Boann Social Impact Hires Alicia Dubois as CIO

Boann Social Impact, a C$135 million (about $101 million) Canadian impact investment group founded last year, announced on Friday that it will hire Alicia Dubois as the firm’s first CIO. Dubois will oversee the firm’s investment and market development strategies and lead the development of Boann Social Capital, a fund for private and institutional investment in social impact.

“I am delighted to have Alicia join the team at Boann. She brings unique experience and talent to our team,” said Derek Ballantyne, Boann’s CEO, in a press release. “I look forward to Alicia’s strategic leadership and impact-focused business experience to help Boann advance impact investing in Canada.”

Boann Social Impact, a joint venture between Encasa Financial Inc. and the nonprofit Table of Impact Investment Practitioners, is backed by the Canadian government’s C$755 million (about $565 million) Social Finance Fund, an initiative that seeks to support charities, nonprofits, social enterprises and other social finance firms and institutions.

“Alicia brings impressive financial expertise and experience in deploying capital and developing and driving innovative strategic solutions that support social equity, innovation and prosperity,” Ballantyne said. “This is evidenced in her track record of challenging systems to drive capital and power to underserved communities, and to Indigenous Peoples in particular, in a way that allows for strong relations and meaningful outcomes.”

Before her appointment at Boann Social Impact, Dubois held several roles in impact-related fields. She was previously CEO of the Royal British Columbia Museum. She was also CEO of the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corp., which provides loan guarantees to indigenous communities. She was also vice president of indigenous markets at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, where she developed the bank’s first indigenous markets strategy.

Dubois earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Lethbridge and a J.D. from the University of Toronto.