Surdna Appoints Shuaib Siddiqui, Director, Mission Related Investing
The Surdna Foundation announced that Shuaib Siddiqui, an investment professional whose work has focused on addressing global poverty, has been appointed Director, Mission Related Investing.
Shuaib, who will report to Marc de Venoge, Vice President, Finance and Administration, will assume his new position on August 1. Shuaib will manage Surdna's nascent impact investing program, leading an ongoing effort to understand how the foundation could align its investment policies and practices with its mission. He will support the foundation as it continues to investigate ways to realize both social and financial returns through mission-related investing.
Shuaib joins the foundation from Acumen where he oversaw the organization's global investing process, management of its global investment committee, and portfolio management. Acumen raises charitable donations to invest in companies, leaders, and ideas that are changing the way the world tackles poverty.
"Our hiring of Shuaib Siddiqui marks a transformative moment in the history of the foundation," said Phillip Henderson, President of the Surdna Foundation. "Appointing someone whose day-to-day job will be to actively pursue an impact investing strategy will allow us to fully explore how investment can positively impact those issues about which we care most."
In undertaking his new role, Shuaib Siddiqui said, "As the foundation continues to explore impact investing and builds upon its program related investment portfolio, I am committed to sharing what we learn. I hope to demonstrate that that this new tool can help to not only generate social and financial returns on investment, but significant learning returns as well."
Surdna has been making program related investments (PRI) since 2013 which has helped the foundation better understand how to use capital to create financial and social value.
Shuaib joins the Surdna Foundation as it prepares to celebrate the centennial of its founding in 1917 by philanthropist, elected official, and businessman John E. Andrus. Believed to be one of the oldest continuously family-governed foundations, Surdna (which is Andrus spelled backward) aims to foster sustainable communities in the United States-communities guided by principles of social justice and distinguished by sustainable environments, strong local economies, and thriving cultures.
About The Surdna Foundation
The Surdna Foundation seeks to foster sustainable communities in the United States -- communities guided by principles of social justice and distinguished by healthy environments, strong local economies, and thriving cultures.