April 2022 – CEO’s Message
| April represents the start of a new fiscal year for us at InBC, and this year, we welcomed two new members to our leadership team: Leah Nguyen as Chief Investment Officer and Juvarya Veltkamp as Chief of Strategy and Operations. Leah and Juvarya both started on April 4th and have fully immersed themselves into the organization. We have been working to finalize our Investment Policy Statement (IPS), which will outline our investment themes, the types of investments and partnerships we are seeking and how we will measure financial, environmental and social impacts. Our plan is to release the details of the IPS over the summer. In the meantime, Leah is actively building her investment team – with the hiring of a Principal and an Associate – and Juvarya is strengthening our operational foundation. With Leah and Juvarya now onboard, the full team came together to craft our strategic goals including our mission statement and vision for the future of InBC. |
| OUR MISSION We lead with impact, investing in innovation to catalyze a sustainable and inclusive future in BC. OUR VISION Valuing people, planet and profit transforms how business is done in BC. |
We were excited to see the focus on innovation in the federal budget, released on April 7, especially with the proposed creation of a $15 billion dollar Canada Growth Fund and the new Innovation and Investment Agency. We look forward to exploring collaboration and leverage opportunities to create economic benefits in BC. We are actively engaging in the ecosystem and have recently participated and spoken at a number of events including the GLOBE Forum 2022, the 2022 BCEDA Summit, Angels for Climate Solutions and the Western Angels Investment Summit. The GLOBE Forum brought together an unparalleled network of leaders, innovators and practitioners to discuss the impacts of climate change and how we can reach net-zero targets. At the Western Angels Investment Summit, we delivered an impactful presentation on the BC investment landscape and our triple bottom line mandate. This week, Leah and myself will be attending the 6th Annual Pacific Northwest Institutional Forum in Seattle to get a better understanding of international financial markets, grow our investment community and look at the global economy as a whole. We will continue to communicate the ways in which InBC will complement private sector capital to address any gaps. Juvarya will be speaking at two events this week – held by the Vancouver Entrepreneurs Forum and the WNORTH Conference respectively – about the impacts of climate change, how we can strengthen our climate solutions ecosystem, and the role of corporate social responsibility and how it relates to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). ESG is a set of criteria that investors use to evaluate companies to measure their sustainability efforts and environmental impact; ethical decisions in terms of diversity, hiring practices and inclusivity; and company leadership – including board of directors or shareholders – and how they drive positive change. As a strategic investment fund, InBC is committed to embedding an ESG lens at the operational level of our organization, as well as throughout our investment process. This means embedding sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion as well as a commitment to advancing reconciliation when we hire, engage with partners and make investment decisions. We’ll have more to share on this once we release the details of our IPS and three-year strategic plan this summer. Until next time – Jill. |