Elena Casolari believes in the transformative power of impact investing and the social enterprise movement; she is an advocate and practitioner of gender smart investing. She is the co-founder and partner of OPES Italia Sicaf EuVECA, which invests in impact enterprises in Italy, and OPES-LCEF Fund, an impact investment vehicle that provides financial resources and management support to early-stage social enterprises whose businesses serve low-income people and disadvantaged communities.
For 10 years, Elena was CEO at ACRA, an international NGO, and before that spent 12 years in the investment banking industry covering emerging markets. Elena serves as a Director at Fondazione Umano Progresso, the Social Impact Agenda for Italy, and she is member of the General Council of Fondazione Compagnia San Paolo. She is also Director in the Board of several start up and impact enterprises in Italy and overseas. After her graduation in Management at “Bocconi“ University, Elena was a Monbushoo fellow at the Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo for two years.
