Suzanne Biegel passed away in London on September 20, 2023, after bravely navigating metastatic lung cancer for more than two years.
Suzanne was the founder of Catalyst at Large, was co-founder of GenderSmart, an honorary board member of 2X Global, and a global leader in gender-smart investing.
She had, for 22 years, extensively leveraged her deep networks in finance, philanthropy, development, research, and entrepreneurship to connect public and private investors to the people and information they needed to move their capital in a gender-smart way.
Suzanne’s mission was to increase the flow of global capital to gender-smart investments and initiatives, to make sure this capital was used in ways that will generate the most impact, and to ensure that it reached the investment managers, entrepreneurs and innovators who needed it in the most efficient way possible. To do this, she worked with actors spanning the entire spectrum of investment to forge catalytic relationships, build collaboratives, and transform the entire system of global capital.
Her work influenced hundreds of funds and institutional investors, and billions of dollars of capital to move in a way that is more "gender-smart." Suzanne had more than 35 years experience as an entrepreneur, investor, board member, and consultant. She worked with BII (the UK’s Development Finance Institution), UBS, IDB Invest, the US DFC, Tara Health Foundation, Linked Foundation, responSability, Circulate Capital, IEN, and many others. Suzanne is a fellow of the Aspen Institute and, until recently, a senior advisor to the Wharton Social Impact Initiative - now the Wharton ESG Initiative. See Suzanne’s LinkedIn and Projects for more information. See also GenderSmart.
Suzanne began her career at IBM in the early 1980s, and subsequently played pioneering roles in two IBM-funded startups. In the 1990s, Suzanne was the CEO of IEC, a training and communications and then education technology firm. Since exiting IEC in 2000, Suzanne was an active angel and venture capital investor, philanthropist, and board member, and played leadership roles in a variety of companies and projects. Suzanne was a dual citizen of the UK and United States. She and Catalyst at Large were based in London.
“My goal is to catalyse unprecedented capital with a gender lens, and to catalyse the power of women as investors. I’m personally committed to investing with social and environmental impact. I’m doing that with my own portfolio, and I share that experience with others. I believe we must do this elegantly. With enthusiasm. And intelligence.”
ON MY RADAR
Reading
All We Can Save, Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson
Manifesto for a Moral Revolution, by Jacqueline Novogratz
The Future We Choose - Surviving the Climate Crisis, by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac
Adventure Finance by Aunnie Patton Power
The XX Edge, by Ruth Shaber and Patience Marime-Ball
Earth for All, by Sandrine Dixson and others
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Profit and Prejudice: The Luddites of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by Paul Donovan, Chief Economist UBS
Listening
Angelique Kidjo
Pink Martini
Billie Eilish
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Ozomatli
Hiromi