Durreen Shahnaz

Durreen Shahnaz is a global leader in social impact and impact investing, and the founder of Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) and IIX Foundation. She has led IIX in building transformative market infrastructure, including the world’s first social stock exchange, a proprietary impact verification and measurement platform, one of the largest crowdfunding platforms for impact investing, and innovative financial instruments such as the Women’s Livelihood Bond™ Series and Orange Bonds. These initiatives have mobilised capital at scale to support women-led enterprises, climate resilience, and sustainable development.

With a career spanning finance, media, academia, and entrepreneurship, Shahnaz began her journey in finance at Morgan Stanley in New York and Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, before moving to Hearst Magazines International and later academia at the National University of Singapore (NUS). At the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, she founded and led the Program for Social Innovation and Change, where she developed an impact assessment methodology widely adopted across Asia. She also contributed to the development of the Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS) with the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). Earlier in her career, Shahnaz founded oneNest, a New York-based impact enterprise and online marketplace for artisan products, which was later acquired by Novica United in association with the National Geographic Society.

Shahnaz’s contributions have earned international recognition, including the Joseph Wharton Social Impact Award, Oslo Business for Peace Award, Asia Game Changer Award, and Global Steering Group for Impact Investment Market Builder of the Year Award. She has received the UN Women Women’s Empowerment Principles Leadership Award, was named a Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst for pioneering gender-responsive capital markets, and was included in Forbes’ 50 Over 50 list. She was also honoured at the Tatler Front & Female Awards Singapore 2025 and selected for the 2026 Rockefeller Bellagio Residency Program.

Shahnaz has served on global advisory bodies including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), the G20 Steering Committee for Impact Investing, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council. She is a TED Fellow, TED speaker, and former program advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative.