An Introduction to Blended Finance

Wednesday, January 25, 2023 – Wednesday, January 25, 2023
16:00 – 17:00

As environmental and societal challenges are getting more complex to address, multi-stakeholder approaches ensuring the smart and efficient use of resources prove even more critical. Initially used in the development and impact investing fields, blended finance structures offer promising solutions in that regard and have progressively been adopted by traditional financial players including asset managers to derisk investments expected to address key sustainable development goals notably in the field of climate, gender, health, and peace building. The principle of such blended finance structures consists in leveraging concessional finance to mobilize market-rate financing in order to rebalance the risk-reward profiles of pioneering investments that are unable to proceed on strictly commercial terms.

In order to demystify how those structures work, AMAS and Building Bridges are excited to offer a Webinar Series on Blended Finance. Our speakers will strive to understand the following: What is blended finance? How does it work? Why are those structures relevant for asset managers in the Swiss market? Which opportunities and challenges are asset managers facing upon implementation?

Speakers:

Leticia Ferreras Astorqui

Portfolio Manager - Allianz Global Investors

Leticia Ferreras Astorqui is a portfolio manager in the Allianz Global Investors’ Development Finance team, which manages over USD 3bn of commitments. She joined AllianzGI in July 2020 to help expand AllianzGI’s presence in Emerging Markets through various development finance strategies. Before working for Allianz Global Investors, Ms. Ferreras Astorqui was in a rotational analyst program at Citi where she ended up working with public sector institutions that focus on promoting exports internationally and support large infrastructure projects globally. This is where Ms. Ferreras Astorqui discovered her passion for infrastructure and energy (i.e. real assets) and the significant positive impact promoting these sectors can have especially in developing countries. She then went on to work in project finance and renewable equity projects but overall, her roles have involved investing in developing countries, across real assets and in cooperation with the public sector.

Chris Clubb

Managing Director - Convergence

Chris has 25+ years of experience financing development projects in emerging & frontier markets. Prior to joining Convergence, he was EBRD’s Director leading investment activities in early transition countries

Sandrine Salerno

Executive Director - Sustainable Finance Geneva

Sandrine Salerno has been the Executive Director of SFG since January 2021. SFG’s vision is to accelerate the transformation of the financial sector by setting ambitious environmental and social goals which is perfectly in line with Sandrine’s vision for the future of Geneva: an international city and the second-largest financial center in Switzerland. Sandrine has 13 years of experience working in governance as an executive member of the City of Geneva and the head of its Finance Department. Prior to that, she was Deputy of University Affairs at the Geneva’s Department of Education and a researcher at the University of Geneva. She started her career as the Deputy Chief of the European Third World Center and later became a Coordinator in the Swiss Immigrants’ Contact Center. Sandrine is well known in Geneva for her commitment to the public good: she currently serves as a Member of the Board of Geneva Public Transport and Groupe Serbeco, as the Vice-President of the Grand Théâtre de Genève Opera, and as the President of the Puppet Theatre of Geneva. In the past she also dedicated herself to the CAP Prevoyance, as President of the Foundation Council, as well as to the FIPOI, as member of the Foundation Council. Sandrine holds a master’s degree in public policy assessment from the University of Geneva.

Adrian Schatzmann

CEO - Asset Management Association Switzerland (AMAS)

Adrian Schatzmann is the CEO of Asset Management Association Switzerland since January 2021. Additionally, he founded in 2016 Clear Minds Investment AG, a financial advisor company, and assumes today the role of Managing Partner. He also sits since 2016 on the Board of Directors as Managing Director at Straub-Egloff Immobilien AG. From 2017 to 2020, Adrian assumed two other roles, one at DIventures Management GmbH as Member of the Investment Committee and the other at SwissBanking as Strategic Advisor. Prior to this, Adrian spent 6 years at SBC Brinson and 15 years within UBS Wealth Management.

Aurélia Fäh

Senior Sustainability Expert - Asset Management Association Switzerland (AMAS)

Aurélia Fäh is an investment professional with over 10 years of experience in sustainable finance. She currently is responsible for sustainable finance topics at AMAS. Aurelia started her career at the IFC where she executed debt and equity transactions in banks, fintechs, and insurance companies across Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, successively based in Johannesburg, Abidjan, Dakar and Washington DC. After 7 years working abroad, she developed a Swiss-based start-up providing credit to SMEs in emerging countries. Aurelia holds a Master in Finance and a Master in International Affairs from the University of St. Gallen and from Sciences Po Paris.

Liliana de Sá Kirchknopf

Head of Private Sector Development Division - State Secretariat for Economic Affairs

Liliana de Sá Kirchknopf is Head of the Private Sector Development Division in the Economic Development Cooperation Directorate at Swiss State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SECO), promoting a better business environment, access to finance and strengthened skills for the companies to foster entrepreneurship and innovation. Ms. de Sá Kirchknopf has been working for SECO since 1996 in different positions, including as Senior Advisor at the Swiss Executive Directors Office at the World Bank Group in Washington D.C., as private sector development specialist for the International Finance Corporation IFC and as Head of the Swiss Contribution Office in Budapest. She holds a masters in economics from the University of Berne with a minor in political science.