It is our belief that collectively we are beginning to look more critically at the relationship between business and society. Market forces are at play creating a new level of due diligence on all fronts. We are scrutinizing the companies we want to work for, buy from, partner with, allow into our communities and invest in, with an eye towards how they engage all of their stakeholders - not just their shareholders. This means purpose and organizational culture are becoming the new drivers of competitive advantage. We believe ethical, responsible, and conscious behavior by a company toward all of its stakeholders is perhaps the most decisive competitive advantage ever wielded in a capitalistic enterprise. Yet companies operating in the old paradigm of shareholder centricity miss this mark. We’ve launched the Conscious Venture Fund I to capitalize on this opportunity. The Fund will invest in exceptional early-stage entrepreneurs who are creating innovative solutions to complex problems, and supporting a more prosperous society in the process. We focus mainly on tech-enabled businesses that will impact the health and wellbeing of large numbers people. We strive to work with companies that understand the power of purpose and create economic, personal and societal value.The majority of our investments are focused on companies that we admit into the Conscious Venture Lab, our accelerator for Conscious Capitalism®. We bring together a group of world-class business people, industry and academic experts to help founders create high-performance cultures, operating models that harness and inspire the creativity of employees, and strategies focused on customers with real problems. We are innovating on the venture capital model by connecting it directly to an intense, high-touch business acceleration process, which in turn will contribute to our ability to outperform. Our vision is the transformation of capitalism into a force for greater good.

The Novella Center for Entrepreneurship Inc. (NCE) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to expanding access to the opportunity of entrepreneurship for all. Leveraging a decade of learning from our work at the Conscious Venture Lab, NCE creates partnerships and programming that help entrepreneurs rethink the relationship between business and society and build companies that matter.NCE’s principal goal is to reach and support historically underfunded leaders through customized content, immersive support and technology-driven platforms tailored to the stage of the company. NCE will focus on training new executives, creating individualized programming and developing potential investment paths to assist accelerator participants as they build and manage businesses that create both social and financial value.

Conscious Venture Lab® (CVL) is an early stage business accelerator with the goal of developing companies and leaders who embrace capitalism as a force for good in society. We work to help extraordinary entrepreneurs in their goal to build companies with societal purpose at their core; to give them all the tools and support they need to create engaged happy employees, loyal and joyful customers, deeply authentic partnerships, caring and safe communities and all manner of wealth for all their stakeholders.

The Laudato Si’ Startup Challenge, inspired by Pope Francis is a global initiative, an urgent call-to-action, that encourages early to mid-stage startups to grow their breakthrough solutions to the world’s boldest challenges. Teams of young people, of all faiths, all backgrounds, on every continent, are being asked to scale their profitable, innovative and sustainable products and services which address a grand challenge. The challenge category for 2017 is: climate change and involuntary migration. Startup teams from over 100 countries are now being recruited through a direct call-to-action, through global startup ecosystems, university partners and a worldwide executive network. After submitting first-round entries, the field will be narrowed to 50. Following a rigorous, 60-day screening and interview process, a panel of experts will choose the most promising 12 startups (semi-finalists) to advance into an 8-week business accelerator in Rome to expand and scale their solution.

G2 is a collaborative investment firm that draws upon deep operating expertise and patented research systems to accelerate organic revenue growth for North American middle-market companies and the founder-owners, management teams and sponsors who run them.

The Cornerstone Global Advisory Council (GAC) is comprised of professionals from across regions and disciplines of business, investment, and civil society. Each colleague possesses exceptional expertise in a particular capital markets function, or in an area of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance which will allow Cornerstone Capital clients to better operationalize corporate sustainability initiatives and investment decisions.

Concinnity Advisors, LP is an investment firm focused on identifying and investing in companies that use a Multi-stakeholder Management System (MsMS) to achieve sustainable and mutually beneficial corporate performance.

The Concinnity Group is an alternative investment management company dedicated to the idea of supporting sustainable businesses. Our investment criteria is based on the foundational premise that business who focus on the needs all stakeholders; employees, customers, community and partners, without overemphasizing the needs of shareholders alone, will be the companies that outperform in the future.

As co-head of research for the Multi-Stakeholder Management System (MsMS) investment Strategy I shared the responsibility for creating the research process that helps identify companies that operate with a stakeholder mindset as a way of creating sustainable value.

While at OPX I was primarily assisting with the launch of a new strategy, Integrated Operating Environments or IOE. This is a process by which we help organizations improve performance by creating an alignment between people, process and place in order to support and inspire strategically aligned behaviors.

I had the good fortune to sell LLD to a long time business associate in late 2006. It was a great 20 years from start-up to Inc. 500 company that has taught me more than I could have ever imagined about running and building businesses.