Investments
As a global social enterprise, we seek to reimagine what stewardship and fiduciary duty mean for a mission-driven organization. WES engages a total enterprise approach to achieve our mission and effect broader systems change.
Stewardship of a social enterprise should reflect both financial and mission objectives. WES is committed to a 100 percent mission-aligned investment portfolio, leveraging our full asset base to ensure WES’ financial sustainability, organizational growth, and achievement of impact goals. WES’ rotation of its portfolio for impact includes activating the full spectrum of capital, across six investing approaches.
Mission-Aligned Investing Approaches
Increasing Impact Intentionally
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Responsible Investing
Investments are screened out based on values
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Sustainable Investing
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors integrated into investment selection
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Active Ownership
Shareholder engagement and advocacy to influence corporate policies and practices
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Thematic Investing
Targeted impact themes drive investment selection
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Strategic Investing
Opportunities which support and advance WES’ strategic growth goals
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Catalytic Investing
Patient, flexible, and risk-tolerant capital, which maximizes impact
At WES, we define our impact as threefold:
Back proximate leaders with relevant lived, learned, and labored experiences.
Advance WES’ mission and determinants of good work.
Pioneer a trust-based investing approach.
WES strives for transparency in our policies and portfolio, both for accountability and to demonstrate our mission-aligned approach. Our Investment Policy Statement describes our mission-aligned investment commitment.
Insights
Flourishing Together: Lessons from the WES Partner Gathering
Cristina Lara-Agudelo |
Building an Ownership Movement to Close Racial Wealth Gaps
Smitha Das & Santhosh Ramdoss |
WES Investments Team
Senior Director, Investments
Smitha Das
Senior Director, Investments
Senior Manager, Investments
Sean Crowley
Senior Manager, Investments
Sean Crowley (he/him) serves as Senior Manager of Investments at WES, where he leads the work on WES’ thematic investments portfolio, focused on a broad set of impact themes across the globe aligned with WES’ mission. Passionate about leveraging capital to increase access to opportunity, Sean has extensive experience working as an investor with and advisor to nonprofits, foundations, and social enterprises, particularly within education and healthcare.
Prior to WES, Sean held roles with education consultancy Tyton Partners, the Boston Children’s Hospital Investment Office, and Cambridge Associates.
A first-generation college graduate, Sean holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a BA in Economics and Government from Cornell University.
Senior Manager, Investments
Matthias Pries
Senior Manager, Investments
Matthias Pries is Senior Manager of Investments at World Education Services (WES), where he is responsible for the organization’s catalytic impact investing portfolio, providing capital to early-stage ventures and emerging fund managers that are serving underserved and overlooked communities across Canada and the U.S.
Matthias brings significant experience working at the intersection of capital and impact. He has worked globally and domestically across private, public, and social sectors, advising investors on capital deployment, supporting social enterprises in capital raising, developing impact investing strategy for government, and structuring new impact investment funds and products. Matthias has facilitated impact investments across a wide range of sectors including education technology, financial inclusion, workforce development, affordable housing, healthcare, and climate change.
Outside of his work with WES, Matthias is an investment committee member for an impact investment fund in his home province of Manitoba, as well as for a small family office with a global impact portfolio. He is also a frequent mentor to young professionals seeking to start their careers in impact investing. He has a MSc in Climate Change Finance and Investment from the University of Edinburgh and a B.ES in Environment and Business from the University of Waterloo.
Investments Platform Manager
Cristina Lara-Agudelo
Investments Platform Manager
Connect with Us:
We are excited to meet innovators, organizations, and fellow travelers who are committed to advancing shared priorities and collective impact. If you’d like to learn more or explore partnership opportunities with us, please contact the Investments team.