#42: Gender lens investing, women's access to finance in emerging markets and measuring impact with Christina (CJ) Juhasz

Christina (CJ) Juhasz is the Chief Investment Officer of WWB Asset Management (WAM,) a subsidiary of Women’s World Banking, responsible for raising and investing private equity funds with a gender lens. Prior to joining Women's World Banking, CJ served in increasing positions of responsibility in Deutsche Bank’s fixed income group in New York and London and Merrill Lynch’s capital markets group in New York. CJ began her career as a military police platoon leader in the United States Army, serving in Germany and the US. CJ holds a BS from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MBA from Stanford University. She is a 2013 Eisenhower Fellow. To date, WAM has $125M in asset under management through two private equity funds -WWB Capital Partners, LP and WWB Capital Partners II, LP –that provide growth capital, and research-driven market and organizational solutions to guide portfolio companies in reaching more women as customers and workforce assets.   WAM leverages its influence as an investor to encourage its portfolio companies to increase women’s access to financial services and to increase the recruitment, advancement and equal pay of women as staff and leaders of those companies. These are winning strategies for gaining market share and the upper hand in the war for talent.   The funds have invested in 13 portfolio companies covering Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, South-and South-east Asia. The companies offer financial products and services to under-served populations, especially women, including micro-enterprise, small business, agriculture and affordable housing loans; savings and payments services and micro-insurance products.   Women’s World Banking Women’s World Banking designs and invests in the financial solutions, institutions, and policy environments in emerging markets to create greater economic stability and prosperity for women, their families and their communities.  They work with 56 institutions in 31 countries to reach more low-income women with financial services. We cover the following in our conversation: Impact investing Why invest in women, how big is this opportunity? WWB Asset management: their investment thesis and how they choose to invest What is gender lens investing and why should we care? Measuring social impact Why transparency is important  And how we can encourage more investors to allocate their capital for impact?