Impact Verification: Building Investor Credibility with Christina Leijonhufvud

Christina Leijonhufvud is a well-respected leader in the impact investing field, with a track record of senior management roles on Wall Street, where she pioneered a first-of-its-kind social finance investment banking business and co-authored seminal research that helped place impact investing on the map for institutional investors. In January 2020, Christina became CEO of Tideline’s new verification business, BlueMark, with responsibility for leading all aspects of the business strategy, new product development, and external relations. Christina supervises the BlueMark team and has directly led over 20 verification assignments across an array of investor types and asset classes. As a Managing Partner at Tideline, she also oversees the firm’s strategy and operations and has led many of the firm’s consulting engagements with leading foundations, some of the world’s largest financial intermediaries, and select ultra-high-net-worth family offices and non-profits.

Prior to Tideline, Christina was Managing Director at J.P. Morgan where she worked for over 15 years, leading a ratings business and several risk management groups, including for the credit portfolio and emerging markets trading businesses. She also created an innovative methodology for measuring and managing country risk and advised numerous sovereign governments on their public credit ratings. In 2007, Christina created and launched J.P. Morgan’s Social Finance business, a novel investment banking unit that published seminal research on impact investing, made proprietary investments in impact funds, and structured and distributed innovative impact products to clients, such as the Global Health Investment Fund, a $100+ million impact investment fund backed by the Gates Foundation. During her time at J.P. Morgan, Christina grew the Social Finance team to eight full-time employees and also managed an internal volunteer corps of more than 2,000 engaged employees.

Laurie Lane-Zucker is Founder and CEO of Impact Entrepreneur, PBC, an impact economy business that hosts the Impact Entrepreneur Network — a large, global network of “systems-minded” entrepreneurs, investors, and scholars of social and environmental innovation — and editor and publisher of Impact Entrepreneur, a digital magazine covering the emerging Impact Economy. For over 30 years, Laurie has been a “pioneer” (Forbes) and recognized leader in sustainability, social enterprise, and impact investing. Laurie was the founding Executive Director of the international environmental organization, Orion Society, which publishes the celebrated Orion Magazine, as well as the founder of a global sustainability think-tank, the Triad Institute, and Hotfrog, a Founding B Corporation, GIIRS Pioneer Company, and the first company ever to complete an equity transaction on an impact investment exchange. Laurie is the bestselling and multiple award-winning publisher and editor of books and magazines on sustainability and social impact — having worked with such acclaimed authors as Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, and David James Duncan — and the author of numerous articles on entrepreneurship and impact investing. Laurie is contributing author to the recently published academic textbook from World Scientific, Sustainability: Business and Investment Implications (2023).