Impact Perspectives: An Interview with Judy Park, GSB MBA ‘20
In our second GSB Impact Fund interview of the 2024–2025 year, our co-CIO Caroline Chen sat down with former co-CIO Judy Park, GSB ’20, to discuss her impact investing journey, from immigrating to the U.S. at the age of nine to joining the Fund’s Investment Committee this year.
“On the Impact Fund, deal teams have very diverse backgrounds which created cross-pollination of learnings across the board. For example, on my education team, we had people coming from investing like myself, but also people with operational backgrounds who asked different types of questions that I hadn’t thought of because I never worked at a startup. There were teachers and practitioners, who asked helpful questions around “How would teachers tactically adopt this technology in the classroom?”
Caroline Chen: We’re excited to have you join the Fund’s Investment Committee this year! As a former GSB Impact Fund member, then co-CIO, then Advisor, and now as an IC member, you have been involved with the Fund in many ways. What was your background and interest in impact investing before GSB?
Judy Park: I was born in South Korea and immigrated to the US when I was nine years old with my family in search of better opportunities. This immigrant journey and identity have been defining in my life. Despite miraculously experiencing the American Dream of becoming a first-generation college student myself, I recognized that this isn’t feasible for most Americans. This realization made me want to pursue an impact-oriented career from a young age.
So when I got to college, I pursued a curriculum and extracurriculars rooted in social justice. As I was exploring careers, I initially thought I might go into the public or social sectors, but became interested in the private sector and the fundamentals of capitalism — how do we make this system work better for all people? So for my first job out of college, I chose the career where I would learn the most about the private sector, and that was investing at Bain Capital.
I loved investing and found it to be very intellectually stimulating and dynamic. It’s a very privileged position where you have access to expert information and get paid to learn, but I wanted to figure out how to mirror that back into impact. And I was, again, really lucky to be there when they were starting the Double Impact Fund with Deval Patrick, formerly the Governor of Massachusetts. This announcement came in 2015, and it was really the first time that a larger established private equity fund entered the impact investing space, which was exciting, but also meant a lot had to be defined. I ended up being one of the first associates on the founding investment team and had an amazing two years with Double Impact.
So when I got to the GSB in 2018, I knew I wanted to immerse myself more in mission-oriented investing. Given I had approached it more from the Bain Capital private equity perspective, I focused a lot of my time on learning about the different types of mission-oriented investing across stages and asset classes. I also wanted to meet like-minded people, in the student body, as well as alumni and other speakers who came to campus. I also hoped to be an ambassador for the space amongst my classmates.
Caroline Chen: You came to GSB having worked in impact investing and knowing that you wanted to stay in impact investing. What about the broader student body?
Judy Park: When I was at business school, it was definitely gaining a lot more momentum and interest. It seemed that every week or so we had a speaker on different types of impact investing and social entrepreneurship. There were always good, energetic debates around what impact investing actually means. Some people felt more passionately about an impact-first, concessionary returns approach, while others felt strongly about making mission-oriented investing work in the competitive returns investing space.
Caroline Chen: Were there any classes or professors who were particularly helpful in your impact investing journey at GSB?
Judy Park: Yes! Definitely my experience with the GSB Impact Fund both my MBA1 and MBA2 years. On the Impact Fund, deal teams have very diverse backgrounds which created cross-pollination of learnings across the board. For example, on my education team, we had people coming from investing like myself, but also people with operational backgrounds who asked different types of questions that I hadn’t thought of because I never worked at a startup. There were teachers and practitioners who asked helpful questions around “How would teachers tactically adopt this technology in the classroom?” And they had expertise in measuring efficacy in ways I didn’t.
I also took Heidi Patel and Charles Ewald’s Investing for Good class, and they did a fantastic job of walking students through the history of and innovations within impact investing. My second year, I was the TA for Paul Brest and Mark Wolfson’s Strategic Philanthropy and Impact Investing class, which brought great guest speakers.
The school overall also brought a ton of incredible speakers. I remember Sir Ronald Cohen, a prominent impact investor and philanthropist in the UK who was fundamental in the founding of social impact bonds and . That was incredibly cool because I had mentioned him and their work in my LOWkeynotes on “The Impact Vision”. I also got to introduce Jim Coulter, a Founding Partner of TPG, in his conversation with Dean Levin about the rise of impact investing.
Caroline Chen: During your time as co-CIO, the Impact Fund was still in its early stages [it was launched during academic year ‘15-’16]. How did your background inform your vision of Impact Fund’s strategy and what it should be focused on?
Judy Park: Even in its early years, Impact Fund had a strong mandate, partly because of its structure as a donor-advised fund where the donors’ original intention was to spread learning about impact investing to the student body. When I was co-CIO, we explicitly discussed our priorities to focus on student learning, impact, and returns in that order. How do we ensure students have relevant hands-on experiences and learnings?
When I was co-CIO, we made an effort to revamp the learning curriculum and plug in as many guest speakers as possible to teach students directly around their real life experiences. We also hosted the first ever career day where we visited 4 to 5 different impact investing firms across the Bay Area.
Caroline Chen: After GSB, you joined Owl Ventures, an education-focused venture capital firm. How did your experience as co-CIO impact your decision to join Owl Ventures?
Judy Park: I first met Owl Ventures through their role as an advisor to the education deal team! I got to know the team and worked at one of Owl’s portfolio companies called Hazel Health as my summer internship. During my time at GSB, I thought a lot about how I want to participate in the impact investing space. I became increasingly interested in the idea of focusing on a specific sector or a problem. Having a strong understanding of the problem you want to solve, then investing in a portfolio of solutions that can impact that problem, really resonated with me. That was very foundational to my thinking when I left business school: wanting to get deeper into the future of human capital and potential more broadly by developing a better understanding of the root causes and landscape of solutions.
Taking a step back, I believe two of the biggest problems in our lifetimes are 1) the future of our planet and sustainability, and 2) the future of human capital and meaning given the rising inequality and disruptive technologies like AI raising existential questions. While these two questions are of course interrelated, I became entrenched in the second question.
Caroline Chen: As someone who successfully navigated the world of impact investing both pre- and post-GSB, what advice would you give to students who are thinking about what to do next after business school if they’re interested in impact investing?
Judy Park: Recognize that your first step out of business school is just your first step out of business school. A lot of graduating MBAs feel a ton of pressure for their first job to be this one and lasting thing. I think students should be intentional about what they’re trying to either learn or gain from the experience and think tactically about exit opportunities, but also be open-minded about what could come next. I believe in having a long-term hypothesis that you continue to iterate on, but being open-minded around how you might get there. People often have different chapters to their careers and lives, and a lot of different experiences can contribute to a great impact career.
Caroline Chen: Have you noticed any trends among your GSB class? Or have any of your classmates come to you and ask for advice in thinking about either transitioning into impact investing or thinking about how impact relates to their career?
Judy Park: I have my five-year reunion next year. Anecdotally I’ve heard that you see a lot more people making those jumps at the 10, 15, and 20-year reunions, but hopefully our class is doing it a lot earlier than that. I do have a lot of friends in traditional investing or operational roles who are thinking about how to move to a specific sector that they’re more passionate about. I’ve also had classmates pivot their careers into impact in other ways, like becoming coaches. So there’s a lot of thinking about impact in different ways.
Caroline Chen: We’re so excited to have you join our IC this year. What motivated you to join the IC, and what do you hope to contribute, especially as a former co-CIO?
Judy: I love the Impact Fund — it’s been very impactful in my life and changed my trajectory. So to be able to contribute in any way I can and touch students in their learning journeys is very meaningful. I’m inspired every time I talk to people from the Fund. The energy of the Fund, and the GSB more broadly, is just so infectious. Over the last four years, I had the privilege of serving as the advisor for the education deal team. Joining the IC and getting to see the collective work of the Fund is really exciting. As the current co-CIO, I know you’re asking yourself questions like where the Fund is moving and how it can best serve adapting student interests. I’m excited to get involved in these discussions, especially given my experience leading the Fund five years ago.
I’m also very excited to learn from the fellow IC members, some of whom I know well and some of whom I don’t. This year, I believe I’m going to be the only IC member who was a former student member and leader of the Impact Fund, so I hope to be a bridge between the IC and the students, hopefully better predicting what types of questions the students might have and what types of feedback might be helpful at the given time.
