Designing Capital for Impact: Innovations, Incentives & Blended Finance

Julian Kölbel is assistant professor of sustainable finance at the University of St. Gallen, School of Finance and Center for Financial Services Innovation. He is also a research affiliate at MIT Sloan, where he is a co-founder of the Aggregate Confusion Project, and faculty member of the Swiss Finance Institute. His research covers the real-world impact of sustainable investing, analysis of environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics, and investor preferences for sustainability. Julian has studied at ETH Zurich and the University of Oxford. Next to his academic work, he serves on the investment committee of the Swiss pension fund Abendrot.

Bjoern Struewer is the founder and Co-CEO at Roots of Impact, the pioneer, expert and enabler for Impact-Linked Finance. This innovative investment practice embeds rewards for positive impact into investments for enterprises that bring about meaningful change.

After leaving the banking industry in the role of Managing Director, Bjoern started working closely with catalytic funders and impact investors across the globe to finance high-performing enterprises with better terms for better impact. Bjoern and his team manage their own funds and empower other Impact-Linked Finance practitioners to master this rapidly growing practice.

In addition to his role at Roots of Impact, Bjoern leads the Initiative for Blended Finance at University of Zurich, is Co-Chair of the Impact-Linked Finance Fund and Co-Founder of the Financing Agency for Social Entrepreneurship (FASE). A strong advocate of unlocking the potential of business and finance for positive impact, Bjoern recognizes that every business and every investment has an impact.

Matthieu Pegon joined the Climate Investment Fund (CIF) in April 2025 as Deputy Chief Executive Officer. Previously, Matthieu served as Director of Blended Finance at IDB Invest. In this role, he oversaw the deployment of IDB Invest’s concessional resources in private sector investments where risks are too high for commercial finance alone. Prior to joining IDB Invest, Matthieu worked in various origination and structuring roles at multilateral climate fund Green Climate Fund and BNP Paribas, a global investment bank. Matthieu is an Executive PhD candidate at ESCP Business School, where his thesis focuses on donors’ blended finance portfolio optimization.

Aakif Merchant is Director, Engagement & Capacity Building and Head of Africa at Convergence. He leads the organization’s engagements and activities across the continent. In this role, he works closely with governments, development finance institutions, and commercial investors to mainstream blended finance approaches across investment strategy, portfolio management, and policy frameworks. Aakif has worked with a wide range of leading institutions, including The West African Development Bank, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Global Affairs Canada, African Development Bank, Private Infrastructure Development Group, African Guarantee Fund, Trade and Development Bank, as well as the Governments of Switzerland, Ghana, Indonesia, and Ethiopia, among others. He serves as an Advisory Board Member of the Africa Green Economy Summit and as an Advisory Committee Member of the Africa Social Impact Exchange. In addition, he is a lecturer and Advisory Board Member at the Initiative for Blended Finance. Currently based in Kigali, Rwanda, Aakif has worked across a diverse range of markets, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Colombia, Kenya, India, Tanzania, and Jordan.

Dr. Falko Patzold is the Founder of CSP and the Managing Director of CCSP-HSG. He has been an Assistant Professor of Social Finance at EBS University. Before CSP, Falko was a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT Sloan, a sustainability analyst and M&A consultant at Bank Vontobel, and a partner at Contrast Capital. Falko is the founder of GreenBuzz, an international network of sustainability entrepreneurs. He holds an MBA from the University of St. Gallen and a PhD from the University of Zurich, and is the Academic Lead of the Initiative for Blended Finance.

Audrey Desiderato co-founded SunFunder in 2012 to bridge the debt financing gap that was preventing distributed solar solutions from scaling. Growing in lockstep with the sector, SunFunder financed over 60 companies, most of them located in 29 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. After a decade of pioneering work, SunFunder was acquired in 2022 by Mirova, a leading impact asset manager based in France. Subsequently, the team launched the Mirova Gigaton Fund, a US$400m private debt vehicle dedicated to the energy transition in emerging markets. After 13 years of being based in East Africa with Mirova, Audrey returned to France. She currently is involved as an angel investor, start-up advisor and independent board member to high impact companies operating in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Sandra Haliovic is the Head of Acumen’s Hardest-to-Reach Catalyze, which invests in companies that bridge the energy access gap, ensuring the clean energy transition is equitable and inclusive, particularly for those most at risk of being left behind. Prior to Acumen, Sandra was an Investment Principal at Ceniarth, a global single-family office, where she built the investment team and led on fund and direct investments. Her career spans nearly two decades during which she worked at a number of leading impact, development, and finance institutions, including Social Finance UK, the World Bank’s IFC, and UNDP.

Pajani Singah is the Co-Founder and Investment Director of Amazonia Impact Ventures. He has over 15 years of investment management experience as a partner and COO of Inflection Point Investments, a boutique fund management company investing in listed global technology companies. He is also a Certified Chartered Accountant, Executive Board Member of Cybernaptics Ltd., President of the Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) UK, and Mentor of Unreasonable.

Dr. Daphne Ngunjiri is the Chief Executive Officer of Access Afya and a practising architect of blended finance in frontier healthcare markets. She brings a combination of clinical expertise, social enterprise leadership, and hands-on experience designing and executing innovative capital structures to scale impact in underserved communities.

Access Afya operates the Curafa™ franchise platform — a technology-enabled, standardised primary healthcare franchise that empowers local health workers to own and operate high-quality, affordable clinics across Kenya. Access Afya has financed 24 franchisees, validating a blended finance model that deploys capital directly to franchise operators. 

Dr. Ngunjiri is a business leader with over 15 years of experience spanning clinical practice, health systems management, and social enterprise. She holds an MBChB from the University of Nairobi and an Executive MBA from Strathmore Business School. She has designed and closed multiple financing rounds combining grant, equity, and debt instruments — and is currently leading Access Afya’s $5.25m Impact A Growth Round to scale the Curafa franchise to 150 clinics across East Africa.

Recognised as a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer (2022) and a SOCAP Global Fellow, Dr. Ngunjiri is a Commissioner on the Lancet Report on AI Use in HIV in Africa and serves as a mentor for entrepreneurs with Bridge for Billions. She brings to this course the practitioner’s perspective on what it takes to design capital structures that are investor-ready, mission-aligned, and built to scale — and where the real friction points lie between theory and execution in emerging markets.

Julia Mensink leads innovative approaches to impact investing and Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) to foster social impact and economic development. With two decades of experience spanning impact investing, international development, and academia, she has worked across diverse geographies and sectors, including agriculture, energy, financial inclusion, education, and health. She builds synergies between research and investment to drive poverty alleviation, climate action, and inclusivity.

As Director of Impact at Acumen, Julia oversees the organization’s end-to-end impact strategy, spanning investments, operations, technology, research, and thought leadership. She further contributes to sector advancement by serving on industry working groups and research projects focused on systemic investing, data utility, and impact management.

An enthusiastic educator, Julia is a Guest Faculty member for the Oxford Impact Measurement Programme at Saïd Business School and guest lectures at the London School of Economics, where she earned her PhD.