Bulbul Gupta, President & CEO of Pacific Community Ventures joins Haas on the faculty team for the Haas Impact Fund.

A mission driver industry leader, Bulbul has 20 years experience in funding and advising entrepreneurs, advancing quality jobs, and growing the field of impact investing for equity and inclusion. For her, impact investing “ensures that we can prioritize social, environmental, and racial justice, and align our dollars with our values to create the world we want to live in”.

Previously, Bulbul was the Founding Advisor of Socos Labs, led Entrepreneurship & Impact Investing at the Clinton Global Initiative, was a Global Entrepreneurship Policy Advisor to the Clinton Campaign, and worked with The Asia Foundation, USAID Asia Bureau, Global Development Alliance, and MacArthur Foundation. In 2013 she helped launch the White House National Advisory Board on Impact Investing.

She says “This year, at the 10-year mark of the impact investing industry, and an unprecedented economic crisis, it’s been refreshing to see many impact investors reflect on ensuring that social, racial, and environmental justice is indeed centered in their investment approaches, beyond just prioritizing financial returns. 

I came to impact investing from previously working in microfinance in emerging markets abroad, and starting a career in solving for market failures at the last mile in under-served and marginalized communities. The public-private partnerships needed between corporate, investors, governments, and philanthropy needed to solve for market failure, drove me towards innovative finance mechanisms in 2005 with one of the early groups that launched the first impact investing structures in the US and abroad. 

I believe for us to truly differentiate and realize the full potential of this still new and growing field, we need to move more impact investors to be impact-first, and create a better world. I’m excited to join forces with Adair [Morse], Julia [Sze], and Haas to reflect on the state of impact investing and invest in the emerging talent we need in the field to help it realize it’s potential better.”

She has been an adjunct lecturer in Social Innovation & Impact Investing at both NYU and Hult International Business School. We are excited to welcome Bulbul to Haas!