Drew von Glahn

Drew is a Senior Advisor to the World Bank and a number of global philanthropic organizations. His advisory work focuses on impact investing, private enterprise solutions for development, and the role of catalytic capital in addressing global social, economic and environmental challenges.  Committed to addressing the constraints faced by SGBs in emerging markets, he has recently expanded his activities to take on the role as the initial director for a multi-stakeholder initiative, the Collaborative for Frontier Finance (CFF).

His career spans the private, nonprofit and public sectors.  For over twenty years he was an investment banker and investor, leading transactions across the globe.  His investment and financing activities have been broad ranging; including tech-enabled start-ups, renewable energy, private equity, venture capital, project financings and asset-backed securities.  He has spearheaded the design of a number of “first-of-kind” financings across the emerging and developed markets.  Drew has built and managed investment banking operations at such global firms as Credit Suisse and the predecessor firms to J.P. Morgan, as well as Managing Director for Technology, Communications and Media at ING.

As a business executive, Drew was the lead finance executive for a start-up marketplace-based online finance company.  He has been the CEO of a global social enterprise; and, a senior executive of a global nonprofit association that supports children and communities.

Drew led the World Bank’s venture philanthropy program, investing in and managing a portfolio of more than one hundred early-stage social enterprises.  The portfolio consisted of enterprises across a range of services; clean energy, sustainable agriculture, education, health, financial inclusion, water/sanitation and gender’s rights/equity.

He Co-founded Third Sector Capital, a leading U.S. advisor on impact financings and Pay-For-Success mechanisms. This work has greatly influenced Drew’s use and advocacy for the role that data and the capacity to “course-correct” on a real time basis plays in accelerating impact.

Drew has been an early architect on such collaborative initiatives as Boost Africa (an EIB/AfDB fund of funds for early-stage funds and startups), Co-Impact (a multi-stakeholder initiative investing in system change opportunities) and CFF (piloting new approaches to increase access to capital for MSMEs).  He is an advisor to such NGOs as Last Mile Health, Splash and Roca, Inc., all leading players in their respective sectors applying evidence-based program design and implementation.    Drew is on the investment committee of Calvert Impact Capital, a leading funder in the global impact investing arena.

His research and writing topics include: the use and application of performance-based financing mechanisms; benchmarking organizational traits that drive capacity to implement innovative financings; and, subsidies and incentives mechanisms regarding increasing capital to early-stage businesses.