Valuing The Future: Re-evaluating Investment Risk and Return

The Insights for Action seminar series explores how researchers and practitioners within and beyond Oxford are using research insights to drive social change.

In this month’s seminar we will launch the forthcoming impact finance report Re-evaluating Investment Risk and Return: An Outcome-Based Approach to Net Present Value Models and Discount Rates (November 2025), discussing a more holistic approach to considering investments’ longer-term risks, externalities, and intergenerational impacts.

Speakers:

Alex Nicholls is the first tenured professor in social entrepreneurship appointed at the University of Oxford. He is also a Tutorial Fellow and Member of the Governing Body at Harris Manchester College. In 2004, he was the co-founder of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship - for which he helped raise the core funding - as well as the co-founder of the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. He is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, which he founded in 2010. Alex is the co-author of a major research book on Fair Trade (with Charlotte Opal, Sage, 2005) and the editor of the first scholarly collection of papers on social entrepreneurship (Oxford University Press, 2006, 2008). In 2015, he published a further co-edited volume on social finance and a new book on social innovation with NESTA. In 2019, Alex published a book examining the economic underpinnings of social innovation in the European Union, based on CRESSI.

Michele Giddens is the co-founder of Bridges Fund Management alongside Philip Newborough and Sir Ronald Cohen. Bridges is a specialist private markets investor, investing in solutions that support the transition to a more inclusive and sustainable economy. Bridges focuses on four specific goals or themes to source and select compelling investment opportunities: Healthier Lives, Future Skills, Sustainable Planet and Stronger Communities. Closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. Michele has played a key role in the growth of the sustainable and impact investing movement in the UK. She was an adviser to the UK Treasury’s Social Investment Task Force and chaired the Community Development Finance Association from 2003-2005. More recently, she chaired the UK National Advisory Board on Impact Investing, part of the Global Social Impact Investment Steering Group, from 2016-18. She sits on the BVCA Council, and is a Non-Executive Director on the board of CDC, the UK Government’s Development Finance Institution. Michele is also a trustee for the Bridges Impact Foundation.

Danyal Sattar is a social investor with over 30 years of industry experience who has dedicated his career to supporting social enterprises and charities to find solutions to poverty and inequality in the UK. He brings with him a wealth of experience in providing finance and support to social enterprises and charities seeking to eradicate poverty while creating opportunities for people across the UK. Until earlier this year, Danyal was the Chief Executive Officer of The Big Issue Invest, prior to which he served as Head of Social Investment with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, where he was responsible for managing the foundation’s social investment fund with a focus on achieving solutions to poverty and inequality in the UK. Previous roles were at Big Society Capital and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. This followed earlier work with Brussels-based network INIASE, in the start-up of UK Sustainable Investment Forum, Aston Reinvestment Trust, a community-based lender, and the think tank, New Economics Foundation. He holds a BA, MSc, MA and IMC. Outside of work, he is a Trustee of the London School of Tai Chi Chuan.

Anna Woźniak is the founder of Dyme Consulting Group, helping multi-generational asset managers build resilient, long-term value. Anna has 14 years of experience raising and deploying millions of pounds of impact capital into emerging markets and post-conflict economies. She is a fervent advocate for refugee rights, a champion for diversity in investment finance, and a firm believer in the transformative power of social finance to reinvent the world for future generations. Originally from post-Soviet Poland, Anna believes in the power of anthropology to enable social innovation and effective fund management in "the riskiest" places on Earth. She also loves Settlers of Catan, bonfires by the sea, and watching Love is Blind on Netflix.

Christian Juel is a Managing Director in the investment team, a member of the Investment Committee and the Head of Sustainability and Impact Strategy at Aptimus Capital Partners. His 18 years of financial market experience includes 10 years within the private credit middle market and further experience across public markets, listed instruments, structured products, and debt capital markets. [Christian has a BA Hons from Newcastle University, an MBA from IE Business School, Madrid and has attended Impact Investing and Impact Measurement programmes at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, where he is also a guest speaker.]

Facilitator:

Professor Marya Besharov is Professor of Organisations and Impact and Academic Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. Her research and teaching focus on leadership, social impact, and hybrid organisations. She engages with leaders and organisations worldwide to help them manage competing demands of social impact and financial performance. Marya received a BA in Social Studies, an MA in Sociology, and a PhD in Organisational Behaviour from Harvard University. She also holds an MBA from Stanford University.

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