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🌎 Welcome back to the CleanTechies PodLetter, Impact Investor edition.
Today, we are talking to Thomas Belazis from The Rockefeller Foundation.
We have yet another great episode on the role that philanthropy plays in the climate fight. We discuss…
How and WHY The Rockefeller Foundation (TRF) is going all-in on Climate
How TRF uses their philanthropic capital to unlock other funding
A nugget on how the philanthropy related to the king of oil, John D. Rockefeller thinks about the future of their role in ClimateTech
And a lot more.
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The Guest: Thomas Belazis
Thomas is Director of Innovative Finance at The Rockefeller Foundation, but his background and journey into impact-investing is somewhat unique.
Originally from the rust-belt (midwest), with a poverty lawyer for a father and nurse for a mother, his decision to go into the business world nearly caused his parents to have a heart attack.
His career started in consulting out of a company in Brazil. In this role, he worked a lot on international opportunities and this opened his eyes to a number of things.
Eventually, he moved into investing, working for hedge funds investing in emerging markets. During this time, he learned about impact investing. This idea and his interests aligned well and seemed to fill a gap.
Eventually, he would land his first role at The Rockefeller Foundation where he rose the ranks and climbed to his current role.
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The Foundation: The Rockefeller Foundation
Philanthropic Capital, Nature-Based Solutions, Impact Investing,
One Liner: Investing Catalytic Philanthropic capital into emerging impact markets.
Originally founded in 1913 with donations from the historically-significant John D. Rockefeller, the giant who created Standard Oil, this foundation was one of the first well-organized and systematic foundations.
From the beginning, their charter has been “…to promote the well-being of humanity and make opportunity universal and sustainable.” This, plus the origin of the money, makes it fitting that they have recently committed $1bn to investing in climate.
This amounts to about 75% of their spend going forward.
📝 Show Notes:
Topics
What Thomas Does at TRF
TRF’s $1bn Climate & Net Zero Commitment
Why Nature-Based Solutions
Catalytic Capital & Unlocking Funding
The Role of Philanthropy in Climate
Flexible Investment Approach
His Career Journey and Mentorship
Collaboration with Elemental Excelerator
Future Projects
Emerging Market Interest
Global Ambitions
Links
This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed on this podcast.
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🙏🏽 Thanks for tuning in, and see you all next episode!
#163 Rockefeller’s $1B for Climate, Nature-Based Solutions, Philanthropic Capital, & More w/ Thomas Belazis (Rockefeller Foundation)