Episode 1: Lina Bowden

Lina Bowden, FCPA, FCMA, MA is the catalyst behind VERGE Capital, a community-led collaborative that creates local investment for local impact in London and Southwestern Ontario. Since 2012, Lina has been instrumental in the creation of two social finance funds and the engagement of local impact investors and community stakeholders. Prior to 2010, Lina spent 30 years in financial services, including Partner at Highstreet Asset Management and SVP, Marketing and Product Development with AGF Asset Management.

Lina Bowden Episode 1 Audio Lina Bowden Episode 1 Transcript

Andrew Young: Finance, philanthropy, family legacy. These are a few words that describes this episode's guest. She has quietly bridged the gap between social enterprise and philanthropic lending and is way past the verge of greatness. Today, I get to sit down with Lina Bowden.

AY: Lina, every time I mention your name to somebody, they smile instantly. You've had such an amazing impact on the community. And during my research, I kept noticing the term social finance. Historically, not for profit has been on one end of the spectrum, and social finance has been on the other side of the spectrum. How have you been able to bring these two things together?

Lina Bowden: Well, first of all, I've not been doing it alone, necessarily. I probably have been the lead champion for social finance in the London community, but there are a lot of people and organizations from diverse sectors that have been playing a role in how we've been able to move social finance forward. So it really does start with looking at how do we create a strong and resilient and vibrant community, and then looking at how we can do that by using social innovation or trying things differently. So, yes, there are non-profits and charities, but what we're seeing now is there's an opportunity for any type of organisation, be they nonprofits, charities, for-profits, co-ops, all kinds of, you know, formation in terms of corporate structure, but at the end of the day, there's a lot of people and organizations that are really trying to move the needle. And so, social finance comes in when an organisation has a revenue generation model...

AY: Ok.

LB: ...that allows them to create change and to affect the community through some kind of revenue generation machine, and that's where social finance fits in, because that's when you're able to provide access to capital and engage investors not only to find a financial return, but to add a social return to their investment as well.

AY: That's wonderful. You've had such a great impact on many different lines of philanthropy in the city. You've also been involved in a number of organizations such as Pillar, London Community Foundation, the Ontario Social Economy Roundtable, and Goodwill. Most of these organizations have been focussing on impact loans for- and financing. Why have you chosen these organizations, and why have you concentrated on the finance side of philanthropy and community?

LB: Well, that's pretty easy for me, because that is my background. So I had a 30 year career in financial services, primarily working in the investment world, working with London Life Insurance Company, and then with an investment company that I was a partner in, High Street Asset Management, and then later on with AGF. So I have a background in the mainstream investment finance world. And in 2010, I made the decision to leave that world, to go back to school and study community development. And I was really very interested in the things I was learning about how finance can really change the game for communities by enabling more capital to be available to create community change.

AY: Well, this is a perfect lead to my ...