DWM’s long and successful history in impact investing reflects the values and priorities that define our mission and underlie our organizational structure, the way we’ve built our team, and how we interact with our investors, investees, partners, and other stakeholders.
Founders Peter Johnson and Judy Kirst-Kolkman recognized the promise and value in emerging and frontier markets more than 30 years ago and founded Developing World Markets in 1994. By the end of that decade, they had fully committed to impact investing in these markets. Since then, DWM has been a leader in proving that institutional-quality investing and sustained impact can go hand in hand.
Peter's history of institutional-quality impact investing in emerging and frontier markets began with DWM's first impact investment in 1999. Since then, and further strengthened with Edward's joining the firm in 2009, DWM's innovations and drive for higher standards have helped define institutional investment in impact private assets. Today, Peter and Edward co-lead DWM along with the firm's seven other senior managers.
DWM promotes an impact investing industry with high standards of measurability and transparency. We believe that the term “impact investing” should be used only when accountability is present. We proactively disclose our impact methodology and welcome outside review.
Eleven-time designee
UNPRI Assessment Report 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017
UNPRI Inclusive Finance Assessment 2020, 2019
DWM is growing in both scale and breadth and offers early-career and later-career financial professionals work that is inherently intended to better the world.
View DWM’s impact reports, press releases, publications, and outside coverage of DWM.
