The International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI) Announces Important Board Appointments
- Global impact valuation body’s mission will be to develop set of robust impact methodologies and valuations that bring corporate impacts on people and planet into accounting practice, financial analysis and the valuation of companies.
- Body will play decisive role in delivering comprehensive impact transparency to address shortcomings of self-reported ESG disclosure.
NEW YORK, November 28, 2022 — The International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI) — which aims to fulfill the call to action of the G7 Impact Taskforce for comprehensive impact transparency — has announced important new Board appointments.
The IFVI is a spin-off organization from the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) at Harvard Business School. It will take IWAI’s framework and datasets to implementation, bringing companies’ external impacts into accounting practice, financial and business analysis, and valuation.
Standardized methodologies will provide a decisive answer to unreliable self-reported ESG measurement, enable scaling of social and environment-friendly investment worldwide, and pave the way for a significant improvement of accounting practice and the creation of an information environment that allows people to access and act upon impact considerations.
The IWAI will continue to develop its research, education and training activities in impact accounting and its application in investment and business.
According to IFVI’s Interim Chair Sir Ronald Cohen:
“Conventional accounting practice is still grounded in the profit transparency introduced in the 1930s. Today’s world is frantically trying to meet the challenges of climate change and economic inequality by closing the financing gap in meeting the 2030 UN Goals. Generally accepted accounting methodologies are no longer sufficient and fit for purpose. Impactweighted accounting will provide the fundamental revision we urgently need”
“An airline can generate $100M in annual profit while creating $500M in environmental damage. At the same time, a business that brings radical improvement to an impoverished community by creating employment, paying livable wages, and ensuring equitable career development has no means of demonstrating that positive impact through its financial accounts.”
“Today’s appointments reflect our success in creating a Board with a diverse range of perspectives, expertise and experience spanning across the world. We look forward to working together to achieve this important, time-critical mission.”
Harvard Business School Professor George Serafeim, a member of the IFVI Board and Chair of its Technical Committee, added:
“In order for financial reporting to truly reflect the impacts that companies are creating – for better and for worse – we need to fundamentally reshape how we account for the creation of value. We can do that by developing standardized and universally-applicable methodologies for measuring environmental and social impacts in financial terms. This monumental task has been the work of IWAI. It will now be ably carried to implementation by the IFVI and its world-leading experts.”
The IFVI will work in close partnership with the Germany-based Value Balancing Alliance (VBA), pooling together expertise and resources to accelerate progress. Both organizations are active participants in the global field of impact valuation. They are members of the Capital Coalition’s Value Accounting Network and Value Commission.
Chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen, the IFVI’s Board includes Saori Dubourg (BASF), Robert Herz (formerly FASB, IASB, SASB), Conor Kehoe (formerly IIRC), Allison Herron Lee (formerly SEC), Hans Hoogersvorst (formerly IASB), Nick Hurd (G7 Impact Taskforce), Tracy Palandjian (Social Finance), and other experts (a full list of Board appointees appears below).
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APPENDIX 1: LIST OF BOARD MEMBERS
Yael Almog
General Counsel and Management Committee member, Bank Hapoalim; Former CEO, IFRS; Head of International Department, Israeli Securities Authority Chair and member of various IOSCO committees; Member, IWAI Advisory Council
Ibukun Awosika
Former Chair, First Bank of Nigeria; Board Member Convention on Business Integrity Governing, Cadbury Plc, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, Digital Jewels LTD
Cambria Allen Ratzlaff
Managing Director and Head of Investor Strategies, JUST Capital; Co-Chair, Human Capital Management Coalition
Dolika Banda
Independent Non-executive Director, British International Investment, Harith General Partners – Infrastructure Investment; Global Ambassador The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG); former Director, International Finance Corporation – World Bank Group
Clara Barby
Senior Partner at Just Climate; former CEO of the Impact Management Project (IMP). Advisor to IFRSF on establishment of ISSB and its merger with SASB-IIRC
Vania Borgerth
Deputy Head of International Relations, CBPS (Brazilian Committee of Sustainability Pronouncements); Board Member, IESBA – International Ethics Standards Board for Accounting, Chair of EIOC (Emerging Issues and Outreach Commission); Council Member, IRCC – Integrated Reporting and Connectivity Council (former – IIRC ), IFRS Foundation; Head of CBARI – Brazilian Network for Integrated Reporting and Member of the A4S Expert Panel on Accounting for Sustainability – Member, Audit Committee, Banco Santander Brasil.
Sir Ronald Cohen (Interim Board Chair)
Co-founder and Chair, Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI), Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG), G8 Social Impact Investment Task Force; Apax Partners Worldwide LLP, Bridges Fund Management, Big Society Capital. Co-founder British and European Venture Capital Associations, Social Finance.
Saori Dubourg
Chair, Value Balancing Alliance Steering Committee; Member, BASF SE Board of Executive Directors
Roger Ferguson
Former President and CEO, TIAA-CREF; Former Vice-Chair, US Federal Reserve (1999-2006)
Allison Herren Lee
Former SEC Commissioner; NYU Law School, Adjunct Professor, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Corporate Governance and Finance.
Robert Herz
Former Chair, FASB; Founding Member, former IASB Board; Board Member, Fannie Mae, Morgan Stanley, and Workiva; Board Member, SASB (and its successor the Value Reporting Foundation), Executive-in-Residence at Columbia Business School
Hans Hoogervorst
Former Chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB); Former Minister of Finance, Netherlands.
Rt. Hon. Nick Hurd
Chair of the G7 Impact Taskforce; Chair, Access Foundation for Social Investment; Former UK government minister
Myung-soo Kang
Chairman and CEO, Korean Standards Association
Karen Karniol-Tambour
Co-Chief Investment Officer for Sustainability, Bridgewater Associates; Member, IWAI Advisory Council
Conor Kehoe
Chair, International Integrated Reporting Council; Board Member, Value Reporting Foundation (VRF); Member, G7 Impact Taskforce; Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Co. and Blackrock
Tracy Palandjian
CEO and Co-Founder of Social Finance; Member, IWAI Advisory Council, Harvard Corporation
George Serafeim
Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; Co- hair, Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative, Harvard Business School
Ken Shibusawa
CEO, Shibusawa and Company, Inc.
Weiguo Zhang
Professor, Tsinghua University and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics; Former Board Member, International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).