Karl is the co-founder of EngagedX, which specialises in providing bespoke consultancy, thought leadership, advocacy and policy work. He works internationally across private, public and social sectors. He is an experienced entrepreneur, leader and executive.
He was previously Head of Research and Knowledge for the UNDP SDG Impact Finance initiative (UNSIF), where he led research to improve the analytical framework for social impact investing; was a member of Groupe d’Experts de la Commission sur l’Entrepreneuriat Social (GECES) appointed by the European Commission to advise on its Social Business Initiative; sits on the OECD expert group on social impact investing; Senior Fellow of the Finance Innovation Lab; Adviser to a select number of organisations.
Karl has been invited by civil society organisations, academia, governments and the media across Europe, Asia and USA to speak on social impact investing. He has guest lectured at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; advised HM Treasury on EU social investment regulations; was invited to submit evidence for alternative finance to the UK’s Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards; been asked by the UK Cabinet Office to represent the UK on social investment at EU level; was invited by US Secretary of State to be a plenary panelist at the Global Impact Economy Forum in 2012.
In 2011, he co-authored ‘Making Good in Social Impact Investment: Opportunities in an Emerging Asset Class’.
Karl holds an MBA specialising in entrepreneurship and project management, writing his dissertation on data interoperability standards and collaboration principles in the building design industry. He started his career as an architect and project manager for multidisciplinary design teams, and development leader for public and private sector construction projects. Karl was the founding Chair of Friends of the Crystal Palace Subway, which is a community-led initiative to reopen a historic community asset to the public.
Tomorrow (5 Dec) in Brussels I will be presenting my views on the impact measurement discourse at a conference on “Measuring the Social Impact of Social Enterprises”. My approach will be to explore how to frame the discussion in the context of a market centric perspective as part of developing EngagedX – the world’s first financial index for impact investing. For the purposes of compiling an index, we are agnostic about specific metrics used and instead seek to determine a meta-framework approach for how to map and categorise the data of all metrics in use.
Karl H Richter 