Sonia Powar Exclusive Interview

Caspar sat down with Sonia to learn more about Sonia’s career to date and what this new position means

Marketing Lead, Caspar, sat down with Sonia to learn more about her career to date and what made her want to join the Ascension board.

Firstly, Sonia, many congratulations on the appointment — it is great to have you on board (haha).

What was your first thought when you discovered Ascension?

I loved their focus on investing in businesses to find solutions to the poverty premium, they had an impressive range of portfolio companies & successes already and the team were really interesting, authentic and passionate about their roles.

What does impact investing mean to you?

That we can achieve the same if not higher levels of returns through focusing on fixing genuine problems in society and the planet to create a win-win for our investors, founders, stakeholders and everyone else!

What do you feel most passionate about changing in the industry?

For a long time many have thought that by focusing on impact you had to sacrifice returns, whereas I actually think the opposite can be true and it would be fantastic if we could have the best and most entrepreneurial brains focus on this and prove it out. This would then allow the funding available to the impact sector to exponentially grow, leading to more founders and entrepreneurs creating innovative positive impact businesses.

What are you most looking forward to in your role at Ascension?

I am most looking forward to working with the board to achieve our goal of raising an institutional fund which will allow Ascension to have an even bigger impact.

Quickfire Q&A

Favourite weekend activity

Wild swimming — I started recently and am really looking forward to continuing in the winter

Book everyone should read

I LOVE reading so I have 2: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie & The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Acho

Favourite holiday destination

Easy, Costa Rica. They abolished their military force many years ago and used the budget to focus on healthcare and education. They have an emphasis on living in harmony with their natural environment, high social well-being and happiness for all. This makes Costa Rica the friendliest, loveliest & most beautiful of places in the world to visit.