Ep. 186 Impact Investing with Thought Leader in the field Tami Kesselman

A pioneer and thought leader on impact investing, Tami Kesselman is a Harvard-trained strategist & former Bain consultant working at the intersection of the highest levels of corporate, government, entrepreneurial & investor communities, and as a senior strategy advisor for multiple global SDG & sustainability initiatives.

Skilled at facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue and creating alchemy through innovative partner alliances, Tami has led sessions for high net worth families, global corporations, the United Nations, and the U.S. government. Known for her ability to identify business model risk overlooked by others, she is often brought in to work with clients seeking improved diligence to ensure meaningful impact alignment while maintaining strong financial returns, pressure-testing investments, advising on diligence filter revisions for impact and for identification & mitigation of ESG risk. Tami also works directly with entrepreneurial management teams as they iterate from seed through Series C funding rounds.

A sought after speaker, Tami lectures on improved impact diligence annually at Harvard Business School and at conferences for investor audiences around the world and keynotes sessions for some of the world’s highest net worth families & leading asset managers. One of her most popular talks, based on the proprietary SMARTimpact™ 10-point heuristic framework she developed, draws upon insights from analysis of dozens of business models that seemed successful on the surface but had systemic flaws which ultimately led to underperformance or worse. A book based on her work in this area will be coming out next year.

Tami serves on the Steering Committee for the NEXUS Impact Investing Working Group, is worldwide president of Harvard Alumni in IMPACT, chairs Opal's Family Office Impact Investing Forum, and serves on IMI’s Emerging Managers Assn Advisory Council. In 2018, Tami was elected for a four-year term to the Harvard Kennedy School global alumni Board of Directors where she currently serves on the Governance Committee.