Thomas M. Kostigen takes people from their 401(k)s to the four corners of the earth and tells them how they can change the world – and profit, too. By explicating the process of impact investing, Kostigen pulls back the curtain on one of the fastest growing forms of finance sweeping the world today. It’s how many of the wealthiest people and largest institutions on the planet invest. And it’s transforming the developing world.
A New York Times best-selling author, Kostigen is the Global Impact Investor columnist for Dow Jones MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. Kostigen has traveled to some of the world’s most tenuous places connecting the dots of man’s effect on the planet. His journalism appears in major publications worldwide and he is the author of six books, including and Wreak HavoWhat Money Really Means; The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at A Time; You Are Here: Exposing the Vital Link Between What We Do and What That Does to Planet; The Green Blue Book: The Simple Water-Savings Guide to Everything in Your Life; The Big Handout: How Subsides and Corporate Welfare Corrupt the World We Live Inc on Our Food Bills; as well as the forthcoming novel, Golden Dawn (summer 2012).
Kostigen appears regularly in the media, including CNN, The Today Show, Fox News, CNBC’s Squawk Box, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, National Public Radio, the Dennis Miller Show, Bloomberg Night Talk, Planet Green, Hollywood Green, Entertainment Tonight, The Daily Green, USA Today, USA Weekend, among others.
At the podium he combines in-the-field experiences with practical financial know-how. He explains how impact investing combines hedge-fund-like practices with philanthropy. And then follows the capital to where it does good.
For example, by explicating the social, political, and cultural environs of the Jakarta slums (made famous in the film The Year of Living Dangerously), Kostigen can relate a compelling, on-the-ground personal perspective from having been there. He can then present profit-making opportunities to effect social change, such as investing in a program with a 98% positive return on investment which also lifts for every dollar committed three families out of poverty. Or in another example out of Ghana, there is an eye-care program that services the incredible market of the blind, (90% of whom live in the developing world and 80% of whom can be cured with proper services). Or in India, there is a water filtration program that has massive investment return potential and helps prevent the millions of children under the age of five who die each year from water borne diseases. There are dozens of other examples like these that Kostigen addresses from in-field experiences and economic know-how.
For each audience Kostigen creates a specific program with takeaways.
Investors learn how to find impact investments and profit.
Business executives learn how to attract impact investment capital.
Students learn a newfangled form of finance that has sociological as well as economic implications.
Financial professionals learn how they can utilize impact investing to garner new business and increase the money they already manage.
Conference organizers, associations, and event planners can present a unique program to attendees that is positive and actionable.
This speaking program is a must for anyone who has compassion and is passionate about taking real action to make the world a better place. (Make note, this isn’t a treehugger’s brand of socially responsible investing. Impact investing exacts a mission. It’s active, not a reactive tool for screening out tobacco, alcohol, or casino stocks, or the like.)
