JENNIFER POH
Independent investor moving her practice from Hong Kong to Singapore
MISSION STATEMENT I was a corporate lawyer, working on capital markets deals, including debt financing for companies as well as IPOS. After I left private practice,
I had the privilege of having some time off. I travelled around the world, including time in India training in Ashtanga yoga and doing my teacher training in Nicaragua. Yoga has been a huge part of the change in me. I changed from being a careless meat eater to training in raw vegan cuisine, and from binge-shopping on fast fashion to selling and giving away a large part of my wardrobe. A teacher told me that the definition of a yogi is someone who makes the world a better place than before he or she came into it, and this has become my guiding principle in life.
STARTING OUT The first question for women starting their journey to impact investing is, What’s your theory of change? What areas are you interested in? As you consume, well, what are you more concerned about? If your fridge is full of plant-based burgers, then focus on investing in companies that support that cause.
LESSONS LEARNED During my travels, I got to work on a project to help an education start-up in Johannesburg expand to the rest of Africa. That really influenced my views. While I was confronted by tragic poverty in Soweto and the other poor townships in South Africa, I was also left with a lot of enthusiasm for change. It made me believe that the allocation of the right capital to the right causes can really make a difference. Impact investing in many ways is an improved version of philanthropy.