Dr. Maximilian Martin is the Founder and Global Managing Director of Impact Economy.

He previously served as Founding Global Head and Managing Director of UBS Philanthropy Services, Senior Consultant with McKinsey & Company, an instructor at Harvard’s Economics Department, and Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School. Dr. Martin created the first global philanthropic services and impact investing department for a bank in Europe with teams in Asia, the Americas and Europe, the world’s leading convening of ultra-high net worth individuals (UBS Philanthropy Forum), and the brand Impact Economy.

Always interested in anticipating what’s next, he has led and participated in numerous projects and innovations in the impact space and co-created the contingent returns model that forms the basis of the Social Impact Bond (SIB), a major innovation in public finance. His more than one hundred articles and position papers have helped define the trajectory of market-based solutions and the impact revolution in finance, business and philanthropy. Dr. Martin was recently invited to write the primer on impact investing for the G8 policy makers’ conference, which considered the potential and development options for this new USD 36 billion branch of the financial industry.

He holds an MA in anthropology from Indiana University, a MPA from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in economic anthropology from the University of Hamburg. Dr. Martin also created the first university course on social entrepreneurship in Europe and serves as Lecturer in Social Investment and Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Gallen, as well as making his expertise available as the Founding Faculty in residence at Ashoka U’s Faculty Institutes.