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The Forbes Women's Summit Impact Award is given to a business leader who has made a significant impact in their respective field and leveraged their influence to prioritize diversity and inspire future generations of female leaders.

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 19, 2018 – Lisa Woll, CEO of US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, was honored as the recipient of the 2018 Impact Award at today's Forbes Women's Summit in New York. The award was presented by Sharon French, Head of Beta Solutions at OppenheimerFunds.

The Forbes Women's Summit is dedicated to spotlighting individuals who are using their influence to shape culture, scale meaningful businesses, and drive change around today's most critical issues. This year's conference speakers included US Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao, Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, Arianna Huffington, Victoria Beckham and actress Priyanka Chopra, among others.

The Forbes Women's Summit Impact Award is given to a business leader who has made a significant impact in their respective field and leveraged their influence to prioritize diversity and inspire future generations of female leaders.

Commenting on Lisa Woll's contributions to the field of sustainable and impact investing, French said, “I am pleased to present this year's Forbes Women's Summit Impact Award to Lisa Woll, a dynamic leader and tireless advocate for the continued advancement of female empowerment and sustainable investing throughout her career.”

In her acceptance remarks, Lisa Woll talked about how the breadth of the attendees at the Summit was a perfect place for her because of her own inclinations to connect with a broad range of people and institutions in order to move important initiatives forward. She noted that the field of sustainable and impact investing has the capacity to address many of the issues discussed at the Summit and offers opportunities for retail investors, wealthier individuals and companies to use their assets to drive environmental and social change. Woll emphasized the rapid growth in gender lens investing as a strategy that can be used to address equal pay for women, workplace sexual harassment and discrimination, and providing capital to low income women. “There is strong evidence in support of gender lens investing with studies showing that companies with higher gender diversity outperform,” said Woll.

Lisa Woll has been the CEO of US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment since 2006. Previously, Lisa was executive director of the International Women's Media Foundation and founded two organizations focused on increasing the employment and job retention potential of low income women. She spent a decade working on children's human rights, directing the first international study to assess the impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Her early career focused on domestic social policy in New York and the US Congress. She has written and spoken widely on impact investing, human rights and development as well as leadership. 

About US SIF

US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment is the leading voice advancing sustainable, responsible and impact investing across all asset classes. Its mission is to rapidly shift investment practices toward sustainability, focusing on long-term investment and the generation of positive social and environmental impacts. US SIF members include investment management and advisory firms, mutual fund companies, asset owners, research firms, financial planners and advisors, broker-dealers, community investing organizations and nonprofit associations.

US SIF is supported in its work by the US SIF Foundation, a 501(C)(3) organization that undertakes educational, research and programmatic activities to advance the mission of US SIF, including offering trainings on the Fundamentals of Sustainable and Impact Investment. The biennial Report on US Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing Trends will be published later this year. The 9^th Annual US SIF Conference will be held in Minneapolis from June 10-12, 2019.