About the 2X Forum

The 2X Global Forum shall serve as a long-term strategic engagement pillar to bring in the voices, inspiration, concerns, and perspectives of 2X Global’s broader and more diverse stakeholders to 2X leadership constructively and in a timely fashion.

The Forum is designed for discussion, network and engagement. It brings together stakeholders such as gender specialists, local actors, representatives of women’s groups and feminist civil society organisations, target audiences of GLI (those who GLI seeks to positively impact), and collaborating partners. It creates opportunities for transparent and mutual learning, network building, peer exchange and to cement field building activities.

Marcia Ashong

  • Marcia Ashong is the Founder and CEO of The Boardroom Africa, the continent’s leading network of women executives. The network promotes exceptional female talent to boards across the globe and breaks down barriers to help organisations realise the benefits of increased diversity and elevate the perspectives of African women.

    Marcia believes that solutions to complex problems will emerge when leaders prioritize the inclusion of women, especially women of colour, and make them key voices in global discourse.

    Marcia is an Eisenhower Global Fellow and an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow. In 2019, she was named among the 100 Most Influential Africans. In 2022, she was listed among the 100 under 40 edition of the Most Influential People of African Descent. She sits on the Ghana Advisory Committee of the Mastercard Foundation and has over a decade’s experience in energy law, consulting, governance, business growth and diversity and inclusion strategies.

Zubaida Bai

  • Zubaida Bai is president and CEO of Grameen Foundation, a global nonprofit that endeavors to alleviate world poverty by investing in the power of women.

    As a social entrepreneur and gender equity advocate for more than 18 years, Bai founded ayzh®, a social enterprise that designs products to improve the health of women and girls. Previously, she was managing director of social ventures at CARE.

    Bai has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, a Maternal Health Champion by Ashoka, and a TED Fellow/ Speaker. She was named United Nations SDG 3 Pioneer by the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC).

  • Hilary Barry is founder and Secretary General of the LadyAgri Impact Investment Hub. She is Irish. Since her first experience in Ghana in 1993, she has dedicated her career to designing and implementing social impact programs across Africa, Caribbean and Pacific states. These programs traverse the areas of public health, agriculture, water, social development, cooperative management, agri-SME support, and women entrepreneurship.

    The LadyAgri approach is unique in that it takes a full 360° holistic approach to supporting women in agri-business through mentoring, tailor made technical assistance combined with B2B agri-business partnerships and gender smart investment in the agri-value chain.

    Hilary is a convinced venture philanthropist and believes patient investment in women in agri-supply chains, though challenging, will have a ‘rising tide’ effect and sustainable social impact. Hilary leads a motivated team at LadyAgri both in Brussels and across 30 African and Small Island Developing States in the Caribbean and Pacific.

Sagar Tandon

  • Sagar has nearly a decade of experience as an entrepreneur, operator, venture capitalist, and gender-lens investor. He has launched several impact and gender-lens funds globally.

    Currently, he is a Partner at Beyond Impact VC, an alternative protein fund investing globally in the future of food and materials; an Advisor/Partner with Angel Protocol, a blockchain protocol focused on the impact investing ecosystem; Founder at First Followers, a cohort-based educational accelerator for next-gen underrepresented aspiring fund managers; and Managing Partner at IDEX Accelerator, a cohort-based accelerator for next-gen impact & conscious capitalists.

    He actively writes on Substack about venture capital, impact investments, venture studios, and how to build a fund.

  • Jillene Connors Belopolsky is the Chief of Staff and Chief External Affairs Officer at the Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA). Jillene has over a decade of experience in energy sustainability, strategy, and innovation. Prior to joining CCA, Jillene worked at BP, developing group-level strategies focused on the environmental and societal impacts of technology, climate change, and carbon management. She was also involved in BP's early energy access business. Jillene has focused much of her career around inclusive energy sustainability strategies and collaborative partnerships to accelerate the shifts needed in global decision-making, concentrating on energy access and sustainable livelihoods.

Diana Sierra

  • Diana Sierra is the co-founder and CEO of Be Girl, a social enterprise focused on bridging the access gap in Menstrual Health and Hygiene (MHH). Her mission is to empower women and girls by providing high-quality products and menstrual education to those in need. With a Master's degree in Sustainability Management from Columbia University and a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design from Universidad de Los Andes, Diana combines her design expertise with a passion for social impact. Through her work, she strives to break down barriers to gender equality and create a world where every woman and girl can thrive.

Rebecca Calder

  • Rebecca Calder brings passion and rigor to the challenges of increasing gender equality and advancing social justice. She has a PhD in social anthropology and nearly thirty years of policy and field experience in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific. As a feminist anthropologist, Rebecca applies deep contextual understanding of intersectional identities and power dynamics, social and gender norms, and political economy issues to her work. Her leadership in girls' and women's empowerment has produced cutting-edge research that has informed programming and policy for bilateral and multilateral agencies, country governments, non-profits, and the private sector. Through strategic, evidence-based, and creative counsel, Rebecca has supported nearly 100 social enterprises across Africa and Asia. In 2019, Rebecca and her business partner Emily Boost, founded Kore Global, a feminist women led-consultancy practice. She currently leads a research consortium for the IDRC and SEDF funded Transforming the Care Economy through Impact Investing (TCEII) and an evaluation of women in leadership for BII.

  • María is founder of Acrux Partners, and Strategic Business Development Advisor for Pro Mujer International. She founded and heads the Impact Investment National Advisory Board for Argentina. Since 2019 she serves as Board Member for the Global Steering Group on Impact Investment. Maria Laura was a Fellow of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, UK, in 2021 and 2022 for her work on Outcome Payment Contracts. In 2020 /2021 she served as an advisor to the development of the SDG Impact initiative under UNDP, and as Impact Investment advisor for the UNPRI.

    She has previously worked for the Principles for Responsible Investment as Head of Global Networks, and in several regional or global level positions at Christian Aid UK and MSF International. She routinely lectures on specialized executive level courses on impact and responsible investment.

  • Rosemary Addis is a globally recognised Chair, director and strategist in impact innovation and investment, with leadership spanning public, private and multilateral settings and 20+ years’ Board experience.

    In 2022 she co-founded Mondiale Impact to support and challenge leaders navigating new governance realities. She founded strategy firm Impact Strategist in 2003, with clients including the World Bank Group, UNDP, OECD and the World Economic Forum. She holds a GP interest in impact private equity firm Sweef Capital, where she is a Global Advisor.

    An Ambassador for GSG Impact, she served on the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce and GSG Impact’s Board, and is Founding Chair of Impact Investing Australia (Market Builder of the Year 2018, 2020 and 2026). She is Enterprise Professor Impact, Innovation & Investment at the University of Melbourne, where she Chairs Melbourne Climate Futures.

    Her 35+ year track record spans launching investment funds, advising top 100 companies, leading national policy reforms and serving as the Australian Government’s Social Innovation Strategist, building on a top-ranked global legal career (Chambers Global 2002-3).

    A Member of the Order of Australia (AM, 2020) and inaugural Sorenson Impact Leader (2021), she holds an LLB (Hons 1st Class), New York Bar admission and a Company Directors’ Diploma.

    w: www.mondialeimpact.com
    w: www.rosemaryaddis.com
    LinkedIn: @Rosemary Addis

Therese Turner-Jones

  • Therese Turner-Jones is a Bahamian national and resident of Kingston Jamaica. She is the VP Operations (Acting) at the Caribbean Development Bank and the Principal Consultant of MaxGwen Ltd, a consulting firm she founded in 2022.

    A trained economist, Mrs. Turner-Jones has over 25 years’ experience in macroeconomics and economic development, with special attention on the Caribbean. She served the International Monetary Fund in senior posts for over 20 years.

    She holds a master’s degree in Economics from the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom. Her publications include a book on Caribbean Fiscal Challenges. A member of the International Women’s Forum, Mrs. Turner Jones is passionate about financial inclusion, gender equity, children, vulnerable communities and the environment. She is an ardent champion of development issues facing small island developing states, and considers climate change one of the major existential threats of our lifetime.

Prudence Muchinouta

  • Prudence Muchinouta is a strategic c-suite leader in finance, strategy, environmental issues, and corporate governance. She is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Community Markets for Conservation Limited, a social enterprise that enhances systems incentivizing conservation of natural resources. A fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, she is the recipient of the ACCA Africa CFO Award in the environment, social, and governance sector category. She is a member of the Rallying Cry Network, supporting climate and gender-responsive agricultural enterprises in Africa as well as an alumni of THNK School Netherlands where she completed the Creative Leadership Program.

Sofía Pérez Gasque Muslera

  • For the last 21 years, she has created and executed business projects with a social focus.

    Her passion is helping people have a fairer and more equitable world, creating policies within companies that eliminate the wage gap, and designing sustainable supply chains that accommodate everyone.

    Over the past 10 years, she has learned to lead leaders in different spaces and has managed to bring together different stakeholders to carry out economic development projects with a gender perspective. She enjoys connecting the needs of society with companies, governments, and international organizations. She has developed as a specialist focusing her efforts on issues such as gender and inclusion and sustainability.

  • Diana Scalise is the Head of Investment at Plan International Denmark (PlanBørnefonden), an international NGO present in over 75 countries and aimed at advancing women and girl’s rights. As an economist, she is convinced that women’s economic empowerment is key to enabling a just society, so she has spearheaded the Gender Lens Investing approach of Plan International Denmark. With a track record in designing gender-responsive financial products, Diana worked at the Development Bank of Argentina where she led the program, Women Leaders, to provide access to finance to women-owned companies. Before devoting herself to the development space, she worked in the energy sector, which gave her insights on how to tackle the intersection of finance and climate change.

Jessica Villanueva

  • Jessica Villanueva is a sustainable finance and impact investment leader with two decades of experience structuring capital at the nexus of gender equity and climate action across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. As WWF International's Sustainable Finance Regional Lead, she shapes the Landscape Finance Approach across Latin America and the Caribbean—sourcing and structuring bankable, nature-positive solutions such as direct financing mechanisms for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, thematic bonds, and blended-finance vehicles, while representing WWF in policy and taxonomy working groups shaping the future of nature-related finance. Throughout her career—at MEDA, responsAbility, the Inter-American Development Bank, and WWF—she has consistently centered gender lens investing within her broader portfolio and due-diligence work, designing financing products for women producers, and serving in advisory roles. A native Spanish speaker fluent in English, she brings rigorous financial and governance due diligence together with a track record of building the financing architecture where women's economic empowerment and climate resilience intersect.

  • Bridget is the Executive Director of WEDO, Women’s Environment and Development Organization. She is a gender equality and climate justice expert. She specializes in policy advocacy, research and movement building at the intersection of gender equality, women’s rights and environment/climate justice. She has been particularly focused on integrating gender equality into the decisions and outcomes of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Bridget serves as the co-focal point of the Women and Gender Constituency, a UNFCCC stakeholder group of civil society organizations which support the political participation of women’s rights advocates in climate convention processes. She was among Apolitical’s list of 100 most influential people in gender policy in 2020.

  • Bonnie is Managing Director of TSIC, a global network of consultants creating systemic change for a fair society. Since 2014, she has scaled TSIC internationally to over 40 staff, working with 500 clients including UNICEF and British Council. A serial social entrepreneur, she founded Lensational and the £50 million Pathway Fund.

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  • Monica Peraza-O’Quigley is a Mexican-born serial social entrepreneur and the founder of Just Women, a social impact B Corp dedicated to empowering women micro-entrepreneurs in the Global South through an AI hyper-personalized ecosystem connecting each woman to a trusted platform that provides financial inclusion, direct access to global marketplaces and payment systems, plus a robust gender based e-learning.

    Drawing on decades of experience building businesses, nonprofit organisations, and entrepreneurship programs, Monica founded Just to help women micro-entrepreneurs strengthen their skills, increase their incomes, and achieve lasting economic independence.

    Monica graduated from the Stanford Latino Entrepreneur Leaders Program, is a member of the Aspen Institute Latinos & Society Program, and co-founded the Dell Women’s Entrepreneurship Network in Austin. She also received a resolution from the Texas Senate recognising her work with the Hispanic Alliance and participated in the 2016 White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics Forum.