Sustainable Finance, Inclusion and CX With GoImpact CEO Helene Li

What is your background briefly

I am a management consultant by training, alumni of Boston Consulting Group and Willis Towers Watson, and spent most of my career in the finance industry, holding top management positions in bulge bracket institutions like JPMorgan Chase and BNP Paribas Wealth Management. There are two topics that define my career – sustainable finance and digital transformation. How can we deploy capital and tech for good are not only my passion but my commitment to building a platform like GoImpact to help accelerate.

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

Absolutely, I don’t think I would be bold enough to walk away from the security of a big corporate role to build this platform, be it extremely timely and much needed, if I did not have a thorough background and established network in both Finance and Sustainable Development, across public and private sectors.

CX and why it is a battleground for the financial services sector incumbents & challengers?

More than ever more, customers are in the driving seat. Technology and digitalisation have given them much more readily available information, and social media has given everyone a voice. If firms do not truly address the needs of customers and be mindful of their journey when using the firms’ products or services, customers will move on. Even for financial services, the relationship is a lot less sticky than you would assume.

Having customers as the focus of this relationship is vital, it is not just about building shiny new things to digitise the customer journey. This is challenging for incumbents as they have layers of legacy systems and issues to deal with, and for challengers, they need to build a critical mass quickly before they can have the clout and credibility to roll out CX.

Sustainable Finance – what’s missing, and what’s next?

This is a huge momentum fast gaining traction, but the talk is still far louder than the action. A major challenge is how to get mainstream finance sector onboard in an actionable and realistic manner, not just propaganda talk and discussion forums where we see same old faces in same old places talking about same old issues year after year. The finance sector is keen to respond to needs of capital owners, and this is something that GoImpact as a platform is working to educate, advocate and accelerate by connecting the dots that drives next step actions.

Inclusion – why it’s a key driver for the future of work

As the workforce becomes more mobile and diverse, it is important to embrace the perspectives of different backgrounds in order to meet the needs of fast shifting demands. Inclusion is multi-dimensional, and to be effective, we need to look at the inclusion of gender, age, race, culture. There are lots of market data that prove diverse and inclusive teams outperform those that are not, so inclusion is about productivity and adapting to the future of work.

How can people find out more about you & your work?

Well, you can find me on Twitter, LinkedIn and all the social pages and website of GoImpact.

A firm believer in applying market-based solutions to fast track social and environmental impact; and a passionate advocate for Sustainable Finance, Helene is a management consultant by training and a seasoned finance industry professional with long tenures in strategic planning and marketing roles at global
financial institutions such as J.P. Morgan, Lombard Odier, and BNP Paribas. Having worked in the ultra-high-net-worth space for most of her career.

She is committed to leveraging the financial power and heart of the 1% to accelerate the impact in helping the 99%. It is in this spirit that she co-founded GoImpact as an action-driven ecosystem to connect stakeholders in accelerating the Impactmomentum. She has been spearheading and curating industry recognized and highly rated Next Generation Family Business programs, and a regular contributor to Impact and Entrepreneurship research throughout her banking and consulting career.

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