(Pictured: Ben Thornley)

Ben Thornley, journalist-turned impact investing advisor to the likes of the CalPERS pension fund, has started his own consulting firm and also co-authored a book which is a definitive guide to the nascent field: “The Impact Investor: Lessons in Leadership and Strategy for Collaborative Capitalism”.

The new firm, ICAP Partners, based in the Bay Area of San Francisco, currently has a team of eight working on a particularly large project for the next few months, Thornley said. ICAP Partners focuses on assisting large fiduciary investors in the US, Australia and Europe to set up impact investing programs.

Thornley was a managing director of – and remains a strategic advisor to – Pacific Community Ventures (PCV) in San Francisco before launching his own consulting firm. PCV is a non-profit organisation which looks to provide small businesses in underprivileged environments with financial advice and capital. Thornley led its impact investing team.

During his time at PCV, he created the Impact Investing Policy Collaborative (IIPC) with the IRI, a global network of researchers and public officials, the Accelerating Impact Investing Initiative with IRI and Enterprise Community Partners, which focuses on developing a US policy platform, and the Global Learning Exchange on Social Impact Investing, an output of the UK’s 2013 presidency of the G8, co-convened by the IIPC, UK Cabinet Office, and World Economic Forum.

As recently reported, Australia is part of this initiative through Impact Investing Australia, which is the Australian representative, through its co-founder Rosemary Addis, on the G8’s taskforce.

In Australia, Thornley is probably still best known as a senior journalist at Investor Weekly in the late 1990s who later became the editorial director of Investor Info, the then-owner of Investor Weekly, IFA magazine, Investor Daily, SMSF magazine and other investment media titles, before he migrated to the US. The Investor Info titles were acquired by Morningstar and are now owned by Sterling Media.

View information on the book here