Better Society Capital

And we had a really wide range of folks on that reference group representing both the investors and investees.

So we had representatives from Better Society Capital, for example, which is the UK social investment wholesaler, and similar bodies such as Access, the Foundation for Social Investment.

Larger kind of social investment players that people know quite well, like Big Issue Invest, were on there in Key Fund, that's very active in the north.

And then we also had those that were representing folks who had received investment, such as Create Equity, which focuses on equity amongst black and minoritized communities.

No, no, of course.

So I think there are multiple strands of the UK impact investing story, but maybe if I start with the social investment sector.

So Big Society Capital was the previous name of Better Society Capital.

And those with keen political memories might vaguely remember that phrase, Big Society, which was from David Cameron's Conservative government.

The CIO Chair's guest today is Jeremy Rogers.

Jeremy has been the Chief Investment Officer at Better Society Capital since 2013.

He has over 25 years of experience in the charitable and investment sectors with over 15 years in impact investing.

Jeremy set up and ran JP Morgan's European High Yield Trading Group, growing it to become the market leader.

So that really sort of brought me to this world and ultimately the job of ESC.

That's amazing.

So on to Better Society Capital, what is it and how did it start?

So I guess simply we're a market steward and an investor on a mission to grow the amount of capital tackling social issues in the UK.