Julie Abrams has dedicated her career to scaling and mainstreaming mission-driven commercial impact investing that combine analytic rigor and out-of-the-box thinking. Julie is Founder and Managing Director, Impact Investing Analytics. She serves as Investment Lead, CATALYZE program at Palladium Group to mobilize $2B in private capital across emerging markets globally. Julie is an expert in designing, structuring, and executing innovative impact investments, due diligence, risk management, corporate governance, social and environmental impact measurement and management, strategy, and training. She has closed over $400 million in impact investing transactions in multiple sectors in more than 40 countries.

Julie served as Senior Advisor to Omidyar Network (ON), structuring and executing innovative finance transactions and advising ON portfolio founders and C-suite executives on finance and investment. She sits on Apollo Global Management’s Impact Advisory Committee, MicroBuild Fund’s investment committee, Impact Investing Advisor for Black Lab Studio, and previously served on Calvert Impact Capital’s investment committee.

Julie’s career spans startups, corporates, and non-profits. She designed and launched due diligence and investment operations for FINRA broker-dealer impact fintech startup ImpactUs Marketplace. Julie previously worked at PwC (formerly Coopers & Lybrand) in its global strategy consulting boutique where she worked with Fortune 500 companies and governments, including sell-side equity, privatizations, investment strategy, and due diligence. Julie started in microfinance in its early days at Women’s World Banking. She is an impact investing industry pioneer and thought leader, having authored more than 25 publications and participated in 12 industry standards-setting groups including the inaugural Global Impact Investing Network’s (GIIN) Impact Investing and Reporting Standards (IRIS) Financial Services Working Group, Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Expert Panel on Financial Inclusion, judge for CGAP’s Financial Transparency Awards, and developed Microfinance Ratings Comparability.

Julie was a Fellow at the Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies, where she earned an MBA from the Wharton and an MA in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a Certified Expert in Climate & Renewable Energy Finance and a Certified Expert in Risk Management from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and holds a BA from Oberlin College. Julie is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.