Vinay Nair

Vinay is CEO and co-founder of Lightful, an award-winning B Corp that helps social purpose organizations multiply their impact through the power of technology. Vinay is an early pioneer in the organizational alignment of profit with purpose. He worked at Acumen Fund 2011 – 2014, where he led international business development and helped establish Lightful’s presence in London and across Europe. He contributed to various thought leadership pieces in the early days of the sector, including ‘From Blueprint to Scale’, and the World Economic Forum’s ‘Mainstreaming Impact Investing Initiative.’ He was also a director at Social and Sustainable Capital (SASC), one of the largest social investors in the UK.

Prior to this, Vinay worked in public health and lived in Mozambique, leading an effort with the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative and the Ministry of Health that raised $170 million from The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. He has founded two social enterprises, one in out-of-hours primary care, and the other supporting a group of HIV-positive women to make and sell jam, thereby generating income and finding dignity through their work.

Vinay started his career at the investment bank J.P. Morgan, where he spent almost a decade, latterly as an Executive Director.

He holds a BA from Trinity College Dublin and an MPA from the London School of Economics. Vinay is a speaker and writer across social, print, and broadcast, and during the recovery from the pandemic has been publicly advocating for a dynamic, digital-first, and community-led approach to tackle vaccine hesitancy in minority communities. He is a father of two sports-loving children, is active in his local community, and acts as an advisor and trustee to several charities and education initiatives.