Links:

• LinkedIn

COO & Director | Draper Venture Network

Bio:

Sid Mofya serves as COO and Director at the Draper Venture Network, a one-of-a-kind alliance of twenty-two independent venture firms spreading across the world’s key technology innovation centers and the world’s largest economies. With a collective two-billion dollars in managed assets, Draper Venture Network boasts over nine hundred portfolio companies. Sid’s role, in part, is to oversee the coordination of funds and providing post-investment support to portfolio companies.

Sid also serves as a Member of the Advisory Council at LIONS@FRICA, and as the Board Chair at the Kalene Education Fund, and education-focused microfinance institution in Zambia.

Sid is a native of Zambia and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two daughters. He spends most of his spare time either with them, or collaborating with others on writing and recording music.

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 Links:

• LinkedIn

Head of Investment Solutions | Brightlight Group

Bio:

Simba Marekera is an experienced and motivated impact investment executive who aims to use his financial expertise, business acumen, leadership skills and global networks to finance businesses that empower underserved and financially excluded communities and individuals.

He is the Head of Investment Solutions at Brightlight Group. He works with and on behalf of institutional investors, government entities, non-profit organisations and social enterprises that are active in the impact investing capital markets. He helps clients access opportunities, build and manage impact portfolios, and access impact capital.

Prior to that, he spent 6 years managing Christian Super’s alternatives, fixed income and Impact Investment portfolios where he helped to commit close $150 million to Impact Investments.

Simba is the Co-Founder of Ignition Impact (www.ignitionimpact.com), an Angel Network of Australian professionals that invests in high growth and high social impact African Small to Medium Enterprises. Ignition Impact sources part of the its capital from Africans in Diaspora and Africans at Home.

He is also a Co-Founder of EdFin (www.edfin.com.au), a fintech company that provides affordable and responsible education financing for international students in Australia.

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 Links:

• LinkedIn

COO | Impact Foundation

Bio:

Steve Doerr serves as Chief Operating Officer of Impact Foundation. Having retired as an executive with ExxonMobil corporation, Steve is now interested in applying his business acumen to impact investing. 

Over the course of his 27+ year career at ExxonMobil, Steve was responsible for a variety of businesses and staff organizations. He has extensive international experience having both lived and worked in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. 

In his role as COO, Steve continues to develop and improve Impact Foundation’s operational structure and services for increased efficiency and excellence. 

Life:

Steve and his wife Kim have two grown children and recently moved to Kansas City to be closer to family and friends. A former professional soccer player and a CPA, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Indiana University and a Masters in International Business Studies from the University of South Carolina. In his down time, Steve enjoys reading, watching sports (participating when he can) and learning about the world.

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Links: 

• LinkedIn

President | The Signatry

Stephen (Steve) French is President of The Signatry. His primary role is strategic management and leadership of the office. He also devotes his time meeting with advisors, attorneys, individuals, and business owners to develop strategies and solutions to minimize tax liability, while maximizing charitable giving. This is executed with specific emphasis in the area of non-liquid assets such as: stock, real estate, mutual funds, and portions of closely held businesses.

Prior to joining The Signatry, Steve was the founder and CEO of Quovant, a Legal Spend Management company working with law firms in over 13 countries.

Steve is married to his wife Debbie and they have two daughters – Marnie and Rachel, who have blessed them with four grandsons.

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Professor | Biola University

Bio:

Dr. Steve Rundle is professor of economics and international business at Biola University. His research and teaching is focused on the intersection between international economics and faith-based social entrepreneurship. He has authored many journal articles and book chapters on this subject, as well as two books – Great Commission Companies: The Emerging Role of Business in Missions (now in its second edition) and Economic Justice in a Flat World: Christian Perspectives on Globalization.

Before entering the academic world, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, followed by several management-level positions in the interstate trucking industry.

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 Links:

• LinkedIn

Managing Director | Advenir

Bio:

Stephen Vecchitto founded Advenir in 1996 and serves as the company’s Managing Director. He is responsible for creating the business plan for more than 13,000 units in Florida, Texas, Colorado and North Carolina and has oversight responsibility for acquisitions, financing and investor relations.

Prior to his work with Advenir, Stephen, a licensed CPA, founded VSM, LLC, a Hartford, Connecticut-based financial services firm. The firm specialized in litigation support, mergers and acquisitions, fraud, appraisals. Under his direction as Managing Partner, VSM grew to 40 professionals and became the fifth largest private firm in Hartford.

Stephen dedicates much of his spare time to serving in the business community. He is on the board of directors for Teach for America-Miami and a cornerstone member of Make-A-Wish Foundation in South Florida. Stephen was on the board of directors at both Deering Bay and the Greater Hartford Chamber of Commerce. He is also a former president of the Rocky Hill Chamber of Commerce, an organization that once named him Person of the Year.

Stephen graduated Suma Cum Laude in 1978 from Bentley University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Accounting.

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