Lauren Dobell

Executive Advisor

Lauren’s winding path to date embraces three roughly chronological clusters: the first encompassing a peripatetic decade of fieldwork, journalism and teaching centered on transitions to democracy, national reconciliation, and reconstruction. A second chapter was spent immersed in civic engagement initiatives and public policy-shaping across Federal, provincial and municipal spheres. “Canadian Councils” – for international cooperation, unity, learning – are a strangely recurring phenomenon in her journey.

The current chapter is focused on the design of multisector and intergovernmental partnerships advocating for sustainable finance principles and values-based banking. This has encompassed roles with Vancity credit union and in launching Vancity Community Investment Bank, as co-founder of the Table of Impact Investment Practitioners (TIIP), and in assorted advisory capacities - including an appointment to the Federal steering committee which recommended the Government of Canada’s Social Finance Fund and accompanying investment readiness supports.

Along the way Lauren has misplaced much baggage (real and metaphorical) and sometimes her best judgment, usually retrieved her sense of perspective, often stumbled upon a perfect moment, and generally found that the worst travel mishaps eventually make for the best stories.