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Arthur Wood
Social Financial Services - AshokaInnovators For ThePublic
USA

Arthur is an Englishman educated in the UK [LSE], France [HEC] andItaly [Bocconi], married to a Norwegian, trained by the Americans, whowas last to be found working for the Germans - but who is nowspearheading the Business Entry initiative as part of the SocialFinancial Services program at Ashoka. The objective being to engageglobal financial services firms to enter the business of socialinvesting and ultimately change the way investors view and approachsocial investing, as well as increasing the flow and efficiency offinancing to the social sector (and to our Ashoka Fellows!).
Prior to joining Ashoka, Arthur worked for over 20 years in the financesector having held a number of senior positions in product development,change management, sales, and strategic marketing with companies suchas Merrill Lynch and Coutts - the UK's oldest and most prestigiousPrivate Bank. At Coutts in addition to the launching and involvement in"vellum" Investment products he instigated and managed a project(Partners Marsh and Swiss re) for the innovative use of OffshoreInsurance products which has now been accepted across the privateBanking industry as a key planning tool, as well as the launching anArt Advisory service which was widely profiled in the Financial presson launch. His last job was as a Director of a leading UK bank,Kleinwort Benson Private Bank (Part of the Allianz Group), where heheaded up, re-engineered and managed the teams associated with ProductDevelopment across the whole range of financial instruments. The coreteam was subsequently voted the most innovative Product team in anaward by Private Asset Management magazine.
He was also made head of e-commerce for the private bank, pioneering amodel which was described by McKinsey as on the cutting edge ofstrategic web development - that was subsequently recommended as anindustry standard model by IBM. His experience in both private clientand institutional markets has touched on most financial products - bothvellum and exotic, includ