14 | New Investor 2018 published by Business in VAncouver
Profiles
Bonnie Foley-Wong: Investing with impact Lessons from an integrated investor and venture capitalist Hayley Woodin
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onnie Foley-Wong is the founder and CEO of Vancouver-based Pique Ventures, has more than 20 years under her belt as an investor and corporate financier, and has financed over $1 billion of alternative investments across Europe and North America. Foley-Wong is the author of Integrated Investing: Impact Investing with Head, Heart, Body, and Soul, and in an interview with New Investor, she shared her investment philosophy. Investing with impact ■ My view of impact in-
vesting is using investing as a way of taking care of the village. By that I mean choosing to invest in businesses that help give us access to resources that we all need to survive, strive and be happy. It’s a much more holistic view of things.
Integrated investing ■ Two of the key pieces are how we make decisions, and then how we evaluate opportunity. There are lots of different things that we need to bring together to make investment decisions. It’s not impact or financial returns, it’s impact and financial returns. I’m a huge advocate of integrating analysis, emotion, body and intuition. Why ■ I’m just as interested in being able to invest in interesting opportunities as I am about managing risk, so I developed a framework to be able to do it efficiently. There are lots of different things that we will feel passionate about, and it’s actually OK – if not impactful – to let those emotions influence our investment decisions.
picking. Emotions are what drive us. If you have a mainly analytically led decision, you’ll get a mainly analytical outcome. That’s part of the problem with a lot of investment decisions at the moment: they might be financially lucrative, but they might be in companies that are destroying communities. How to start ■ Start to form your own vision or
statement around what impact is important to you. If you know what you want, you’re more likely to be able to identify it when you see it. When you meet an adviser, ask them. That’s a starting point for understanding what their lens is, what their approach is.
What comes next ■ I like to split up the decision
into two phases. One is a discovery phase. Gather information; learn about impact investing. I think that’s the common mistake that people make. They rush into a decision when they’re still in a discovery phase.
The questions an integrated investor asks ■ What should I do? Does this investment make
sense? Should I invest in it? The emotion part is: what do I want to do? The intuition piece, that’s: what do you know to do? It’s a reference to that inner knowing.
Looking back ■ When I looked at those early investments that I made as a new grad out of university, they had done nothing in 15 years. I wish I had known to get more knowledgeable about what’s going on in the world. I actually did better when I was more active in my decisions. It was fun too. I got control over this piece of my life, and never turned back.
Emotion ■ Whoever first said “Don’t let emotions
affect your investment decisions” – they were cherry
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
Investing with insight
The lessons learned and insights earned by B.C. business leaders
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hat are the investment habits o f B r i t i s h C o l u m b i a’s to p and emerging business leaders? New Investor asked winners of Business in Vancouver BC CEO Awards, BC CFO Awards and Forty under 40 Awards to share the investment advice they would give their younger selves, and the biggest investment-related lessons they’ve learned.
he biggest investment lesson T is to bet on the best people Justus Parmar, managing director, Fortuna Investment Corp.
I ’ve used a long investment time horizon strategy to my advantage. I started buying stocks in Grade 8 with my babysitting money – true story Kylie McMullan, principal, Finch Media
ime is your most scarce resource, T not money. Invest in companies that you are looking forward to spending a lot of time with so you can enjoy the journey together Fraser Hall, managing partner, VFF
Eighty per cent people, 20 per cent product Manny Padda, founder, New Avenue Capital
now what commission rates you’re K paying at all times and negotiate rates. There is always room to negotiate Karina Hayat, president and co-founder, Prizm Media