Alix Lebec is the Founder and CEO of Lebec Consulting. She grew up in Paris, then her family moved to South Korea and China.. she was educated in Paris and in London, and now lives in Miami. Ted notes at the onset, "You are truly a global citizen." She and her colleagues are working on global solutions. Her specialty is innovative finance for sustainable development.

Lebec Consulting's mission is to democratize access to capital, opportunity and knowledge. The women-led team has grown into a platform to mainstream and scale innovative finance. Alix explains that its three pillars are its strategic advisory services, managing its own boutique investment fund, and making funders and non-profits and others aware innovative finance. At its core is blending forms of finance and bringing together different capital tools. Her firm is expert at using philanthropy to catalyze initiatives, to de-risk them, then bringing in institutional and larger investors to scale initiatives.

Alix's work is sector agnostic. She and her colleagues are advising clients and raising funding across sectors including water, energy, agriculture and food, affordable housing, and health. It's all about scaling solutions by using an innovative finance playbook to shape a resilient and healthy economy and climate. For the past five years, Lebec Consulting has worked with families, foundations, corporations, and banks, all looking to put capital to work in more impactful ways. At the other end of the process are recipients: The firm is supporting socially responsible entrepreneurs.

Ted asks for a few examples and Alix presents four: She began developing the innovative financing model working with Water Equity, an organization founded by Gary White and actor Mat Damon. Its mission was to help women and their families get small loans to access drinking water, originally in India and Bangladesh. They began by using private sources of capital to provide micro-financing for water taps into main lines. Based on a track record of consistent repayments, they effectively de-risked larger investments of more conventional grants and loans from major organizations. Ultimately, the initiative secured $5 billion in capital for a range of water infrastructure and sanitation projects scaled up on several continents. Seeing that "financing playbook" work so well encouraged Alix to launch Lebec Consulting.

Other consulting works, included working with a Fortune 500 company that required strong returns for its investments, but that also wanted to have greater societal impact. Alix helped the company mix its financing tools, strategically blending its philanthropic endeavors with more conventional financial instruments. For the Miami Foundation, Alix built an innovative for affordable housing and environmental protection in Florida, using its philanthropic activities to prove the model and then seed conventional financing. Lebec Consulting also works with non-profits and entrepreneurs with sourcing capital and using limited funds for the greatest impact.

The conversation shifts to Alix's assertion that the world is falling short some $5 trillion in funding for the new economy... investments in low-carbon, climate-resilient solutions. "Clean energy is the future," she says, things like scaling solar-powered water pumping. Closing the funding gap is critical to enhancing food production for a growing population. There is also a huge need for health care and education. While some think that foundation grants and program-related investments will be sufficient, Alix believes that philanthropy has to be leveraged to tap into larger sources of financing, like big banks such as JP Morgan. Another key driver, she asserts, is proper valuation of climate risk. As the insurance industry forces us all to get real on these risks, capital will flow to help close the multi-trillion-dollar gap.

Ted closes with asking Alix where she got the passion for her work. She responded that early exposure to different cultures, growing up abroad, and traveling across the Southeast Asia region, opened her eyes. Her first job, working on a documentary in Sudan, reinforced her sense of need and direction. Then working for The World Bank, she saw first-hand the struggles of underserved communities, and the disparity with people who have so much. This rooted her passion and Lebec's important drive to democratize access to capital, opportunities, and wealth.