Social Capital Market Roundtable - Over the Horizon

Tides Canada Foundation and Social Capital Partners convened a Social Capital Market Roundtable today in Vancouver. The event followed on the heels of the Social Venture Institute Hollyhock retreat.

The morning session was framed by presentations from Bill Young, Dominique Collin, and David Berge.

Bill Young, President of Social Capital Partners. Prior to founding SCP in 2001, Bill spent twenty years in the private sector where he gained significant experience leading high growth, entrepreneurial organizations. He was CEO of Hamilton Computers, a publicly traded computer company, which grew from $15 million in revenue to $250 million under his leadership and was consistently ranked in the top ten percent of the Financial Post 500 companies in both return on assets and return on equity. Hamilton Computers was sold to GE Capital. Bill was also the CEO and subsequently the chairman of Optel Communications Corp (later Axxent) which was a leading CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier) in the Canadian telecommunications market when he left in 2000.

Dominique Collin is a member of the Philia think team and is interested in the social and community aspects of sustainable development. A steady collaborator of the Agora magazine, his articles reflect his training as a psychologist and his vast philosophical culture. He has recently attended an important symposium in Bologna, Italy on the Emilia-Romagna cooperatives that remain thriving despite globalization.

The discussion was captured for later distribution by Coro Strandberg and will be available via the Tides Canada Foundation website, or from roundtable attendees.

The roundtable looked at the following questions

What are the obstacles to growing capital markets and devising new capital market instruments?

What important innovations, new models and approaches have taken place in the past several years?

What can Canada learn from the experience of the United States?

What role does government play in creating an enabling environment for development of new pools of capital for social risk initiatives?

What strategies could help move Canada to a more robust capital market infrastructure?

The intention of the morning was to review Canada's expanding interest in new forms of "social" capital markets that can support the growing field of social purpose initiatives led by non-profit/charitable or hybrid entities.