Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands
I am a consultant in the sustainable finance and blended finance space. I work independently (Finding Ways Ahead) or together with Robert van Zwieten (Route17). Over the past five years, I've delivered a large number of advisory projects working with institutional investors, development finance institutions and academic institutions, on engagement, impact investing, climate-related investment risk, the energy transition and blended finance. Many of these projects have resulted in publications that have been widely disseminated and that have informed (sustainable) investing practices, including: Does Sustainable Investing Work (w/ Tom Gosling); What’s The Story: Should investors flip the script regarding the energy transition?; In the Line of Duty – Institutional Investors’ Responsibilities Regarding Systemic Risks (w/ Fiona Stewart); The Mobilizing Private Capital Equation (w/ Robert van Zwieten); and GAWA Capital and Blended Finance: "It's a Dance". I am also a senior advisor to the LSE Blended Finance Lab and a Visiting Senior Fellow at CETEx (LSE), and hold a number of other advisory positions, including as chair of the Investment Committee Impact Strategies at Triodos Investment Management, member of the Impact Advisory Board at Achmea Investment Management and as external advisor sustainable finance to the Dutch Securities Institute. Previously I was head of responsible investment at Natixis Investment Managers and Aegon Asset Management. My background is in corporate strategy and business development: international expansion through M&A, JVs, greenfields. I also have expertise in strategy, organizational development, governance. Started career as corporate lawyer. Extensive experience as (supervisory / advisory) board member, especially in non-profits & culture and the arts. Jazz pianist and composer and Amsterdam district councillor.
Develop partnerships for funding of solutions to societal challenges. Develop investment strategies and allocations, identify and create investable options to implement them. Address constraints both at the transaction and the systemic level. We work with governments, asset owners (insurance companies, pension funds), asset managers, DFIs/MDBs, entrepreneurs, foundations and academia, and leverage our relationships across these different stakeholder groups to build unconventional partnerships for funding. Most SDG-aligned investments require blended finance approaches – where public and philanthropic capital ‘mobilize’ private capital – which is why we have specific expertise in this type of financing. Clients include: Dimensional Fund Advisors; Deloitte Switzerland/World Economic Forum; Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI); V20; Ponterra; Empowa; Climate Policy Institute (CPI); UN Sanitation & Health Fund; London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE); Invest-NL.
Sustainable finance & impact advisory. I've completed a large number of advisory projects working with institutional investors, development finance institutions, NGOs and academic institutions; on engagement, impact investing, climate-related investment (risk), the energy transition and mobilizing capital / blended finance. Clients include: American Century Investments; Royal London; UBS; World Bank; The Boardroom Africa; EY Netherlands; Dutch Founders Fund; PFZW/PGGM; Shell Pension Fund; Pensioenfonds Detailhandel; OP Asset Management; Lane Clark Peacock; Dutch Securities Institute (DSI); EFAMA; JO Hambro; Border to Coast Pensions Partnership; Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL); Mastercard Foundation; Achmea Investment Management.
LSE is announcing the launch of a Blended Finance Lab as part of the new Initiative in Sustainable Finance (ISF), of which Tom Gosling is the director. The ISF sits within the Global School of Sustainability at LSE. The Blended Finance Lab aims to address barriers to scaling the blended finance marketplace, with a view to improving practices and education, growing the blended finance practitioner community and developing more investable opportunities. LSE appointed Harald Walkate as Senior Advisor on Blended Finance to help establish the Blended Finance Lab.
CETEx is a specialised research and policy centre whose work supports the ambitious reforms required to deliver sustainable, inclusive and resilient economies and financial systems across Europe and emerging markets. CETEx is hosted by the Global School of Sustainability at the London School of Economics and Political Science. I started working with CETEx late '25 when the Blended Finance Lab at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) that I helped establish moved there from the LSE Financial Markets Group. Being named a Visiting Senior Fellow allows me to intensify the work that started in March '25 to establish the Blended Finance Lab, which aims to put in place the practical interventions needed to address the institutional, market and policy constraints that limit the mobilization of private capital for climate action and sustainable development, particularly in emerging markets and developing economies.