UK’s Impact Investing Institute reveals new CEO

Anna Patton 2nd March 2023

The UK’s Impact Investing Institute has today confirmed that Kieron Boyle will be its new CEO, following the departure of Sarah Gordon from the top job earlier this year.

The Impact Investing Institute, founded in 2019, is an independent not-for-profit organisation which aims to boost impact investment in the UK and internationally.

Read: Impact Investing Institute’s Sarah Gordon steps down amid ‘fast-closing’ window of opportunity

Dame Elizabeth Corley, chair of the Impact Investing Institute, said Boyle was “ideally skilled to realise the Institute’'s aspirations and take its accomplishments to the next level”, and “widely recognised as a key and influential figure in the global impact investing world”.

Kieron Boyle headshot Boyle (pictured) has run Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, which focuses on healthcare, for the past seven years. One of the world’s oldest foundations, it is also among the pioneers of impact investing: in 2022, it announced that it would allocate 10% of its £1bn endowment to impact investment by 2026, the largest known allocation in impact by a UK charitable endowment.

From 2012 to 2016, Boyle was director of impact investment at the UK government’s Cabinet Office, where he helped form the G8 taskforce on social impact investment – the predecessor of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment – and led initiatives creating the Access Foundation, Government Outcomes Lab  and  Dementia Discovery Fund.

Read more from Kieron Boyle and William Burckart: For a healthier society, we need more system-level investing

Previously, he worked alongside the prime minister within 10 Downing Street, the Department for Business, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the prime minister’s Strategy Unit. He started his career as a strategy consultant at Boston Consulting Group in New York.

Boyle is currently on the board of Big Society Capital. He is also a governor of the Southbank Centre, a trustee of the Design Council, and chair of the Long-term Investors in People’s Health programme, a $7tn global alliance of institutional investors.

The world faces intense challenges, and I have seen first-hand how capital markets can be one of our most effective levers of change

Significant interest

Boyle’s appointment followed an “extensive selection process that attracted significant interest among applicants”, according to a statement from the Institute.

Elizabeth Corley praised Sarah Gordon’s “exceptional legacy as founding CEO”.

Boyle said: “Having spent over a decade in the field of impact investing, I am incredibly excited to lead the Institute at such an important time. The world faces intense economic, social and environmental challenges, and I have seen first-hand how capital markets can be one of our most effective levers of change.”

Boyle takes up his role in May 2023, with interim joint CEOs Bella Landymore and Sarah Teacher overseeing the institute until then.

Photos courtesy of Impact Investing Institute

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