Team
Staff and Advisors

Karim Harji is a co-founder and partner at Purpose Capital, where he advises investors, foundations, and financial institutions globally on how to align their investment strategies with their social impact objectives.  Karim leads the firm’s research practice, which helps investors and their advisors to understand the key trends, issues, and opportunities around impact investing. He is the co-author of Accelerating Impact: Achievements, Challenges and What’s Next in Building the Impact Investing Industry, a comprehensive scan of the impact investment industry’s evolution commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation. He has published several industry reports, including a nationwide study on the issues and opportunities for social finance as perceived by the Canadian financial sector.  Karim also leads the firm’s work in social impact measurement, which helps investors to monitor, analyze, and communicate the social impact of their investments and portfolios. He recently co-authored a report on how leading Canadian impact investors use social impact metrics, as well as a guidebook for investors on the key considerations for selecting and using social metrics. With a background in monitoring and evaluation, he has helped foundations to construct and implement new tools (such as social return on investment) and approaches (such as developmental evaluation) into their programs.  Karim was previously the Senior Manager for Partnerships & Social Impact at Social Capital Partners, where he led workforce development initiatives that provided growth financing and advisory services to franchises and large corporations seeking to enhance their social impact. He has also worked as a researcher and consultant in the areas of corporate social responsibility, and strategy and business planning for social enterprise. His international work experience spans several sectors and regions, and includes job creation initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa, human rights at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and microfinance in Pakistan.  Karim teaches social entrepreneurship in the Faculty of Applied Engineering at the University of Toronto, and is a Senior Research Associate at the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation at Carleton University. He is a regular blogger at SocialFinance.ca, the leading website on social finance and impact investing in Canada, which he co-founded in 2008. Karim holds a Masters degree in Public Administration from Carleton University, and serves on the Boards of the Social Investment Organization, Small Change Fund, and CanadaHelps.

Norm Tasevski is a co-founder and partner with Purpose Capital, and leads the firm’s business development efforts. Norm has spent his career working with and for impact-minded for-profit, non-profit and government organizations. Prior to Purpose Capital, Norm was a Social Entrepreneur-in-Residence with the Social Innovation Generation (SiG) program at MaRS, where he advised a portfolio of approximately 30 innovation-minded social organizations in topics ranging from business model refinement to investment readiness. As a management consultant with Aperio, Norm managed a portfolio of social enterprises, advising each from idea generation to initial market entry and capital acquisition. Norm’s career began as a policy advisor with the province of Ontario, leading multiple social policy portfolios involving social assistance, social housing, immigrant sponsorship, accessibility services and youth services. Norm left government as a senior policy advisor to join EVIDENCE, a social enterprise consulting firm of First Work. There, Norm helped build the consulting practice and managed over a dozen client projects. Norm then moved to become Managing Director with York Consulting Group where he led the business development effort and oversaw a team of up to 12 consultants. Norm holds an MBA from the Schulich Business School, where he also teaches social entrepreneurship and impact investing at both the MBA and BBA levels. Norm also teaches social entrepreneurship to MEng students out of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto, and frequently guest lectures in other schools such as the University of Waterloo, Ryerson University and Queen’s University. Norm teaches social entrepreneurship and impact investing at the University of Toronto and the Schulich Business School. Norm currently volunteers with two organizations. As Chairman of the Board of the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario, Norm leverages his entrepreneurial background as the organization pursues the development of its own social enterprise. Norm is also a partner with Social Venture Partners Toronto, an organization that focuses on non-profit capacity building and growing the community of philanthropists in Toronto.

Kelly is a Senior Consultant and leads the Advisory and Portfolio Management Practice at Purpose Capital. She draws on over a decade of experience advising social investors, from institutional asset owners to foundations, investment managers and ventures, in servicing our clients. Kelly supports investors as they investigate impact themes and consider approaches to integrate impact across their portfolios. Prior to joining Purpose Capital, Kelly was a Senior Associate with Mercer’s Responsible Investment team, where she advised global institutional investors on aligning responsible investment goals to financial objectives and policy statements, integrating ESG across asset classes, developing active ownership strategies and implementing the UNPRI Principles. She collaborated with like-minded investors on critical research in order to advance thinking on key issues such as climate change, portfolio carbon footprints and impact investment. Kelly engaged with investment managers to review and rate investment products on ESG, and educate them on what criteria/products responsible investors are looking for, allowing them to tailor product development, and enabling overall market development. Kelly previously worked with CARE Enterprise Partners, a social venture capital fund, performing due diligence and measuring social impact on VC investments in Canada and internationally. Prior to this role, Kelly worked as a management consultant at SBR International, leading client engagements across a variety of sectors and business functions. At Access Community Capital Fund, Kelly is Chair of the Central Loan Review Committee, managing a team of volunteers to assess loan applications and make lending decisions for affordable micro-loans to entrepreneurs. Kelly has an MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a B.Sc Engineering from Queen’s University.

Hilary Best is an Analyst with Purpose Capital, where she coordinates a variety of projects in our Research, Advisory, Portfolio Management and Strategy & Design practices. Hilary has conducted research projects for government and private sector clients, including variety of knowledge products on impact investing. Most recently, she led a study of the use of social metrics amongst Canadian impact investors for HRSDC. This project involved a comprehensive literature review and key informant interviews with more than 20 Canadian impact investors. In collaboration with HRSDC, Hilary has published a guidebook on the use of social metrics for investors and a report on the challenges and opportunities investors face with regards to impact measurement. Hilary has worked extensively with social ventures, supporting their development as they prepare for investment. Current clients include the BC Aboriginal Mine Training Association, which she is helping to launch and finance a social enterprise focused on Aboriginal employment in the natural resources sector. This project includes the development of a compelling business modeling and marketing materials to showcase the enterprise’s impact. Hilary is passionate about sustainability, social change and stakeholder engagement. Prior to joining Purpose Capital, Hilary served as the Research Lead on the exhibit. She has experience in the design and implementation of public consultation projects as well as community health and transportation infrastructure planning. She is a regular contributor to Spacing Magazine and has written for Corporate Knights Magazine and Alternatives Journal. She graduated from McGill University with a BA (Honours) in Geography and is currently pursuing a Masters of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation the Ontario College of Art and Design University.

Nicholas Parker is Chairman of the Cleantech Group – the market-leading research company that introduced the cleantech concept to the investment and business community in 2002, and Parker Venture Management, his private investment and advisory business. Previously Nicholas accumulated over 15 years experience starting and investing venture funds worldwide through limited partnerships, family offices, corporate funds and endowments. During this time, he pioneered the first “sustainability” driven private equity funds and participated in one of the first solar IPOs. In the 1990s, he also founded, built and sold an environmental finance firm. He’s advised economic development agencies, major corporations and institutional investors, spoken at most major industry events and been quoted by the leading media publications.