathyhc.

Peggy Clark
@PeggyClarkAspen
Peggy Clark is a Vice President of the Aspen Institute and Executive Director of Aspen Global Innovators Group. Peggy has had a 30-year career working on issues of poverty alleviation, global health, social enterprise, and development finance. Serving in founding and leadership roles at the Aspen Institute, the Ford Foundation, Save the Children, Realizing Rights, and on boards including Root Capital, Last Mile Health, Impact Assets, the African Leaders Malaria Alliance and the Calvert Foundation, Peggy has been a leading figure in identifying and building industries, movements, and creative advocacy on key issues of our times. Peggy received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Microenterprise from President Bill Clinton, and was instrumental in passage of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the Ethical Recruitment of Health Workers. Currently, Peggy directs a portfolio of programs promoting breakthrough solutions to global development in the areas of health innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship. Previously, Peggy served as the Executive Vice President of the Aspen Institute, co-founder and Managing Director of Realizing Rights, Chair of the Women’s Program Forum at the Ford Foundation, and as the first Director of Small Scale Enterprise and Credit at Save the Children Federation.

Stephen De Berry
@stephendeberry
Stephen DeBerry uses the economy and culture to build a more just and joyful society. He is a 20+ year Silicon Valley veteran who has worked as an entrepreneur and investor for the founders of Microsoft, eBay and Lotus Software. He currently runs the Bronze Venture Fund and he’s on a mission to use tech and business for good.

Stephen has been active on boards such as The California Endowment, where he helped oversee its $4 billion endowment and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where he served the national board and chaired the Investment Committee for several years.

Stephen earned a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with highest honors from UCLA as well as Master’s in Social Anthropology and MBA degrees from The University of Oxford. He is a Marshall Scholar and Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow who Ebony Magazine and The Root/Washington Post named one of the 100 most powerful African-Americans in the United States. He is currently a fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Studies at Harvard University where he is developing the new genre near fiction. He lives in the San Francisco bay area with his wife and two daughters.

Rodney Foxworth
@RDFoxworth
Rodney Foxworth is the Chief Executive of Common Future (formerly “BALLE”), a national network fighting to build economically empowered communities through equitable approaches to entrepreneurship, investing, and ownership.

Rodney’s career has focused on social entrepreneurship, philanthropy, impact investing, and economic development. Most recently, he founded Invested Impact, a consulting firm and intermediary to better connect philanthropic and impact investment capital to underrepresented social entrepreneurs. Foxworth has advised institutions such as T. Rowe Price Foundation, Legg Mason, Red Bull, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Aspen Institute, and Calvert Impact Capital.

Rodney serves on the board of directors of Nonprofit Finance Fund, the steering committee of Justice Funders, and the advisory board of Social Capital Markets (SOCAP). He has spoken at Social Finance Forum, Council on Foundations, Global Philanthropy Forum, SOCAP, Open Markets Institute, Skoll World Forum, Brookings Institution, and other stages. He has authored essays in publications such as Boston Review, Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Nonprofit Quarterly, and has been featured in Conscious Company, Devex, Forbes, ImpactAlpha, Inside Philanthropy, and The New York Times.

Andrew Kassoy
@AKassoy
Andrew Kassoy, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of B Lab: Prior to co-founding B Lab with his two best friends, Jay Coen Gilbert and Bart Houlahan, Andrew spent 16 years in the private equity business; as a Partner at MSD Real Estate Capital, an investment vehicle for Michael Dell, and as Managing Director in Credit Suisse First Boston’s Private Equity Department, a founding partner of DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners. He is a Board Member of Echoing Green and LabShul. He was a member of the U.S. Working Group of the G8 Social Impact Investing Task Force and a board member of the Freelancers Union. He was raised in Boulder, Colorado and graduated with Distinction from Stanford University where he was a Truman Scholar and President’s Award winner. He is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Andrew lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, Margot Brandenburg, and four children, Max, Jed, Etta, and Xavier.

Andrea Kaufman
Andrea is Vice President of Impact Investments at Prudential. She leads the Impact Investments operating business team, which invests in both companies and funds, domestic and international. Previously, she was Vice President of Private Equity at Calvert Investments, a socially responsible mutual fund complex, managing the impact portfolio and building the research platform. Prior to that, she was a General Partner at Novak Biddle Venture Partners, a venture fund investing in early stage technology companies in the Mid-Atlantic. Andrea began her career as a corporate finance attorney at Venable. She attended the Johns Hopkins University.

Charles F. Lowrey
Charles F. Lowrey is Chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial, Inc. Prior to assuming his current roles, Lowrey served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Prudential’s International businesses. Previously, he was executive vice president and chief operating officer of Prudential’s U.S. businesses. Lowrey also served as president and CEO of PGIM, Prudential’s global investment management business, and earlier as CEO of its real estate investment business, PGIM Real Estate.

Before joining Prudential in 2001, Lowrey was a managing director and head of the Americas for J.P. Morgan’s Real Estate and Lodging Investment Banking group, where he began his investment banking career in 1988. Earlier, Lowrey spent four years as a managing partner of an architecture firm he founded in New York City. During this time, he became a registered New York architect.

Lowrey received an MBA from Harvard University, a master’s degree in architecture from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Princeton University.

Monika Mantilla
@Alturacap
President and CEO, Altura Capital Monika has dedicated the last 20 years of her life to her passion: pursuing societal transformation through entrepreneurial success by providing capital and expanding opportunity to promising entrepreneurs, all of which can bring significant returns to investors and economic development impact. Altura Capital is an investment management firm that provides institutional investors the opportunity to invest with high-performing small and diverse investment firms and businesses. Small Business Community Capital (SBCC) is an SBIC Impact Private Debt and Equity fund licensed by the SBA that provides flexible capital to small and mid-sized companies, focusing on women and minority owned firms and entrepreneurs located in LMI communities. SBCC and Altura have played a pivotal role in developing an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, investors, advisors and corporations working together to harness opportunities in the lower middle market, including growing Hispanic, MWBE, and diverse owned enterprises. Monika and the firms she leads have won numerous awards and recognitions for their work on building financial capacity in minority and underserved communities. In multiple years, Latino Leaders Magazine recognized her as one of the 101 Most Influential Leaders in Hispanic U.S.A. and one of the Top 15 Latinos in Finance.

Monika sits on the Board of Directors of two private companies: Cidrines, a bread manufacturer in Puerto Rico serving the national market; and Coastal Painting Company, a single-source innovative technology solution for painting and maintenance services of condominiums, businesses, and communities in Florida. Monika serves on the Capital Advisory Board for the Billion Dollar Roundtable, an organization of leading corporations committed to spending at least $1 billion a year with diverse suppliers. She has co-lead the BDR Triad Initiative, a theory of change to accelerate strategic outcomes. Monika sits on the Boards of the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI), the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, and the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), where she also serves as the chair of the USHCC Foundation. Monika holds an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York, and a J.D. from the Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia. She and her husband and business partner Jay Garcia enjoy spending quality slow time with family, friends and business partners, and, mostly through their board director roles, being executive coaches and advisors to CEO’s to help them accelerate growth and partner with Corporate America. They dream about bring instrumental to add a few diverse led and owned Companies to the Fortune 50 list.

Wes Moore
@iamwesmoore
Wes Moore is the CEO of Robin Hood, the largest anti-poverty nonprofit in NYC. He is a combat veteran, best-selling author, and social entrepreneur.

His first book, “The Other Wes Moore,” was an instant bestseller capturing the nation’s attention on the fragile line that divides success and failure in communities and ourselves.

Wes’ next book, “Five Days,” coming out Spring 2020, traces the uprisings in Baltimore in 2015 through eight perspectives, examining critical questions about the deeper causes of violence and poverty.

Before Robin Hood, Wes founded BridgeEdU, a tech platform addressing the college completion and job placement crisis. He has also worked in finance as an investment banker, and in government as a White House Fellow and a Captain with the U.S. Army.

Wes grew up in Baltimore and the Bronx and graduated from Valley Forge Military College, Johns Hopkins University, and Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Ulili Onovakpuri
@unolil
Partner, Kapor Capital

Tracy Palandjian
@TracyPalandjian
Tracy Palandjian is Co-Founder and CEO of Social Finance, a nonprofit organization leading the development of Pay for Success financing and Social Impact Bonds, an innovative public-private partnership that mobilizes capital to drive social progress. Prior to co-founding Social Finance US in 2011, Tracy was Managing Director at The Parthenon Group, and also worked at Wellington Management Co., and McKinsey & Co. Tracy is vice chair of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, a trustee of the Surdna Foundation, and a Director of Affiliated Managers Group (NYSE: AMG). A former Vice Chair of the Harvard Board of Overseers and a 2019 recipient of the HBS Alumni Achievement Award, Tracy continues to serve on various Standing and Visiting Committees at Harvard University. She graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude with a B.A. in Economics and holds an M.B.A. with high distinction from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar.

Dan Porterfield
@DanPorterfield
Dan Porterfield is President and CEO of the Aspen Institute. Previously, Dan served for seven years as the President of Franklin & Marshall College. He has been recognized as a visionary leader and advocate for expanding educational opportunity and improving the human condition and was named a White House Champion of Change in 2016. Prior to his appointment at Franklin & Marshall College, Dan served as Senior Vice President for Strategic Development and an English professor at his alma mater, Georgetown University, and for four years as a senior public affairs official in the US Department of Health and Human Services. He earned B.A. degrees from Georgetown and Oxford—where he was a Rhodes Scholar—and his Ph.D. from The City University of New York Graduate Center where he was awarded a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities.

Ida Rademacher
@IdaRademacher
Executive Director, Aspen Financial Security Program and Vice President, The Aspen Institute

 

 

Ommeed Sathe
@OmmeedSathe
Ommeed Sathe is a Vice President and Head of Impact & Responsible Investing.  The group manages a portfolio of over $1 billion in Impact Investments across an array of private asset classes that produce both financial and social returns.  The group is one of the largest and oldest dedicated impact asset managers and is widely recognized for its role in shaping the field of Impact Investing.  Mr. Sathe oversees portfolio strategy, investment and manager selection, asset management and reporting activities for the group.  The group also consults with other Prudential business (including PGIM) on responsible investing policies and developing impact-offerings for clients.  The unit has also taken on a key role in overseeing a portfolio of investments and separately managed accounts to support International Insurance’s efforts to expand to certain emerging markets.

Mr. Sathe has an undergraduate degree in neuroscience and urban planning from Columbia University; a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.  Mr. Sathe serves on the board of B-Lab, the Non-Profit Finance Fund and Community Development Trust.

Jim Shelton
@JIMSEDU
Jim Shelton, is the Chief Impact and Investment Officer at Blue Meridian Partners a philanthropic vehicle to identify and scale solutions to the problems trapping youth and their families in poverty. He also serves as a Senior Advisor to KKR and is a nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institute. Jim was the co-founder of Amandla Enterprises and the former Deputy Secretary of Education and founding Executive Director of My Brother’s Keeper under President Barack Obama. Jim has worked in business, government, and the non-profit sectors as an operator, investor, and entrepreneur. In these roles, he has utilized management, policy, and programmatic innovations to increase access to opportunity. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Morehouse College and Master’s degrees in both business administration and education from Stanford University. He lives in his hometown – Washington, DC – with his wife and two sons.

Debra Schwartz
Debra is Managing Director for Impact Investments and serves on the Executive Leadership Team of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. A pioneer in impact investing, MacArthur has dedicated $500 million to this purpose. Debra’s team supports selected program strategies, including Climate Solutions and the Chicago Commitment. Her group also makes investments and grants to extend the reach of impact investing globally, with a focus on increasing the use of catalytic capital. Debra joined MacArthur in 1995, having previously worked as an investment banker at John Nuveen & Co., and as CFO for a nonprofit child welfare agency. She is a past presidential appointee to the United States Treasury Department Community Development Advisory Board and a current board member of the Mission Investors Exchange. Debra holds a Master’s degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor’s degree from Yale College.

Reuben Teague
Reuben Teague is a Vice President in the Impact and Responsible Investments group at Prudential. He leads the group’s real assets investing and is responsible for his team’s sourcing, underwriting and managing a portfolio of investments that meet Prudential’s social value criteria while providing risk-adjusted financial returns. Prudential Impact Investments manages a portfolio of approximately $1 billion in investments and typically originates between $100 million and $250 million in transactions annually. Prior to joining Prudential in 2013, Teague was co-founder and principal of Green Coast Enterprises, a triple bottom line real estate development and project management firm based in New Orleans. He participated in the development of over 1,000 units of sustainable, hazard-resilient affordable housing and over 50,000 square feet of commercial space aimed at restoring needed community resources to the greater New Orleans area. He previously was an adjunct professor in Tulane University’s Masters of Sustainable Real Estate Development program. Teague has an AB degree in economics from Princeton University and a JD from New York University School of Law. He was an Echoing Green Fellow in 2008. Teague is a board member of the Regional Plan Association and Advocates for Arts Based Education.

Martin Whittaker
@justcapital_
Martin Whittaker is the founding CEO of JUST Capital and is responsible for the overall leadership of the organization. He is also co-founder and Board member of the CREO Syndicate, a family office investment network; a Board member of the Carbon Disclosure Project U.S.; a member of the Forbes Finance Council and Forbes Contributor; and an advisor to Mission Driven Capital Partners, a private equity firm.

Previously, Martin was a founding partner and investment committee member at Sonen Capital, an impact investing firm, where he led private equity, real asset, and direct investing activities. Martin has also served as Director of MissionPoint Capital Partners, a family office-led private equity firm; Senior Vice President at Swiss Re, where he was part of the Environmental and Commodity Markets team; and Managing Director at Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, Inc., a pioneering sustainable investment advisory and research firm. Martin received his Ph.D. from University of Edinburgh, an MBA from the University of London, an M.Sc. from McGill University and a B.Sc. from University of St. Andrews. Martin has also served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, provided expert testimony on environmental markets to the U.S. Senate, guest lectured at multiple business schools, consulted to major corporations on sustainability- and impact-related matters, and been an invited speaker, published writer, and contributor via television, print, social media, and conferences throughout his career.

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Monika Mantilla at the USHCC Legislative Summit https://www.alturacap.com/monika-mantilla-at-the-2018-legislative-summit/ Tue, 01 Sep 2020 18:00:52 +0000 https://www.alturacap.com/?p=817

Visit us on youtube and learn how we can transform our community and our country, through four key ingredients and capital architecture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t88hG2rFDYI&feature=youtu.be

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These Businesses Can Help Drive the Economic Recovery https://www.alturacap.com/these-businesses-can-help-drive-the-economic-recovery/ Fri, 15 May 2020 02:22:00 +0000 https://www.alturacap.com/?p=436 Latino-owned businesses (LOBs) have been a significant engine of new business creation in the US. They helped pull us out of the last recession. And now there is a subset of LOBs that are poised to lead in the next economic recovery, given the right support to weather the present storm and grow in the future.

 

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Advancing U.S. Latino Entrepreneurship: A New National Economic Imperative https://www.alturacap.com/advancing-u-s-latino-entrepreneurship-a-new-national-economic-imperative/ Wed, 15 Apr 2020 14:34:00 +0000 https://www.alturacap.com/?p=555

Altura Capital participates in the recently published book, Advancing U.S. Latino Entrepreneurship: A New National Economic Imperative, writing the chapter “The G.R.E.A.T. Gacela Theory.”

 

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