‘We need to have a unified voice’: Impact Europe’s new CEO Angela Wiebeck

After nearly two decades at UBS where she led on sustainability and impact strategies, it is clear  that Impact Europe’s new CEO Angela Wiebeck knows how to speak to bankers and asset owners about impact investing. “She has spent years building bridges between the impact world and traditional finance,” says Impact Europe chair Leslie Johnston.

As Impact Europe, the network for impact investors, reaffirms its commitment to unlock more capital for people and the planet, it saw Wiebeck’s ability to reach across sectors as a unique asset to take its next steps – and she takes up her new role today. 

“I am confident her leadership will transform an even broader mix of players – foundations, investors, asset managers, social enterprises, corporates and more – into a powerful force for change in Europe and beyond,” said Johnston. Wiebeck will succeed Roberta Bosurgi, who has led the organisation since 2019.

Speaking to Pioneers Post from an unusually sunny Brussels ahead of the announcement of her appointment, Wiebeck shares her vision for an impact investing community that brings together an ever bigger diversity of stakeholders behind a common goal to create good for people and planet – without losing sight of what actually matters.

Pioneers Post: The world is moving fast. Where do you see the impact ecosystem in one year, and in 10 years?

Angela Wiebeck: We know we have about €190bn in the European impact investing market. That’s about 2.5% of the eligible market [the funds that researchers consider would be eligible for impact investing] in Europe, whereas sustainable investing is between 60% and 70%. I believe that one year from now, it's going to be noisy and turbulent, but I do think we'll see more movement in larger pension funds and insurance companies…The numbers will still increase, but not substantially. 

But in 10 years, I wouldn't be surprised if 15 or 20% of the eligible marketplace would be impact investing, because impact investing is the only investment strategy with positive intention at the outset, with the aim for positive outcomes, defined as part of the investment strategy. And to me, it is clear that that's going to be a bigger part of the market, because I believe that our pension funds, our insurance companies, and everyone who has a longer-term perspective will understand that we need to be thinking of our future generations, literally, as we invest. And impact investing is the gold standard for that.

• Read more: €190bn European impact investing market revealed – Impact Europe report

Pioneers Post: You’re taking over at an arguably difficult time, when impact investing is facing challenges on many fronts. What can be done about it? 

Angela Wiebeck: It's true. We have the worst fundraising environment since 2016, and we've had other headwinds, like regulatory uncertainty [around EU regulation]. Market forces, interest rates and inflation have been a challenge.

We have the worst fundraising environment since 2016... but there are positive signs

But there are indications that there are positive signs. When you look at the data, whether it's the European market sizing report, that says institutional pension funds and insurance companies are representing the biggest proportion – 28% – of the capital for impact investing, or the GIIN research that said that this share was 35% globally, I think pension funds, asset owners and insurance companies are more and more on board, and more and more optimistic about the need for impact investing. 

Impact Europe and our members need to align with asset owners across Europe: how can we bring these different deployers of capital together and amplify the results that we can have?

Pioneers Post: People cheer at more than US$1.5tn invested globally; but social enterprises on the ground too often say they don’t see any of this money. How can Impact Europe help solve that problem?

Angela Wiebeck: Lead by example. This is something that Impact Europe has been doing – for example through the Collaborate for Impact programme. It was about deploying – in this case, EU funds – to Georgia and Ukraine and Armenia, and really using those funds with local partners to support social entrepreneurs to scale up their businesses. It's about directly doing. I see this as an opportunity, and this is also the strength of Impact Europe, because we are a member-based organisation. We have a mission, but we have also been very effective at implementing and measuring and ensuring the money gets to those social entrepreneurs – and that is the goal. 

Then you need to measure, to manage, to report. You need to make sure that it's actually happening and that those outcomes are sustainable, and that when the funds are removed, that those ecosystems are stronger than they were before. I'm not going to lie: this requires a lot of real people on the ground, it's a lot of resources. 

Pioneers Post: Does impact come at a cost for investors? 

Angela Wiebeck: I believe so, yes. When we talk about measurement and reporting, and we talk about the proof of additionality, this all comes at a cost, just like regulation comes at a cost. It's about data gathering, it's about data crunching, it's about reporting. It's about then having that embedded in your processes and using that information for your decision-making. So I think in that sense, it definitely has a real, tangible cost, just like any rigorous processes that are newly added to the work of an investment manager would have additional costs. 

The popularity of blended finance is there because there is also a time horizon challenge, and that's why we need philanthropic catalytic capital, as this patient capital that can take more risk, is more flexible, has a longer term time horizon. This is why blended finance is very important, so that you can marry this catalytic capital with the investors that are still looking for at least market-based returns to make bigger positive environmental and social change happen.

Pioneers Post: What’s your biggest concern? 

Angela Wiebeck: I think we need to understand that we're on a journey. We're now at the stage where we're having growth, and we're reaching a more mature phase of the life cycle for impact investing…I feel like we're spending a lot of time internally, talking to our experts, and we're talking to each other, but we need to create awareness and bring new investors to the fold, because not all of them understand what it is, and many are confused by the SFDR regulation [on sustainability reporting for financial institutions]. 

We need to stop spending all of our time discussing the nuances and just move forward

I saw first-hand in the DACH region [in my role at European Renewable Energy Asset Manager Aquila Capital] how confused asset managers and pension funds are with impact investing: many still don't understand it. But that's an opportunity. So we need to have a unified voice, and we need to stop spending all of our time discussing the nuances and just move forward: perfect shouldn’t be the enemy of good. We should start to bring new people to the fold – but I'm not talking about losing integrity. I do think there has been, for the early adopters and the early movers who have started in this space, a lot of intellectual rigour behind the thoughts of impact investing – which is amazing – but because we're spending a lot of our time in this intellectual debate, we're losing the big picture…The risk is that our growth doesn’t happen.

• Read more: ‘We need all hands on deck’ – Impact Europe chair on how the impact community can shine a light in dark times

Pioneers Post: What gives you hope?

Angela Wiebeck: Ultimately, what we do in impact investing or in the evaluation of the impacts on the environment and society should be part of  our decision making. Once we've actually done that, then we don't need Impact Europe any more. 

My vision for the future is that impact is part of our everyday business dealings, whether we're a small enterprise – which won't be called a social enterprise any more, because that will be just what we do – or whether we're a large corporation, that we understand the environmental costs and benefits of our products and services, and we understand the same thing from  a social perspective. To me, this  is the Holy Grail. 

The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Impact Week 2025, Impact Europe’s annual conference, takes place from 18-20 October in Malmo, Sweden. Pioneers Post will be reporting from the event – stay tuned for updates.

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