What is the difference between resilience and sustainability? What role should financial institutions have in building resilience in vulnerable places around the world?

“Resilience is the ability to withstand difficulty; sustainability is the ability to withstand difficulty over time. You cannot have sustainability without resilience and, in the long run, the inverse is true….Long-term resilience requires a holistic approach to business; there’s a reason that the UN has 17 Sustainable Development Goals, many of which don’t relate to the environment specifically….A truly sustainable company looks beyond the impact of its own bottom line to the impact of its business practices and output.” –Julie Davitz

Join our conversation with Julie Davitz, Head of Impact Solutions, to learn how Bank of the West/BNP Paribas is redefining banking for a better future by focusing on areas where it believes it can have a real impact: supporting energy transition, helping enable women entrepreneurs, and financing innovative start-ups.

About Julie Davitz

A globally-connected leader and changemaker with over 20 years of experience in the impact sector, Julie Davitz is passionate about helping investors, philanthropists, foundations, nonprofits and businesses mobilize their resources to realize their vision for change. Julie currently serves as Head of Impact Solutions for Bank of the West’s Wealth Management division and enjoys helping her clients create positive and lasting change while pursuing their personal impact and financial goals. Known as an innovator who develops and sustains cause-related initiatives and investments, Julie is committed to sharing her deep experience to increase awareness of impact investing, improve effectiveness in the social impact space and build collaborative relationships.

Join the conversation on Zoom

Meeting details will be provided in the registration confirmation email.

About Financing the Future

In the Financing the Future series, hosted in collaboration with The Cutler Center for Investments and Finance, we will explore the crucial role of capital in driving social progress.

How will we finance our future? What new financing mechanisms are being created? What role do large corporations, NGOs, government agencies, community foundations, family offices, philanthropists and investors play? What's working? What's needed?

Investing in social progress and managing societal dilemmas is complex and takes time. It requires a new understanding, new forms of collaborative relationships, innovative financing schemes, and the moral and financial courage to put capital where the highest ROI is recalibrated and recalculated to accelerate economic and social progress.