Wharton alumna speaks on social enterprise

While some Wharton School students, including second-year graduate student Emily Poon, acknowledge that there is at least some legitimacy to the stereotype that many students are primarily concerned with getting high-paying jobs out of college or graduate school, 1995 alumna Durreen Shahnaz is doing her best to show students there are other options.

Shahnaz, founder and chairman of Impact Investment Exchange Asia, spoke to students early Tuesday evening in Huntsman Hall, encouraging them to be defiant optimists and make a difference in the world.

“In the end of the day we have to think about the world and what we’re doing to make it a better place,” Shahnaz told her audience.

Shahnaz spoke about the relatively new phenomenon of social enterprises, which she described as firms that make a profit but also make a positive social or environmental impact on the world.

“They don’t have to be mutually exclusive,” Shahnaz said of being financially successful and making a positive impact. “You can have a comfortable living, and do good for the world.”

While Shahnaz acknowledged that greed and the other side of defiance were causes of the stock market crash in 2007, she has also noticed that young people’s attitudes are changing and they are realizing they can do a lot more than just make money.

“Maybe it’s our generation that messed up this world, but it’s your generation that can do something to help it,” Shahnaz said.

“People of our generation are being more aware of our position in the world,” said Alvin Loke, a Wharton and Engineering senior, who was one of over 10 Penn students who worked at IIX Asia in Singapore over the summer. “People are more ambitious and inspired to make a difference.”

Many of the students who worked at IIX Asia were present at Shahnaz’s speech.

Although the turnout was low, Shahnaz and the student organizers were happy with the event’s attendance, especially considering Shahnaz’s firm is not well known outside of Asia and the social enterprise sector.

“I think we had a great mix of MBA candidates and undergraduates,” said Poon, who also worked at IIX Asia over the summer. “People seemed to be very enthusiastic about the idea of social enterprise and making a positive impact.”

While Shahnaz recognized there will likely be many challenges and complications ahead, she marveled at how much progress the social enterprise sector has made in only a year and half and how much momentum the movement is gaining.

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