Gayle Jennings-O’Byrne: Impact Investing

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Gayle Jennings-O’ByrneInvestment expert Gayle Jennings-O’Byrne discusses the social and economic impact of empowering female entrepreneurs of color through impact investing opportunities

We’ve all heard the term “impact investing,” but no one knows it better than Gayle Jennings-O’Byrne.

The CEO of The Prometheus Exchange and principal of Maya Ventures, she and a collective of social change-makers are working to build a diversity-based venture capital ecosystem that levels the playing field for women and minorities.

“If we as a country and as a society globally want to really energize the economy we’ve got to be able to bring these women and their companies to Main Street,” explained Jennings-O’Byrne.

Gayle Jennings-O’Byrne: Impact Investing

Gayle Jennings-O’Byrne, The Prometheus Exchange's CEO discusses the social and economic impact of empowering female entrepreneurs of color.

A former vice president of Global Philanthropy at JP Morgan Chase, she managed the tri-state portfolio, a $250 million initiative and one of the largest private sector efforts working to address the skills gap.

Jennings-O’Byrne points out that over a three year period there were 10,000 venture capital deals done, yet only 24 went to companies led by African American women despite the over four million black and Latina companies in the United States. And those four million companies generated $150 billion in revenue last year, but received virtually no money to start their businesses.

“This has a social component to it. There’s obviously racial and gender and inequality in this work, but there’s real economic injustice happening as well,” said Jennings-O’Byrne.

Mike Walter sat down with Gayle Jennings-O’Byrne at the annual Aspen Ideas Festival and shared the social and economic impact of empowering female entrepreneurs of color through impact investing opportunities.

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