We believe in a circular world
Where people, knowledge, and organisations are connected and collaborate to build effective solutions to pervasive problems.
We are a private venture philanthropy foundation that partners with social impact first organizations that want to enhance sustainable economic opportunities for communities and small businesses.
We do so by supporting local talent potential, creativity, and innovation with useful tools, flexible funding, and a knowledge network to maximize and scale impact.
In disadvantaged rural areas and informal settlements, millions of people live in severe scarcity: people with talent and potential but with limited resources and options to improve their living conditions.
Creating sustainable economic opportunities improves communities’ well-being, their sense of self-development, and contribution. This allows people and communities to embrace their own future, and to lead lives with hope and dignity. We believe in supporting communities to design and drive systemic change for generations to come, by building a community that is eager to share generously so we can reach further, faster.
We believe in acting from the head and the heart.
Our values
Honesty
We commit to full honesty & transparency with our partners, recognising the limits of what we can achieve.
Trust
We believe that mutual trust is critical to a meaningful relationship, one that is capable of creating lasting changes, so we always demonstrate integrity in our dealings.
Respect
We respect that our partners and local communities are aware of their own problems and also the best means of addressing them, so we respect their priorities.
Accountability
We are accountable for our actions and expect our partners to be as well. We strive to understand the long term consequences of any interventions and ensure that these are positive.
Our Team
Making things happen with passion & dedication
Executive Director
María Jesús Pérez
She has over 15 years of experience in the field of economic development.
She has lived in the UK, Central America and the Middle East and has managed international projects and teams in several countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. She served as Deputy Director of CODESPA Foundation, international NGO specialised in sustainable poverty eradication, leading innovative strategies to increase the impact of economic development projects, and creating systems and actions to generate and share specialised knowledge. She led multiparty partnerships with business, academy and social impact organisations. She has a specialised background in microfinance, inclusive business and private sector engagement in development. She is author of several papers and research on these topics.
Her education is in Business and Economics and holds a MSc Degree in Development and Project Planning (UK) with complementary studies at IESE Business School (Spain), INSEAD (France) and Harvard Kennedy School (Boston).
"I believe in putting people at the center of every action and my passion lies in seeing people display their talent and potential no matter their context or starting point."
Finance & Investment
Kevin Thomas Kenny
Kevin serves as Investment Manager for Blink, and actively collaborates as part of the SCF investment team.
Six years of experience in performing financial analysis and analysing and executing private investments in emerging markets.
Prior to joining Blink, Kevin worked in the investment banking division at Morgan Stanley in London, advising clients in M&A, IPO and structured finance transactions. Previously, he spent four years at the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) as an Investment Professional, where he was involved in the processing, execution and analysis of private debt, mezzanine, and private equity investments. At IFC, Kevin was involved in the execution and impact measurement of development finance investments all across Latin America with particular focus in the agribusiness, fintech, microfinance and financial institutions sectors.
Kevin has been passionate about development finance since college. As a mentor and coordinator for the NGO Techo, he advised “base of the pyramid entrepreneurs” to receive credit following the Muhammed Yunus framework.
Kevin holds an MBA from IESE Business School and a BA in Business and Finance from Universidad Católica Argentina.
Head of impact
Ana Pimenta
Ana has more than 12 years of international experience focused on impact investing and consulting, private equity/ venture capital, and corporate finance.
She has led and executed projects across several asset classes and industries, particularly education, renewable energy, real estate and infrastructures. Prior to joining SCF, Ana worked in social impact strategy and measurement at Banco Santander. Prior to that, she worked for both the Big 4 consultancy firms, EY and Deloitte, and for several small investment houses and family offices, such as Lynx Asset Managers, Third Way Africa and Alanis Capital.
Additionally, in collaboration with IE University and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Ana teaches impact investing and mentors several social enterprises, mainly in Europe, Latin America and Africa.
Ana is currently finishing her PhD in Impact Investing from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) and she also holds a Master’s degree in Economics from NOVA School of Business & Economics in Lisbon (Portugal).
Shadow Manager & Representative for Central America
Hugo Cabrera
Hugo is a social entrepreneur and senior economic development consultant with more than 23 years working in the private and international cooperation sectors in Central America and southern Mexico.
Specialised in strategic relationships, he’s brokered partnerships between NGO’s, projects, public-private sectors and international cooperation agencies.
Co-founder of Wakami: a social enterprise that empowers women and young people, transforms them into entrepreneurs who produce and sell handmade fashion accessories globally, while increasing education, nutrition and quality of life for children and their families.
Founder and CEO of Impacto Empresarial, a consulting firm which creates and improves rural companies as vehicles for sustainable development and provides access to markets as the best tool for prosperity.
Director USA
David Lambert
David has an extensive history of giving back: from building homes for habitat for humanity, to rebuilding projects for an underserved Indian reservation. David graduated with a BA in environmental studies and years later obtained a masters in nutrition. It is through these degrees that David strives to create positive change. At the age of two he was diagnosed with a disability that would follow him the rest of his life. David has seen first hand how important a tight knit community is and therefore is one of his branches is his theory of change.
Our Board
Inspiration, vision and commitment
Founder, Chairman of the Board
Laura Devere
Laura is the founder and Chairman of the Board of the Social Capital Stichting (Foundation).
She is an active Impact investor and venture philanthropist. Currently Laura serves as a board member of MCE, Social capital Microfinance, is an active investor in early stage Social businesses and actively in involved providing grants for income generation and educational programs.
Recently Laura founded a sister foundation, 5 Media Stichting which focuses on reducing our environmental impact and building the eco system for conscious capitalism. Social Capital Foundation is proudly collaborating with 5 Media.
In her business career she was the general manager USA for Bibit Global Payments and a Managing Director for a Specialist firm on the NYSE. Her education and professional experience has been in the areas of finance/economics and business development.
Board member
Tswi Rodrigues Pereira
Tswi Rodrigues Pereira was the first partner at Pereira; an excellent tax-consultancy office that advises clients with tax- and notarial related issues with tailor-made solutions. These clients mainly consist of entrepreneurs with successful family businesses, national and international.
After his study of tax law, Tswi was a tax inspector with the tax authorities. In 1988 he started working at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he became a partner in 1993. In 1997 he became member of the tax board of this big 4 corporation. He specialized in tax planning of larger corporations and stock exchange noted funds, mergers, buy-outs, acquisitions, due diligences and family businesses.
Tswi's main qualities are his ability to put things in perspective, his analytical skills and the ability to look at problems from different perspectives. His sense of humor and his associative ability form an integrated whole. These qualities have contributed to Pereira’s strength; creative thinking in custom made solutions, pragmatic and specific advisory and making the complex simple. Pereira believes in development through knowledge.
Tswi mainly operates as trusted advisor, he is a sound board for his relations and colleagues. Also, Tswi is a board member of several charity funds, mainly focusing on education. In his spare time he studies philosophy.
Board member
Chris van Leeuwen
Chris studied law in Leiden, after which he served one year in the Dutch army, and after that joined Arthur Andersen (Amsterdam) as a tax lawyer.
During a period of 10 years, he has been active in tax consultancy for merger and acquisitions, corporate restructuring and real-estate transactions with Arthur Andersen.
He joined Wagram in 2000, bringing his tax and legal expertise. This has become instrumental in the successful structuring of Wagram activities. Meanwhile, Chris developed into a senior investment manager, responsible for the successful execution of several transactions.
Our Advisors
Bright minds to catalyse our activities
Senior Advisor Tech & Scaling
Jean Claude Rodríguez Ferrera
Jean Claude is the Co-founder of Redsalmons, a consulting firm that helps innovative social projects scale, mainly with the use of technology. He is also a recognized social entrepreneur, Ashoka Fellow and was selected “Best Creative Entrepreneur of the World” by JCI in 2008.
Originally from Barcelona, he created the CAF methodology (self-financed communities) and expanded it to more than 10 countries. He lived in Silicon Valley, where he had such investors as Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.
He holds a PhD in Business Administration, he teaches “Social Entrepreneurship” in different universities and wrote the book “World Economy & Development”.
Senior Advisor Talent
Manuel Márquez
Manolo Marquez founded V3Leaders after 15 years of leadership and corporate governance consulting experience, and 8 years as publicly traded company chief executive officer.
He also holds an Executive in Residence position at ESADE Business School, chairing their Final Master Projects –a consultancy study delivered by full-time MBA students to selected participating companies with the collaboration of Monitor Deloitte.
As an international executive, he has been responsible for operations in more than 25 countries in the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe. He has been exposed to multiple industries and environments, addressing business transformation, international expansion and acquisition integration.
His experience in the boardroom, in Europe and USA, has helped him be effective as an external advisor and non-executive director, who challenges executive teams constructively, bringing them support and guidance in a non-intrusive way.
V3Leaders has also fostered and helped implement non-for-profit civil society projects such as 360SmartVision.com and Prosper4All.