The Impact Investing Network is thrilled to announce the appointment of Dean Hegarty to the Board! Dean replaces Simon O'Connor as the RIAA representative on the IIN Board.
Dean comes with a wealth of experience as the Executive Manager at Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA).
"Having the chance to work alongside the really talented group of highly passionate people who make up the board is something I’m really looking forward to. It’s such an exciting moment in time for impact investing in Aotearoa. The dial is shifting towards creating positive outcomes and the opportunity to contribute to the IIN is a massive privilege." Dean says.
Read more about Dean's insights into impact investing in Aotearoa New Zealand below.
What role do you see IIN playing within the sustainable finance and impact investing ecosystem?
There’s a continuous need to identify and enhance what best practice looks like within impact investing, alongside improving capability within the sector. While there’s a lot we can learn from globally, we have our own unique culture here, and NZ specific components like Te Tiriti o Waitangi provide unique opportunities and responsibilities to engage with our communities. Having an effective local body like IIN allows us to harness the benefits of that uniqueness when delivering impact.
How can Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia work together in the impact investing space to help further advance practice and resources?
Collaboration is king - that’s especially true for impact investing. It’s developing so rapidly and most of the roadblocks to really effective impact outcomes actually cross borders, so there’s a lot of opportunity to support and learn from each other. Through my role with RIAA, every day I talk to investors on both sides of the Tasman who are hungry to increase their impact. Liquidity, scale and scalability of investment vehicles are big challenges, so the bigger we can make the ecosystem the more opportunity we have to be successful.
What are the biggest opportunities you see in the coming years with respect to impact investing in Australasia?
As a society, I think Aotearoa is at a moment in time where we’re facing some big challenges and asking ourselves some really big questions. Impact investing has the chance to play a key role in the solutions, which is incredibly exciting and presents massive opportunities to the sector. When you look at housing, education, even food, there are parts of our community who aren’t even having their basic needs met, let alone getting the chance to thrive. At the same time we’re now starting to see the costs of climate events, which are hurting financially, socially and personally. There’s some big mahi to be done and capital will be central in how we build the future we want - there’s no limit to the opportunities.