Living and working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo helped Katie Macc see the real power of capital as a catalyst for impact. It also helped her see the devastating effects when that capital isn’t available. Her work and career since have been dedicated to moving capital to where it is needed most—to the entrepreneurs and innovators on the ground who know how to utilize it best for their communities.
“I learned about impact by seeing the lack of it in a place that needed it most,” says Macc, who recently started as CEO of Sorenson Impact Institute. “At the Institute, I’m in a place where we can push for—and realize—the kind of impact I saw was needed when I lived in Congo.”
After serving as COO at the Institute since 2022, Macc stepped into the CEO role after Geoff Davis transitioned to the role of Senior Advisor in June. Before joining the Institute, Macc gained business and international experience as co-founder of the fintech company Juntos Global, which served over 5 million customers across three continents before it was acquired by Nubank in 2021. She also spent three years at the Dovetail Impact Foundation, leading grantmaking and impact investing across Africa and India, and seven years in microfinance.
Through those and other varied experiences, Macc witnessed how innovation, creativity, and collaboration can amplify collective impact. With this fall’s opening of the Impact & Prosperity Epicenter as the Institute’s headquarters, Macc is ready to seize new opportunities to build on the Institute’s work as impact practitioners, researchers, and innovators. Her vision for the Institute emphasizes three areas: advancing innovation and practical research, sharpening the organization’s focus as field-leading practitioners, and leaning into the Institute’s role in mentoring and training students while creating a pipeline of talent for careers in impact.
In this Q&A, learn more about Macc’s vision for the Institute, the future of impact investing, and the life experiences that shape her work.
As you step into this exciting new role, please tell us about yourself.
My life’s work and experience have taught me that impact is relative. It is relative to the place, to the people, to the circumstances, and to the need. A couple of years after graduating from the University of Virginia with degrees in Physics and Economics, I found myself living in Lubumbashi, a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, testing the theory of my degrees against the reality of life and business. Lubumbashi was bursting at the seams, with more than 4 million people competing for the limited resources of a city built for 500,000 people. In a city like Lubumbashi, with 90% unemployment and a lack of all functioning infrastructure and business, almost everything can be impact. Very quickly, I realized that a grocery store with food on the shelves was impact. A pharmacy with the medicine people needed was impact. A bank that could provide basic financial services was impact. I wish the lessons I learned in DRC concluded with beautiful examples of capital pouring in and changing lives. But that’s largely not what happened. I learned about impact by seeing the lack of it in a place that needed it most.
I’m here at the Sorenson Impact Institute because my work as an impact investor and entrepreneur brought me to places like the Congo where I learned to elevate context, to listen first to those closest to the problem, and to trust the entrepreneurs doing the work. These experiences have taught me that the capital we provide isn’t the impact; it’s the catalyst. The team here at the Institute has a deep understanding of this important nuance. Our investing work is a catalyst for the impact created by people who need patient capital to create positive change for their communities and this planet. And our research work provides an important testing ground for innovation and field building within the sector. At the Institute, I’m in a place where we can push for—and realize—the kind of impact I saw was needed when I lived in Congo.
What role is the Sorenson Impact Institute uniquely positioned to serve within the impact ecosystem?
We are, on one hand, practitioners in the space as impact investors and topic-matter experts working with organizations globally across multiple practice areas including impact investing, impact strategy, measurement and management, impact finance, and human-centered storytelling. We are simultaneously a university-based non-profit within the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. We are also a member of the Sorenson Impact family, an organization that includes a philanthropic foundation, multiple funds, an impact advisory group, and a shared mission to scale impact. And, through SOCAP and other events, we convene thousands of impact professionals from around the world each year, catalyzing and amplifying game-changing collaborations. Because of all of this, we are able to see and work in a very broad spectrum of impact, largely unburdened by siloes that plague most organizations. That’s a unique perspective that helps us serve a valuable role in our space, one that can help scale the market for impact.
What is your long-term vision for impact and for the Sorenson Impact Institute?
Ironically, we want to see a world in which “impact investing” as a term is no longer part of our lexicon. This is a world in which the principles, frameworks, and desired outcomes of impact are integrated as standard practice across sectors and across the world. As part of our vision, impact will be “table stakes” for every investor, institutional or individual, every corporation, and every consumer to consider how they are building the world they want to live in with every financial and operational decision. Making this vision a reality is the great global challenge for our field, and given our unique position, we believe we can play an important role in that effort. Our mission is to face this challenge head-on, to best leverage our strengths as an organization to help drive the field of impact forward toward a mainstream future. We approach this in three ways:
First, we remain committed to our work as leading practitioners in impact. We don’t believe we can be a driving force in the field if we aren’t expert practitioners in it. So our work with clients around the world continues across multiple practice areas including developing and executing innovative financial structures, managing impact portfolios, and implementing rigorous measurement and reporting frameworks.
Second, we know the kind of research and innovation needed to drive the field forward doesn’t always pencil out in the marketplace. It needs a home where it can incubate and grow independently of market forces. Part of our vision is to be that home, a place where innovation, creativity, and collaboration combine to grow the field and expand our collective impact. Recently, alongside our partners at the JP Morgan Foundation, we unearthed important research on the capital needs, financing landscape, and barriers to accessing capital for women and women of color entrepreneurs. This is the kind of research that helps institutions identify and implement solutions that can create lasting change.
Finally, we are excited about our role as an Institute at the University of Utah. This is a university with enormous resources where groundbreaking research and innovation are happening across disciplines. It is also a university that under President Taylor Randall has, remarkably, named impact at the very heart of its strategic direction. So, we are investing further in our academic programming as educators and mentors, training the next generation of impact leaders. We are expanding our impact curriculum across the University and beyond, growing and diversifying our internship opportunities, and looking to a future where impact is integrated into the educational journeys of students across disciplines. Our new headquarters, the Impact & Prosperity Epicenter, is the physical manifestation of that vision—a live/work ecosystem of hundreds of students and professionals in impact across multiple disciplines.
By fully embracing these three pillars of our organization, we see alignment and opportunity with the needs of the field, with our role at the university, and with our goal of leveraging our work to help scale and mainstream impact.
What are you most excited about stepping into this new role?
I am excited about this challenge because the opportunity on the other side is enormous. I’m excited about leading and working with this incredible team of people we have at Sorenson. I’m excited about growing our collaboration across the University and working with our new dean at the David Eccles School of Business, Kurt Dirks. I’m excited about the Institute’s position in the industry and the powerful role we can play in students’ lives. I’m excited about our new headquarters and our growing student-focused activities at the University. Let’s get started.
