Impact Finance Veteran To Lead Investment Strategy for the Foundation’s Program-Related Investment Portfolio
Salt Lake City, UT — August 6, 2024 — Sorenson Impact Foundation (Foundation), a leading and 100% mission-aligned institution dedicated to investing in innovative social entrepreneurs to solve the world’s most pressing issues, has named Eliza Roady as Managing Director. An impact finance veteran with 20 years’ experience working across the venture capital, legal and international development fields, Eliza will lead the investment strategy and asset management for the Foundation’s program-related investment (PRI) portfolio, which is focused on achieving outsized impact and advancing innovation for low-income populations across areas including healthcare, education, financial inclusion, workforce development, and clean energy. As of 2023 the Foundation’s investments are reaching over 1.7 billion people around the world in all of the 17 UN Sustainability Goals.
Eliza joins the Foundation from the Sorenson Impact Institute (SII) where she was the Managing Director of Impact Investing and led the impact investing and venture capital training program for undergraduate and graduate students. In her new role with the Foundation, Eliza will be developing the investment and portfolio management strategy for the Foundation’s PRI portfolio, continuing the Foundation’s commitment to backing high-impact early-stage businesses while also building a strategy to deploy PRI capital in ways that create leverage and advance the Foundation’s goals to continuously drive innovation within the impact investing space. Eliza will also continue to support the SII Inclusive Impact Initiative, where she will provide ongoing leadership to the Initiative’s efforts to build a diverse talent pipeline for the venture capital and broader investment ecosystem.
“Eliza brings a long-tenured, diverse career in impact investing along with an impressive legal background that will play an integral role in helping the Foundation identify new ways to move more capital towards high-impact investment opportunities that can scale,” said Lindsay Zizumbo, Executive Director, Sorenson Impact Foundation. “Her passion for transforming opportunity access and outcomes for low-income populations through capital deployment to innovative solutions is reflected in her impressive track record. We are thrilled to have her join the Foundation and anticipate with her leadership that we will maximize the impact of the capital we deploy and further drive global systems change.”
“The Foundation has been a pioneer in impact investing and has continuously evolved to play new roles in the ecosystem as it supports innovation and experimentation. I am excited to join an organization whose north star is using its capital and platform to catalyze impact and move the entire space forward,” said Eliza Roady, Managing Director, Sorenson Impact Foundation. “As one of the earliest foundations to move all of its assets into impact, the Foundation demonstrates tremendous leadership and a bold, all-in approach that we need others to adopt. It has established itself as a standout supporter of high-impact innovation, and I am looking forward to bringing my experience and passion to help shape the Foundation’s next chapter as it works to shift systems to create greater opportunity and security for underserved populations.”
Prior to her role at SII, Eliza helped build and lead investing work for Acumen America, an impact venture fund focused on alleviating poverty and increasing opportunity for low-income Americans across the financial inclusion, workforce development and healthcare sectors. She formerly practiced corporate law at the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, where she specialized in venture capital and M&A transactions and founded one of the first law firm practice groups in the country to work specifically with social enterprise companies and impact investors. Prior to her legal career, Eliza worked in a variety of capacities with international development, health, and human rights organizations in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Eliza holds a BA from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and a JD from Harvard Law School. An outdoor enthusiast, mountain lover and avid runner, she has been delighted to call the mountains of Utah home for her family since 2021.
About Sorenson Impact Foundation
Established in 2012, Sorenson Impact Foundation invests in innovative social entrepreneurs solving the world’s most pressing issues. We are proud to be one of the country’s few foundations that have 100% mission-aligned investment portfolios, and we seek to be a model for other institutions on how to use the tools of the capital markets to construct overall investment portfolios that achieve exceptional impact outcomes as well as compelling financial returns. Through our program-related investment portfolio, we invest in companies that have developed scalable, innovative, and potentially disruptive solutions to the world’s greatest challenges, including access to quality healthcare and education, financial inclusion, workforce development, sanitation, water, clean energy, and more. We deploy catalytic capital through investments to ensure early-stage impact companies are best-positioned to scale their reach and impact. With more than 67 active portfolio companies in 14 countries and across five continents, the Foundation is committed to investing in long-lasting systemic change around the globe. For more information, please visit https://sorensonimpactfoundation.org/
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