Sarah England, Ph.D. | Board of Directors
Sarah England, Ph.D.
Sarah K. England, Ph.D. is the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Medicine and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University. Dr. England has authored many research and review articles and has reviewed for multiple journals and serves on review committees for multiple funding agencies including the NIH, March of Dimes, American Heart Association, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She was a 2005-06 Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow and worked in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Brad Tompkins | Board of Directors
Brad Tompkins
Brad is the CFO for a Boulder-based company called, Furniture For Life. He is also an entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of working in distribution, manufacturing, and technology. In addition to being a business owner, Brad is a managing partner with small enterprise and board of directors experience. Brad has strong business development skills including accounting, analytics, systems development, customer service, strategic planning, and finance.
Meg Masten | Advisory Council
Meg Masten
Meg brings a diverse background to the CoPeace leadership team, centered around serving people, solving problems, managing multi-disciplinary teams, and "gluing" all the pieces together.
Meg has been with CoPeace from Day One, helping chief executive officer Craig Jonas, successfully launch CoPeace. She was the point person in helping CoPeace achieve Certified B Corp. and Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) status.
What’s your ikigai?
“To leave the world in better shape than when I entered it, in whatever way I can.”
Prior to CoPeace, Meg served in a variety of leadership roles in the sports and healthcare industries. During this time, she became an expert on equity, socioeconomic factors, costs, and public policy within the public healthcare system. She also founded Daisy Power, LLC, which provided workshops for moms and their young daughters, promoting self-esteem and positive body image, in addition to nutrition and fitness education. As a volunteer, she spends a lot of her time informing, engaging and organizing the community on public education issues.
Meg completed her undergraduate studies at Marquette University. She currently lives in Colorado with her husband and golden retriever and is the proud mother of two.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
"Anything outdoors in the beautiful Colorado mountains!"
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Craig Jonas, Ph.D. | Founder & CEO
Craig Jonas, Ph.D.
Craig is a lifelong entrepreneur with a history of success across the fields of business, academics, and athletics. He has over 30 years of experience in management with a passion for team-building and drawing individuals with big ideas together.
Craig founded CoPeace in 2018, put together a highly-talented team and board, and quickly helped CoPeace achieve Certified B Corp. and Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) status. He launched CoPeace’s holding company with strong initial investments in sustainable infrastructure and impact-related services. In order to democratize access to the equity game, Craig spurred the creation of a successful crowdfunding investment vehicle. He has been featured in Forbes, Worth, Triple Pundit and numerous other publications and outlets and is a frequent guest on investing-related podcasts.
What’s your ikigai?
"To focus on the long-term future of the world and how I can actively be part of solutions to make it a better place for all inhabitants."
Prior to CoPeace, Craig served as COO of Basketball Travelers and BTI Events, an elite sports event management and media conglomerate. In this role, he supervised international sporting events and tours worldwide. He served as the head or deputy head of the American delegation for the Summer and Winter World University Games from 2007-17.
Previously, Craig served as vice president for business development for the broadcast media technology firm, Sportvision, best known for bringing revolutionary visual enhancements to live sports broadcasts, including American football’s yellow first-down line and baseball’s strike zone. Prior to Sportvision, Craig served as the executive vice president of Coach’s Edge and helped initiate its $100-million merger with Sportvision.
Craig earned his doctorate in conflict management from the University of Kansas, where he also taught leadership, marketing, and management courses. Craig earned a bachelor’s degree from Carleton College in Minnesota, and completed a masters degree at Colorado State University. He is the father of two sons and lives with his wife, Seanna, and dog, Fergus, in Colorado.
What do you want to do before you die?
"I’m doing it! It took me until I was in my 50’s to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up."
What’s the Fuss about Impact Investing
If you happened to catch any financial news lately – or your private plane made a quick stop in Davos, Switzerland last week for a ski getaway with a side of economic banter among the world elite during the World Economic Forum – you couldn’t avoid wondering if suddenly everyone woke up one day and said, “Hold up, we should actually care about this planet.” What happened?
When the “old guard” suddenly changes its tune, I like to play the game: Follow the Money.
Altruism aside, what could make a multibillion-dollar money manager wake up one day and choose to drive a Tesla instead of a Rolls Royce? Invest in renewable energy instead of “old faithful” – fossil fuel?
The answer, of course, is money. An investor’s job is to try and see the future, forecast trends and move in before the market has shifted. The trend is clear: impact is no longer a subsection of the economy, it is a theme that will be prevalent in every company in the future and will influence winners and losers in the market.
At CoPeace, we acknowledge that impact investing is no longer a trend. It’s a constant. Instead of focusing on companies that do “less bad” and are trying to squeeze into the impact space, we look for the impact disruptors – the winners of tomorrow in the fight for our planet and the fight for success. Companies founded with the sole purpose of positive impact and sustainable profit.
There are many possibilities. If done thoughtfully, we can have a positive impact with consumer packaging on our precious planet. So let’s consciously decide together to work towards the change.
Hanan Levin is a Senior Investment Advisor at CoPeace. As a forward-thinking holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. To learn more about impact investing, check out CoPeace’s Intro to Impact Investing.
New Year, New Perspective
It’s hard to believe that 2020 has arrived, and we’ve entered a new decade. As I reflect back on the past year, I am extremely grateful for many things: family, health, friends, coworkers, and countless people in the world working toward a greater good, just to name a few.
I recently stumbled across my “Vision for 2019,” written last January, specific to my goals for CoPeace. My ambitions were lofty and optimistic, my timelines aggressive. I was confident in my vision. As I read through the summary, I was a bit stunned, somewhat frustrated, even slightly disappointed, that only half of my goals were actually achieved.
Then I paused. I reflected back on all the obstacles we had overcome as a team, forging a unique path in the impact investing world. CoPeace is truly a “first-of-its-kind” company, doing something that no one has done before. I reminded myself to truly appreciate what comes along with such an ambitious, pioneering venture – unexpected challenges, difficult decisions, surprise expenses, just to name a few – all of which we tackled with integrity and fortitude.
My perspective is now significantly different: reaching even half of my vision over the past year was a truly remarkable feat. What we’ve accomplished so far is exponentially greater than what I could’ve ever imagined when we founded CoPeace just two short years ago. It’s proven to me that we can all make a positive difference in the world. We can be successful in breaking new ground. We can even “Grow Your Money for Good.”
From our team at CoPeace: We wish everyone a very happy, impactful new year, keeping things in perspective along the way.
Meg Masten is the Chief Relationship Officer at CoPeace. As a forward-thinking holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. To learn more about impact investing, check out CoPeace’s Intro to Impact Investing.
Regulating the Future
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Regulating the Future
By Jim Crawford
With 50 days remaining in the current decade, I wanted to reflect on the massive shift humanity has undergone in just 10 years. We’ve witnessed the proliferation of technology. Handheld and pocket-sized electronics are now the norm, communication has digitized, and mass-automation is on the horizon.
The third decade of this century presents an opportunity for our society to take a step towards the protection and continued wellbeing of the everyday citizen. Regulation needs to catch up. Corporations are proven to have the financing and structures to create mass automation, communication, and navigation. All moving society and industries forward with neck-breaking momentum.
So as capitalism continues to flourish, government entities of the world must become more nimble and technologically savvy. The responsibility of the sovereign nation is to its citizens first-and-foremost, without whom a sovereign nation would cease to exist. In this whirlwind of technology, our governments need to address the regulation of the industry with the intention of protecting privacy, human rights, and promoting equality.
Up until this point, I would argue that government regulation has been weak regarding technology, data, and consumer privacy. We are beginning to see positive steps, with the development of GDPR in Europe. However, these mega-corporations are still fined pennies on the dollar for negligence surrounding customer data.
It’s time we harness technology for the greater good and betterment of society. Instead of using technology to generate only quarterly profits, what if technology was also harnessed to properly address environmental and social problems of the world today?
Jim Crawford formerly worked with CoPeace in business communications. As a forward-thinking holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. To learn more about impact investing, check out CoPeace’s Intro to Impact Investing.
Changing the World Isn’t Easy...
Something’s gotta change. We live in a world plagued by mass shootings, natural disasters, stock market instability, and rampant social injustice. The current status is not an acceptable trajectory, and we must do better for future generations. We founded CoPeace last year with the intent to change the world (no joke) by shifting the paradigm of capitalism. No one ever said this would be an easy road, but I had no idea how hard it would be.
At CoPeace, we are doing something in a unique and creative way that hasn’t been done before. CoPeace is a first-of-its-kind as trailblazers with no path to follow. Anyone who has birthed a company knows all too well the challenges and setbacks that come with a startup. Now insert the concept of doing something that has never been done before in the finance industry, which has historically been resistant to change or simply unwilling to try something innovative. Even legal and financial experts have occasionally been perplexed by this road-never-traveled. We are causing major disruption, with no established roadmap to lead the way.
At CoPeace, we are tackling difficult issues. Having conversations about money, investing, and generational wealth can make people uncomfortable. Add in more layers of complexity with the plethora of impact sectors – from fair trade to ocean plastic to energy – and we are facing the daunting reality of today’s world. Blending the complexities of the investment world with the complexities of the impact space can make your head spin, become disheartened, or both.
But….at CoPeace, we are a determined, tenacious, and resilient bunch. We are creative, innovative, think-outside-the-box kind of people, who haven’t forgotten that sometimes a good sense of humor is the strongest weapon against adversity. We strive everyday to execute our mission of successfully merging profits with purpose. We understand the critical nature of our work, and we believe we have no other option than to change the world. But let’s be real…it isn’t easy.
Find out more about how you can “Grow Your Money for Good” at copeace.com.
Meg Masten is the Chief Relationship Officer at CoPeace. As a forward-thinking holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. To learn more about impact investing, check out CoPeace’s Intro to Impact Investing.
Global Citizens
Recently, I had the pleasure and honor of meeting astronaut Michael Massimino. He completed four space walks and has worked on the Hubble Space Telescope. I must admit, the kid in me was starstruck — a real life astronaut!
Besides being one of the most humble people I’ve ever met, Michael also spoke extremely earnestly about his time in space. When asked what one thing he took from his experience in space, Michael said without hesitation, “I realized, I was a global citizen.”
Come on! Now that’s an answer!
Mike went on to explain how, in our lives, we go through a progression of being citizens of our town, our state, and — of course — our country. He mentioned the pride he felt as an astronaut, representing the United States. But once out in space, looking at Earth, a new perspective emerges that highlights how small the earth really is — its fragility and shared collective place where we all live. It dawned on him that we are all just citizens of the world. Now that’s an epiphany I can get behind. It happened in space!
As I reflected on this (and told the story to anyone who would listen), it occurred to me that if we all took a little bit of that mentality – acted like citizens of the world – we would have the power to create the change needed in our world. We should take pride, not only in the colors of our individual flags, but in our world and fellow citizens.
Equality, democracy, and freedom are all global issues, and we need to address them as a united front. It is the only way we can make progress. At CoPeace, we believe impact is a global phenomenon, good ideas can come from every corner of the world, and democratizing the access to investments and capital for everyone is the only way to disrupt the inequality we currently face. To conclude this somewhat corny blog with a corny thought, let’s all take one small step together to truly make a giant leap for mankind, and start thinking and acting as citizens of the world.
Hanan Levin is a Senior Investment Advisor at CoPeace. As a forward-thinking holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. To learn more about impact investing, check out CoPeace’s Intro to Impact Investing.
Defining the Millennial Generation
I was born in the heart of the Millennial generation – 1993 – to a middle class, liberal family. Old enough to remember getting a home computer and the dial up internet to come with it. Young enough to come of age with a smart phone in my pocket.
It’s an interesting thing to be born into the peace and prosperity of the 1990s — only to enter adulthood in a world changed by a single terrorist event, a decade of war, and the greatest economic collapse in nearly a century.
The generation to follow mine – Generation Z– will be the first generation born into a world with constant screens and connectivity – raised amongst a sea of tablets and phones and told what to care about by social media. The American Generation Z is also the first modern generation to endure over 10 school shootings per year as a normality.
Students go to school analyzing which lunch table they could dive under, which classrooms would be the right ones to bunker in, and if they might sacrifice their life holding a door closed while being shot to death to save their childhood friends. These are the concerns of a 12-year-old attending school in the United States.
The last 30 years have bred two generations untrusting of democracy and capitalism, wary of the promises of politicians and businesspeople, surrounded by a continually polarizing society, and crowded by the voices and images of the collective internet of things. With immediate access to any piece of information in the world, the next generation can become knowledgeable about any topic, product, or organization within seconds. Research has shown Millennials and Gen Zs are more likely than previous generations to cut ties with a business if they offer products or services that negatively impact society or the environment.
Over the next 30 years, the Millennial generation is expected to inherit $30 trillion in economic wealth from Baby Boomers and Generation X. It will be the largest transfer of generational wealth in human history. It seems an appropriate time to attempt the biggest shift in economic strategy in human history. In 30 years, I will be 56, and I have every intention of looking someone younger in the face and telling them we solved the climate crisis and expanded human rights and equality.
It’s time for a different direction. It’s time we recognize the shortcomings of a profit-only model, which sacrifices people and planet. It’s time we place as much value on the long-term impacts of a company, as we place on the quarterly profits of a company. It’s time we define our generation and its impact on human history. It’s time we grow our money for good.
Jim Crawford is the Director of Communications at CoPeace. As a forward-thinking holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. To learn more about impact investing, check out CoPeace’s Intro to Impact Investing.