B4P

Business for the Planet (B4P)

Company type	Private
Industry	Impact Investment services
Founded	2012 (2012)
Headquarters	New York City , United States
Key people	Mark Thornton
Website	https://www.b4p.us/

Business for the Planet (B4P) is an IRS-approved 501 (C) (3) impact investment strategic advisory founded in California in the United States. It helps design financial impact investments that help in tackling poverty.

B4P's partners and associates include people associated with the global development sector as well as those who have worked in asset management, banking, and financial institutions.

His Excellancy Miroslav Lajčák, the former President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for the 72nd session mentioned B4P as a success story at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

History

B4P was founded in 2012 in California by its founder and current CEO, Mark Thornton.

Philosophy and vision

According to the firm's website, "B4P’s distinctive social yield model brings together talented Wall Street traders in deal structuring, leading asset managers, and best of breed development experts."

Projects and work

Using Capital Markets to create impact

On February 8th, 2013, the Central Bank of Bangladesh formally approved a foreign investor, Business for the Planet (B4P), to provide a domestic microfinance team a hard currency one-year zero-coupon loan, and for the loan to be repaid in hard currency.

This was the first time that a foreign currency loan had been permitted to be repatriated from this country for pro-poor purposes. The B4P impact investment at zero coupon saved the MFI 800 basis points, resulting in a significant reduction in borrowing costs.

Impact Pipeline

B4P has a pipeline of more than $1000,000,000 in impact investments, working on 15 projects in 5 countries and 4 different development sectors on issues such as energy, clean water, mining, metals, infrastructure and poverty reduction.

Select highlights

• a formal Partnership with AAA rated, (the highest rating given by Moody's)Inter-American Development Bank and Inter-American Investment Corporation to create impact investments in Latin America.
• Founder personally invited to speak at the United Nations ECOSOC Chamber on “SDG Innovations in Finance”
• Working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the United Arab Emirates to assist the Gulf Cooperation Council to design a $50 billion 5 year facility to set up a financial hub for US asset owners.
• Helping the Central Bank of Bangladesh get an approval of $10m and EUR10M facilities for pro poor institutions in Bangladesh.
• Pro bono partners have included Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Deloitte Touche, Deloitte Tax, Maples & Calder, BNY Mellon, Arias, Fábrega & Fábrega (ARIFA) and Squire Patton Boggs
• Muhammad Yunus to fund his social business model.
• Imaginenations with their vision to make sustainable food in a generation for Africa.
• Silatech's vision of creating 5,000,000 jobs for youth in a decade in the Middle East and North Africa region.
• Assisting in early childhood development projects in Latin America.

Leadership

Founder

• Mark Thornton, Chief Executive Officer and founder: Thornton was the interim CEO of JPMorgan Private Bank with more than 16 years of experience in investment banking. He helped launch JPMorgan's first hedge fund of funds product. Thornton worked for six years in market risk management at Daiwa Securities Group and five years in credit analysis on derivative products for Sumitomo Bank Capital Markets. He is a guest lecturer at Wharton Business School for the Leadership Development Program.Thornton has taught at the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative for the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Thornton has served as an Independent Director on the Board of Directors of a Nasdaq listed public company in the United States, serving on the Audit Committee, and Chair of the Risk Committee. He is a published author on meditation practice for business people, writing the guidebook Meditation in a New York Minute; Super Calm for the Super Busy.

Advisory board

• Manoo Halati: Global Head of Traded Market Risk at BNY Mellon in New York City.
• Raymond U. Guthrie, Esquire: Global Alliance Advisor, Office of Innovation and Developmental Alliances (IDEA) and Global Partnerships Division for United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
• Darshan Chtianbranu: Former McKinsey consultant in the United States
• Mark Le Lievre: Former Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer for JPMorgan Private Bank in New York City and also worked as head of Technology and Operations Special Projects and Former head of Technology and Operations in Europe for JPMorgan Private Bank of Geneva.
• Keith Keggley: Bill Gates' former Technology Evangelist at Microsoft and worked as Product Manager for hardware, Director of Emerging Market Services at Microsoft. He served as Vice-President, Alliances at Peter Diamandis Xprize Foundation. Keggley is the co-founder and board member of Social Venture Partners (SVP) and an active venture capital investor.
• Andrew Duffy: Senior Portfolio Manager (long and short) of multibillion-dollar portfolios at firms such as Citigroup, TIAA, and Ascent Investments.
• Shayne Dunlap: Senior Proprietary Trader at Mizuho Corporate Bank and former currency swaps trader and financial engineering.
• Sam Polk: Former distressed debt hedge fund manager at King Street Capital Management, and Bank of America Bond and Credit Default Swap Trader. He is also involved in philanthropic work in the health and wellness sector in Los Angeles.

See also

• Mark Thornton

External links

• Business for the Planet (B4P) Official Website
• Business for the Planet (B4P) on LinkedIn