Climate Change Interviews

Interview with Sir Ronald Cohen, Chairman of Impact Investment

September 27, 2021

1700

Today I am joined by Sir Ronald Cohen who is the Chairman of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment and The Portland Trust. He is a co-founder director of Social Finance UK, USA, and Israel, and co-founder Chair of Bridges Fund Management and Big Society Capital.

For nearly two decades, Sir Ronald’s pioneering initiatives in driving impact investment have catalyzed a number of global efforts, each focused on driving private capital to serve social and environmental good. These efforts are leading the global impact investment movement towards an Impact Revolution.

He chaired the Social Impact Investment Taskforce established under the UK’s presidency of the G8 (2013-2015), the Social Investment Task Force (2000-2010) and the Commission on Unclaimed Assets (2005-2007). In 2012 he received the Rockefeller Foundation’s Innovation Award for innovation in social finance.

He co-founded and was Executive Chairman of Apax Partners Worldwide LLP (1972-2005). He was a founder director and Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association and a founder director of the European Venture Capital Association.

He is a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School and a Vice-Chairman of Ben Gurion University; a former member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers; a former director of the Harvard Management Company and the University of Oxford Investment Committee; a former trustee of the British Museum; and a former trustee of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he was President of the Oxford Union and serves as an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School to which he was awarded a Henry Fellowship.

He is the author of ‘IMPACT: Reshaping capitalism to drive real change,’ published by Penguin Random House in 2020, which became a Wall Street Journal Bestseller. His previous book ‘The Second Bounce of the Ball,’ published in 2007, was described by the Financial Times as “one of the best books written on entrepreneurship in recent years.״

Sir Ronald lives in Tel Aviv, London, and New York with his wife of more than thirty years, Sharon Harel-Cohen, who is a film producer. They have two children, Tamara and Jonny.