Q&A with Lisa Conibear
We are pleased to introduce you to the first of four judges participating in the Pitch Competition at our SDG Zero Hunger Event next week — Lisa Conibear.
She is a business manager at Shell Foundation, which is an independent charity established by the Shell Group in 2000 to create and scale new solutions to global development challenges. Shell Foundation works with a small number of entrepreneurial partners to identify the market failures that underpin many of the world’s problems and co-create new social enterprises to solve them.
What do you see for the future of agriculture in the impact sector? / How do you see impact investing evolving?
The future of agriculture is being turned on its head by advances in technology and the falling cost of distributed energy. I see a lot of room disruption from climate smart agriculture, both in terms of how smallholders farm but also in terms of their income. Assets such as off-grid processing, pumps and cold chain are becoming affordable for the first time. Alongside this advances such a remote sensing, mobile money and satellite imagery are allowing for a greater connection between smallholder farmers and financiers, value chain players and consumers. This is really exciting.
What excites you most about your job?
I get to test, fail and succeed alongside some of the most exciting businesses and entrepreneurs in the sector. Because of the kind of capital Shell Foundation deploys we can test new business models and technologies when they are at a very early stage, we can even co-create businesses with entrepreneurs. This means that we get to work hands on with entrepreneurs learning about all the challenges they are solving for, and all the challenges that smallholder farmers face.
In your opinion, how can any individual contribute to the success of the SDGs?
An individual can contribute to the SDGs in an unquantifiable amount of ways. In relation to agriculture, we can choose to eat a more plant based diet, to look for produce and products that are produced ethically and we can try to reduce both food waste and food packaging.
If you had no financial constrain and could dispose of USD 10 million, what would you do?
More of what I already do in my job, find and fund innovative businesses who have the strong ethics and a drive to build highly disruptive businesses! I am personally very interested in soil and would spend a bit more time looking for companies that are impacting that space.
What is the best advice someone has given you?
To watch out for my ego, and to be more empathetic — both of these things have helped me be a more successful and happy person and a better partner to the entrepreneurs that we have the benefit of supporting.
About Lisa
Lisa Conibear is a business manager at Shell Foundation where she heads the Energy for Agriculture and Sustainable Mobility portfolios. She has deep experience working with start-ups in emerging markets and is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs who are building disruptive and impactful companies.
Tomorrow, we will introduce you to the first business that will be pitching their project at the event. So stay tuned!
