Lauren Dobell

Lauren’s wending path to date embraces three broad phases: roughly a decade of fieldwork, journalism and teaching centred on transitions to democracy, reconciliation and reconstruction; another peripatetic period immersed in public policy-shaping in municipal, provincial and federal spheres. (“Canadian Councils” – for international cooperation, unity, learning – are a recurring phenomenon in her journey.)

A focus on the design of multisector and intergovernmental partnerships has also been core to Lauren’s advocacy for sustainable finance principles and practices, encompassing roles with Vancity and in launching Vancity Community Investment Bank, as co-founder of the Table of Impact Investment Practitioners (TIIP) and its predecessors, and in myriad advisory capacities, including an appointment to the Federal steering committee which recommended the Social Finance Fund and accompanying Investment Readiness Program. Along the way she has misplaced much baggage (real and metaphorical) and sometimes her best judgment, usually retrieved her sense of perspective, frequently stumbled across a perfect moment, and generally found that the worst mishaps make for the best stories.