About

Meet our editorial team

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  Paula Garrido

  I joined Impact Investor as editor in January 2022.
  I started my career in journalism in 1999 with Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE), and later joined the Financial Times group. In 2004, I was recruited by F&C Investments to lead communications for the firm’s institutional business, with a special focus on promoting their ESG offering. Later, I joined impact investor Bridges Fund Management as head of communications. After that, I worked as a freelance writer and consultant.

  I studied History at the University of Santiago de Compostela, my home town in Spain, and Journalism in London, where I still live.

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  Maha Khan Phillips

  I started my career in financial journalism in 1999, and joined Impact Investor as co-editor in October 2023. I have held a number of different editorial roles in between, working for Risk Magazine, Financial News and Global Investor, before launching and editing Islamic Investor and freelancing for publications like Investments & Pensions Europe (IPE). For a number of years, I also edited Professional Investor for the CFA Society of the UK. I wear another hat as a novelist, and have written four novels to date. They are all set in Pakistan, where I grew up. I have a keen interest in social justice and in global health issues, and while I am London-based, I still spend a lot of my time in Pakistan.

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  Ian Lewis

  I’m a London-based journalist with three decades of experience covering social and economic development and business, mainly in Africa and Asia, as well as reporting on the energy transition.
  I started out at Reuters, before turning freelance and basing myself in the Middle East and Spain for several years. I have written for a variety of publications, including the Economic Intelligence Unit, African Business and Euromoney titles. I have also written reports on development themes for IFIs, commercial banks, consultancies, and NGOs.
  My work has included on-the-ground research into the impact of NGO funding of small businesses and agricultural programmes, highlighting the importance to impact investors of getting the biggest bang possible for their buck.

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  Karolina Adamkiewicz

  I am a journalist and communications professional passionate about raising awareness of solutions to the nature and climate crisis.
  I started my career at the FT Group 20 years ago, writing for retail investment trade Financial Advisor before moving into PR and internal communications where I worked across the finance, B2B electric product distribution and tech and leisure sectors.
  For the past couple of years, I have returned back to where I started, but this time writing about the innovations that are helping to accelerate the energy transition and more recently, as a member of the Impact Investment team, about the investments that are driving sustainable social and environmental change.

  I have obtained the Certificate in ESG Investing from the CFA Institute and am currently studying for an MSc in Sustainable Development from Sussex University. I live in Hounslow, West London, where together with another volunteer, we have relaunched the local Friends of the Earth group.

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  Christopher Walker

  I have significant global experience at the highest levels of the asset management, banking, family office, and pensions industries, and was an early innovator in responsible investing. Since 1998, I have been working as a senior journalist and columnist specializing in thought pieces, book reviews, and industry leader profiles (The Times, The Independent, Responsible Investor, IPE and Impact Investor). I’m based in London, the United States, and my wildlife sanctuary in France.

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  Hans van de Veen

  As a young kid, I decided to become a journalist, and I still am one. My work has covered a range of subjects, but what probably ties them all together is a focus on social relevance. I worked as an editor of Dutch magazines on development cooperation and on corporate social responsibility, traveled extensively, especially in Africa and Asia. I also wrote travel guides as well as publications on sustainable tourism, conflict prevention, innovative financing instruments for development, and most recently social impact bonds. To me, writing about impact investing fits in seamlessly with all of the above.

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  Danielle Rossingh

  I’m a multi-media business & sports business writer and journalist, who has worked for the world’s biggest media companies, including the Daily Telegraph, the BBC, De Telegraaf and a decade at Bloomberg News. I went freelance in 2015, and am currently a contributing writer for CNN Online, Forbes Sportsmoney, S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Daily Dose and Impact Investor. Raised on a farm in the Dutch countryside, I’ve been based in the U.K. since 2002. When I’m not working, I can be found running around on a tennis court or cycling on the beach with our young son. Passionate about leaving our world a better place for the next generation.

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  Christian Nielsen

  I have over 25 years of experience in professional communications, journalism, training, film and media. I worked in business communications and as a sports reporter while completing a journalism diploma, and trained as a copy editor at the Wall Street Journal Europe. In 2001, I joined ESN, a Brussels communications agency, where I was eventually head of editorial.
  For me, joining the Impact Investing team feels like a natural confluence of experiences in business, journalism, the environment and social justice all coming together.
  Writing projects on the side include a contemporary novel (Ray of Hope), and I also regularly document my experiences and travels on an award-winning blog, Chronikler.com.

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  Pirkko Juntunen

  I started my journalism career at Institutional Investor Newsletters in 1997 after having studied for an MA in International Journalism at City University in London. Two years later I joined Financial News, now owned by Dow Jones, in 1999 where I continued covering the European institutional investor markets until joining Fidelity as a fund analyst in 2004. Since 2006, I have been working freelance. I continue to write about pensions and investments with a focus on alternatives and ESG/impact investing but also do corporate work, event production and moderating in the financial services sector.

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  Sara Nkwe Assarsson

  I’m a Sweden-based freelance journalist and radio reporter with an interest in global development, health, innovation and social issues. I have a background as a health reporter and currently divide my time between Scandinavia and sub-Saharan Africa, reporting on humanitarian issues and innovative approaches to improve global health. Reporting for Impact Investor combines my interests in development and social entrepreneurship, and I look forward to reporting on this new model of solving some of today’s social challenges.

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