Acumen Fund Officer Next WDI Speaker
Monday, November 26, 2007
Brian Trelstad, chief investment officer at
Acumen Fund, is the next guest at the WDI Global Impact Speaker Series at 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 29 in Room W2759 of Wyly Hall. A reception will follow.
The Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. It seeks to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. The fund’s investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches.
Trelstad oversees a portfolio team of 15 professionals working in four countries with $28 million in approved investments in social enterprises in health, water, housing, and energy.
Before joining the Acumen Fund, Trelstad spent four years at McKinsey & Company as a consultant in the healthcare and non-profit practices, and as an editor of the McKinsey Quarterly. Prior to McKinsey, he worked as a case writer at Stanford University's Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and advised a number of early-stage technology companies.
He was the lead environmental staffer for President Clinton's AmeriCorps program, and co-founded and directed the Center for Environmental Citizenship.
Trelstad holds an MBA from Stanford University, an MA in City Planning from UC-Berkeley, and a BA from Harvard University.
