Laura Kemp-Pedersen

Director
GenderSmart Investing Summit

Laura is the Founder of ImpactInc., which is focused on helping organisations across the investment spectrum attract capital to deliver on the UN’s SDGs, with a particular focus on impact investing, financial inclusion and gender lens investing. Laura is also a Director of the GenderSmart Investing Summit leading a global workstream focused on addressing the issue of the capital gap for First Time (Women and Diverse) Fund Managers with gender lens; a Board Member of Fair Justice Initiative Ghana (an NGO providing pro bono legal services and in-prison vocational programmes to socially and economically marginalised individuals); and a Board Advisor to Nordic Impact Funds, a Denmark-based private equity impact fund focused on East Africa.

Laura is the former Chief Marketing Officer for Leapfrog Investments, one of the world’s leading impact private equity firms where she led a multi-year external stakeholder engagement strategy to support a $743mn fundraise for deployment in sub-Saharan Africa and emerging Asia. Her work included value creations strategies on the ground with portfolio companies in East and West Africa, as well as investor communications and brand building for the Firm. Prior to LeapFrog, Laura was the Senior Director of Global Advocacy at GSMA, the global industry association for over 800 mobile operators, where she led Board engagement for the development and implementation of the organisation’s flagship strategy – an industry-wide commitment to social purpose and multi-year strategy backing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Her early career was focused in the technology sector including a decade with Dell Corporation culminating in leadership of Global Brand Operations. Laura read Political Science at University of Western Ontario.