Scaling Mutual Value in Investments: Using AI and Big Data to Build an Investment Thesis to Solve Social and Environmental Problems

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IFB Seoul is delighted to announce the upcoming IFB Seoul session to showcase a ground-breaking tool developed by the Economics of Mutuality (EoM) Alliance to rigorously identify key social and environmental challenges at the ecosystem and sector levels. This nuanced set of insights - supported by AI and big data  - can be used to develop an investment thesis for both public and private equity portfolios (including venture capital), as well as multi-asset classes, applicable in a wide variety of AUMs. The event will include a work-in-progress case in the health sector. 

The world is entering 2024 with a myriad of global social and environmental challenges, compounded by increasing geopolitical risks such as conflicts in the middle-east and eastern Europe. Nearly a billion people still live with less than $2 per day, as per the World Bank. Both the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Climate Change agenda continue to fall behind in achieving its intended results. Behind abstract numbers, there are real faces of refugees displaced by war and famine, small farmers and the urban poor who are unable to make sufficient living, and other vulnerable groups unable to access decent health care, jobs, education, financing, and clean water, to mention a few. 

While innovative solutions to address some of the above exist, they often exist as isolated projects. Scaling up impactful solutions to address national and global challenges is still an elusive dream.  This groundbreaking tool based on principles of mutual value is a promising new path to start filling this gap.  

Join us during our IFB Seoul session in March for a lively discussion on this topic with: 

1. Gavin Long, Managing Partner of EoM Mutual Value Investments and Executive Director of EoM Mutual Value Labs

2. Jay Jakub, Chief of Staff and Executive Director of the EoM Foundation 

3. Lucie Keller, Senior Associate, EoM Mutual Value Labs

Agenda

Opening by Chair - Jinho Chung, CEO, The Wells Investment

Remarks and Introduction to Speakers - Kwang Kim, Senior Advisor to the EoM Alliance and Chairman of the Board, EoM Human Flourishing Foundation 

Presentation #1 - Gavin Long

Presentation #2 - Lucie Keller 

Presentation #3 - Jay Jakub

Discussion / Q&A - Moderated by Jinho Chung (or Kwang Kim)

Closing - by Jinho Chung 

Full Speaker Bios

Gavin Long, Managing Partner of EoM Mutual Value Investments 

Gavin is the Executive Director of the Economics of Mutuality’s Mutual Value Labs and Managing Partner of Mutual Value Investments. He is an experienced purpose-driven technology entrepreneur, transaction professional and Private Equity investor with a track record of delivering superior value creation in the information technology, software, and services industries. He possesses strong M&A, debt & equity finance, strategic planning, analytical, government, entrepreneurship, and international business skills.

Prior to joining the Economics of Mutuality Alliance, Gavin Co-founded the Acacia Group, a specialist Private Equity investment firm through which he has served as CEO of two portfolio technology companies.

Previously, Gavin worked with future Acacia partner colleagues at Global Strategies Group, a US-focused buyout firm, where he led corporate development within the firm’s M&A strategy including a NASDAQ IPO. Gavin has completed more than 50 M&A transactions with an aggregate value of more than $4B. He has also held leadership positions overseeing strategy development and transactional execution for BAE Systems, Imperial Capital and Arthur Andersen Corporate Finance.

Gavin has a BA in Philosophy from Appalachian State University and has undertaken graduate studies at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and Duke University’s Divinity School.

Dr. Jay Jakub, Executive Director of EoM Foundation and Chief of Staff, EoM Alliance

Jay is the Chief of Staff of the Economics of Mutuality (EoM) Alliance's core partners, all headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, though he is based outside Washington, D.C. He also serves as the Executive Director of the EoM Foundation and is a founding member of the Board of the Human Flourishing Foundation, both in Switzerland. Jay serves on the Board of Livanta, a US healthcare advocacy and IT company, is on the Advisory Board of the Thompson Family Office in Richmond, Virginia, and is an advisor to Singapore’s Alliance for Action on Corporate Purpose. He is an international speaker, author, former senior civil servant, and former Senior Director for External Research at Mars, Inc., maker of iconic brands like M&Ms, Snickers, Mars Bar, Wrigley’s gum, and dozens of leading pet food brands.

Mars – with $46+bn in annual revenue and employing some 140,000+ associates – was the incubator for the EoM business model management and investment innovation and funded the launch in 2020 of the independent EoM organization Jay helps lead. EoM now consists of the not-for-profit EoM Foundation, which delivers the EoM approach through orchestrated forums and other regional events, global educational partnerships, research and advocacy; Mutual Value Labs, owned by the Foundation, but a for-profit management consultancy delivering the EoM operating model to corporate clients; the Human
Flourishing Foundation, which delivers EoM at a local community ‘human flourishing’ and individual vocational level; and Mutual Value Investments, which is transforming the way investment capital is deployed to use measurable impact to drive superior value creation and performance.

Jay is the co-author of Completing Capitalism: Heal Business to Heal the World (Berrett-Koehler, 2017 &  CITIC Press Beijing in Mandarin, 2018). He’s also a contributing co-author of Putting Purpose into Practice: The Economics of Mutuality (Oxford University Press, 2021). His doctorate is from Oxford University, St. John’s College, his MA is from Lancaster University, and his BA is from American University in Washington, DC.

Lucie Keller, Senior Associate, Mutual Value Labs (EoM Alliance)

Lucie serves as a Senior Associate at EoM’s Mutual Value Labs headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.  She grew up in the United States and her university degree is in Economics from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland (HSG). Her studies included an exchange semester at Keio University in Japan.  She earned a certificate from the CFA in ESG investing in 2023.

Lucie previously worked in the New Business Ventures team at Clariant in Frankfurt, Germany. She was responsible for evaluating and scoping strategic growth opportunities at discovery and early incubation stages using agile, design thinking and lean start-up methods.

She also worked at Unilever in the Consumer Market Insights Global Channels team for Home Care in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In this role, she focused on the e-commerce and professionals channels working globally and with local markets in order to support business units such as marketing and customer development.