NARINDER DHAMI

Managing Director

LEAP | PECAUT CENTRE FOR SOCIAL IMPACT

BIO: As a leader in social finance, Narinder Dhami catalyzes large-scale change and empowers the next generation of leaders to “do good, better”. She is the Managing Director of LEAP | Pecaut Centre for Social Impact, an innovator in venture philanthropy. Under her leadership, LEAP is scaling breakthrough social ventures, unlocking talent across the private sector (with BCG, McCarthy Tétrault, H+K Strategies, Offord Group, EY and Google) and helping funders allocate capital more effectively. Dedicating her life to social impact, Dhami, a Top 40 under 40 honouree for 2019, has been recognized as a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader and formerly sat on the Global Council for Pro Bono. The data-driven and solution-focused methodology she champions in the social sector is rooted in both her education in electrical engineering and her impact-driven work across Canada and West Africa. Dhami embraces a multi-sectoral, collaborative approach to tackle Canada’s biggest social challenges. As resources decline and technology disrupts the way we work and live, existing social problems are scaling faster than solutions and new problems are emerging. “I believe we have a collective imperative to find new ways to collaborate and leverage current resources to address these challenges,” Dhami responds. She is the founding Executive Director of Rise Asset Development, where she designed and scaled a Rotman/CAMH financial initiative to provide an entrepreneurial path to employment for those with a history of mental health and addiction challenges. Prior to launching this Canadian micro-fund, she worked across West Africa to grow the Première Agence de Microfinance (PAMF) throughout Burkina Faso, Mali and Cote d’Ivoire. Dhami has also worked to deploy capital in Ghana and Nigeria with Acumen, a global non-profit that drives change through impact investments in transformative companies and leaders. Dhami is committed to working with the next generation of leaders across sectors and academic and professional disciplines. “I am inspired by the potential of leaders to shape the future of our country,” says Dhami, which motivates her to equip students with the tools to reenvision solutions to some of Canada’s most wicked problems. As a lecturer at the University of Toronto, she created their first course in impact investing. Dhami currently teaches at Ryerson University in social innovation and social finance.

THE BEST CAREER ADVICE I EVER RECEIVED: An early mentor encouraged me to define my personal motto and use that as a guide for the big career decisions in life. As I move across microfinance, impact investing to venture philanthropy, and between Canada and West Africa, I navigate each decision through my personal slogan: “Increase access to opportunity”.

THE BEST CAREER DECISION I EVER MADE WAS: Moving from investment banking in Toronto to microfinance in West Africa enabled me to redesign my path forward and embrace a career that merges purpose and profit.