Asia Society has honored Durreen Shahnaz, an investment banker and media executive-turned-Social Entrepreneur from Bangladesh, with the Asia Game Changer Award for social-impact investing that changed the game for millions.
In 2014 she launched the world’s first “social stock market” — the IIX, or Impact Investment Exchange for Asia. The exchange introduced a new way to access hundreds of billions of dollars in the so-called “impact investment market,” to unlock capital for social impact and leverage the power of crowd funding for investment.
Shahnaz had built the ecosystem, and today the IIX is improving lives all over Asia. It has converted power plants in Cambodia from diesel to biofuel; built water purification plants in India; provided vocational training in the Philippines; and across Asia the exchange has improved access to credit, affordable housing, clean energy, and low-cost education. Overall, the IIX has reached more than 10 million people, delivering a significant blow in the war against income inequality.
