Tigress Talks: Conversations with Princeton Women - Impact Investing with Heidi Patel ‘97, Managing Partner at Rethink Impact (Zoom)
For March’s Tigress Talks: Conversations with Princeton Women, we’re excited to speak to Heidi Patel ‘97, Managing Partner at Rethink Impact, the largest US-based venture capital firm dedicated to backing female leaders using technology to solve the world’s most pressing problems.
Heidi has spent her career at the intersection of finance and social good, helping to steer capital toward companies that deliver both competitive financial returns and transformational impact in areas like health, education, economic opportunity, and environmental sustainability. With Rethink Impact having raised over $500M across three funds to back visionary female founders, Heidi’s work shows how investing with a impact lens can reshape the future.
In this one-hour virtual session, PWNNC Board Member Catarina Schwab ‘96 will lead a conversation with Heidi about her Princeton experience, her career journey, how she defines impact investing, and why it matters now more than ever. We hope you can join us for this inspiring and insightful conversation!!
Meet Heidi Patel ‘97
Heidi Patel is a Managing Partner at Rethink Impact and currently sits on the boards of Workwhile.ai, AllSpice.io, Icon Savings Plan, Culina Health, Full Harvest, and Clarity Pediatrics, and as a board observer for Andromeda Robotics and Angaza. Previously, she was President of New Island Capital Management, an institutional-scale and 100% mission-focused investment advisor to a single ultra-high net worth family. In this capacity, she helped grow and run the firm while also running its early stage investing program. She sat on New Island’s Investment Committee, overseeing 100+ investments, across multiple asset classes, in sustainability, conservation, online marketplaces, education, economic development, sustainable agriculture, and green real estate.
Prior to this, Heidi was an Acumen Fund Global Fellow working with D.light Design India, a mission-driven business operating in India, China, and Tanzania to eradicate kerosene through the design, manufacture, and distribution of solar-powered LED lights. Before Acumen, Heidi was a Director at Pacific Community Ventures, an impact fund focused on businesses creating high-quality jobs in low-income neighborhoods. Previously, she was a founding member of AOL Time Warner Ventures where she led several investments into early stage, technology-enabled companies within the mobile, voice recognition and digital media sectors. She also worked in Media and Telecom Investment Banking at both Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and Credit Suisse First Boston.
Heidi Patel teaches (and co-created) a course on impact investing at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and she serves on the Investment Committee for the Stanford GSB Student Impact Fund. Heidi sits on the Limited Partner Advisory Committee for Monarch Collective, a new private equity fund focused on women’s professional sports and she was a member of the External Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Princeton University. Heidi’s work in impact investing has been featured in the Wall St Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, TechCrunch, and beyond. Heidi earned an AB from Princeton University and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.