Jennifer is the Founder and CEO of IISLA Ventures, a venture studio firm focused on directing capital towards regenerative rural development for sustainable prosperity and a more equitable society. Splitting her time between London and Manila, she has a wealth of global experiences in investment banking, global strategic consulting, angel investing and social entrepreneurship.
As an investment banker and strategic investment consultant, she valued several large, listed companies and hotel transactions across Europe and Asia. In 2009, she founded IISLA, to facilitate investments in tourism-related ventures with a vision to create livelihoods in rural destinations. She volunteered as advisor and board member of various national and global NGOs to help steer their funding strategies towards long term sustainability.
At present, she is the Treasurer and Co-chair of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), a UK-based charity that catalyzes communities for a regenerative world. Her task is to guide the organisation in developing and implementing funding strategies for the creation and maintenance of thousands of GEN communities around the world.
Jennifer also became an impact angel investor and social entrepreneur with focus on businesses that create livelihood and that connect people to rural communities. She invested in start ups in Europe and Africa focused on technology, ethical food and wellness market.
She helped secure the funding of Feed the Planet, the food sustainability program by Worldchefs, and its launch in the Philippines in 2013. In 2018, she instigated the launch of the first Philippine Sustainable Gastronomy with WOFEX with the vision to create a platform for smallholder farmers, chefs and food processors/innovators to promote sustainability throughout the food value chain. Prior to the pandemic, she secured US$500k seed funding for IISLA’s venture into the food system designed to address the systemic challenges in the food value chain to create a more equitable access to healthy, nutritious food for all Filipinos. This venture is due to be launched in 2022. She spends her spare time hiking in nature and scaling mountain ranges in Europe as well as voluntarily mentoring entrepreneurs.