Michele Giddens

Michele Giddens is the CEO and co-founder of Bridges Fund Management, a specialist sustainable and impact investor. Bridges was founded in 2002, driven by the belief that investing in a more sustainable, more inclusive future is a unique opportunity to unlock lasting economic and social value. Since then, Bridges has raised over £2bn across a platform of impact strategies, spanning private equity, real estate and outcomes partnerships. Michele has also played a leading role in the growth of the sustainable and impact investing sector, both in the UK and globally. She chaired the UK National Advisory Board on Impact Investing (part of the Global Social Impact Investment Steering Group) from 2016-18, chaired a Global Working Group on Policy for the G7 Impact Investment Taskforce, was a Non-Executive Director of CDC (now British International Investment), the UK’s Development Finance Institution, and more recently served on the UK Government’s Social Impact Investment Advisory Group. Michele has over 30 years’ experience in sustainable and impact investing and development finance, having previously worked with International Finance Corporation, the private sector financing arm of the World Bank Group, and with Shorebank Corporation, one of the leading community development banks in the USA. She has a BA Honours in Politics, Philosophy & Economics from Oxford University and an MBA from Georgetown University, Washington, DC. She was awarded an OBE for services to international development and social finance in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.