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John Walker is Director of Finance at Echoing Green, a global non-profit at the forefront of social enterprise that invests in organizations representing the most promising opportunities for sustainable social impact. Mr. Walker also leads all impact investing activities at Echoing Green, having developed the Recoverable Grant investment concept and led structuring of the partnership with The Social Entrepreneurs’ Fund, a venture investment fund focused on financing capital for expansion. Mr. Walker speaks regularly on social enterprise and impact investing at a wide range of industry events, including the annual Social Capital (SOCAP) conference. Mr. Walker jointly lectures a course in raising capital for social ventures at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and advises a number of start-up social businesses, focusing on early-stage business and investment strategy. Prior to Echoing Green, Mr. Walker was a principal with Chart Venture Partners and Chart Group in New York City actively contributing to venture and LBO deals worth over $200million in aggregate, covering semiconductor, imaging, and materials technologies and the industrial manufacturing sector. As principal, he performed deal sourcing, evaluation and structuring of early-stage equity investments in addition to portfolio company support in financial management. Before moving to New York City from Edinburgh, Scotland, Mr. Walker was Marketing and Technical Director at Pentland Systems, a venture-backed technology enterprise developing signal acquisition systems for sensor applications such as radar, sonar and radio communications. Pentland Systems was successfully sold to an industry partner in 2007. He was also a member of the Defense Science Advisory Council at the UK Ministry of Defence; and previously a senior engineer with BAE Systems, where he was a technical and program lead on international partner programs across Europe. Mr. Walker graduated from St. Andrews University (BSc Physics) and Heriot-Watt University (MSc Digital Systems Engineering). In 2008, he also graduated from the Executive MBA-Global program at Columbia and London Business Schools; receiving the Distinguished Service Award for his service to the program. Mr. Walker lives in New York City and calls Scotland home. He is an avid fly fisherman, regularly travelling throughout the US and abroad in search of challenging angling destinations. He is a keen amateur photographer and an accomplished chef and home brewer.

• Spring 2013
  Impact Investing (EMBA)