Ashley Wang: Senior Associate at Social Venture Connextion (SVX), Top 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leader

Tell us a bit more about your career journey and how you ended up where you are today?

The summer after my second year in BMOS at Western, I worked as a Communications Analyst at RBC. I started the role with my heart set on pursuing a post-graduation position in marketing. However, one afternoon, I attended a conference that the bank was hosting on social entrepreneurship and impact investing. I had seen it advertised on the company intranet, and I had recently become more interested in environmental sustainability, taking on a zero-waste challenge to reduce my carbon footprint. By a stroke of luck, I spent the next few hours at the event learning about organizations and business models that prioritized people, planet, and profit all at the same time – and I was hooked. I loved that investor capital could be used to finance community-led solar projects, and that startups and technology could be used to create more responsible supply chains. I decided that I needed to pursue this interest further. 

The first summer after HBA1 I worked with The Upside Foundation of Canada, a charity that enables founders of early-stage, high-growth Canadian companies to build social responsibility into their business by pledging equity to the charity of their choice – “sharing their upside”. In my fourth year, myself and two fellow Ivey grads co-founded The London Social Value Fund (LSVF), Ontario’s first youth-led impact investment organization. It was through these roles and initiatives that I garnered my initial experience in impact, leading me to land an Analyst role with the Social Innovation Academy, who partnered me to work with Social Venture Connexion (SVX). I started right after graduation, and for the last two and a half years I’ve had the privilege of working everyday with like-minded organizations, fund managers, investors, and social enterprises that leverage innovative business models to achieve their impact mission.  

What is your day-to-day role at Social Venture Connextion (SVX)?

SVX is a nonprofit, diversified financial services firm driving impact for investors, organizations, funds, and enterprises. We have various business lines across capital advisory, fund management, venture education, and more. I lead the SVX platform, a single access point for raising impact capital and making impact investments. I manage due diligence on all the impact investment products on our platform, and also manage investor relations to raise capital for those issuers. I work across sectors such as climate, health, and housing, as well as asset classes such as impact funds, private fixed income, social impact bonds (SIB), and direct ventures.

Other projects I am involved with include Impact United, a movement and community of investors seeking to mobilize capital towards social, economic and environmental justice, and the Women of Ontario Social Enterprise Network (WOSEN), a collaborative that provides programming to unleash the entrepreneurial energy and capacity of women and non-binary / gender queer social entrepreneurs. 

What made you develop a passion for sustainability?

I think a lot of it goes back to my upbringing. My family and I are first-generation Chinese-Canadian immigrants. While I was privileged in many ways in my childhood, I, like many others, had the experience of feeling othered. It was precisely this feeling that developed my sense of empathy, and my desire for action over the years. As I grew older, the more I learned about the troubles we face as a global society, the more I just felt like I couldn’t stand by. When it came time to make a decision about my career, it didn’t feel right to spend most of my waking hours working to solely generate business profit. One quote that still resonates with me deeply to this day is: “How could I look my grandchildren in the eye and say I knew what was happening to the world and did nothing?” (David Attenborough) 

In my personal experience, I have also noticed that diverse people, and the people who have ‘the least to lose’ are the loudest when it comes to social and environmental justice. For example, Indigenous communities must be vocal, otherwise their rights as peoples will never be respected. Women and people of colour have skin in the game since the climate crisis is going to adversely impact them the most. If you understand what it is to be othered, you will fight in solidarity with others for the changes you wish to see. Similarly, my identities are a meaningful driver for the passion I have for my work. 

Looking back at your time at Ivey, what is something you really value and are glad you did during your time there?

One of my most valued memories at Ivey was founding the London Social Valued Fund. For me, LSVF made me feel like I was truly a member of the London community. When myself, Nikki Kwan (HBA ’18) and Emma Hogeterp (HBA ’19) co-founded LSFV, we had a vision to direct local capital into local social purpose organizations and create tangible impact for the community. We were extremely lucky that founding the organization became an opportunity for us to connect with organizations like Verge Capital, Pillar Nonprofit, the London Community Foundation, and others in the London impact investing ecosystem. This initiative made me feel a stronger sense of connection to the rest of the city and the people around me, and gave me a heightened sense of the social and environmental issues that these organizations wished to tackle in the London community.

Where do you see the future of impact investing?

At SVX, our vision is a world where “all investments are impact investments”. I hope that as we approach 2030, a milestone year to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we will live in that world. That being said, broad changes will need to be made to the way that we define business, profitability, and sustainability to materialize those goals. 

For example, we need to begin valuing companies by accounting for the damage that they are doing to the environment or communities. SASB Standards guide the “disclosure of financially material sustainability information by companies to their investors.” Under these standards, oil companies for instance that are reliant on non-renewable resources, would be forced to switch over to renewable energy if oil refineries are seen as liabilities rather than assets. Carbon-intensive industries like agriculture and transportation would need to shift to sustainable business models at the risk of paying high carbon taxes. I am hopeful that the future of this sector is supported by rigorous policy and action, and I believe that changes like this are on the horizon. 

What tips do you have for students at Ivey who want to get into impact investing?

Firstly, your network is everything. Impact investing in Canada is still a relatively small industry, meaning that we are a closely-knit community. The more that you can ask folks for coffee chats and subsequently ask them for additional introductions, the more likely it will be that you will hear about job opportunities in the space, and the more well-spoken you will be when the time comes for you to eventually do interviews.

Next is to get some sort of impact investing experience on your resume. There are more internships in the space than ever before. If that approach is currently out of reach, try to find other opportunities to get this experience. For example, you can participate in a social impact case competition or join the Ivey Social Impact Club. My advice is to do anything that demonstrates you are genuinely interested in the field. 

What do you think students can do to influence change and make a difference while at Ivey?

Be entrepreneurial. If you see an opportunity for positive change at Ivey or in your broader community, act on it. Take matters into your own hands, get help from the right people, and put your plans into motion!