- CAREER
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Calvert
Just out of law school, Silby co-founded Calvert Fund with John Guffey in 1976 on a boot strap budget. The first fund was one of the early money market funds and used variable rate government guaranteed loans to achieve a high return with safety. In the first ten years the fund's financial return was the highest among all similar funds, according to Lipper Analytics. With success at such a young age for these baby boomers, they began to focus on the aspirational values of the generation and founded Calvert Social Investment Fund, the first socially screen mutual fund, with co-founders Terry Mollner, Grace Sannino, Marrc Sarkady, and Robert Zevin.
Calvert Social Funds was an innovative first mover in its strategy. It was the first fund to join the apartheid movement and divest from South Africa. (20 years later it was the first fund to go back into South Africa with a local venture program.) It was the first fund to file shareholder resolutions to hold companies accountable to their stakeholder mission. This included gender board issues. It was the first fund to set aside 1% of assets to be deployed at below market rates to further issues of social justice. It was the first fund to create an internal venture impact fund, Special Equities, to further ventures that had a social impact. It was the first fund to have an Advisory Council to discuss social issues related to the investment process, with almost half of its members consisting of minorities. Calvert Equity Fund is a four star Morningstar fund.
Calvert was active in making models of change in many other ways. Recognizing that there was no African American running a mutual fund, Calvert teamed with John Rogers to create the Calvert-Ariel Fund. Calvert's venture program was headed by another talented African American, Daryn Dodson, who now has his own inclusive fund of fund, Illumen Capital. Calvert's venture activities supported other first time funds and Calvert was often the first institutional investor to commit: LeapFrog (now $400m), Poland Partners, China Environment Fund. Calvert was also the substantial supporter in the formative years of the industry trade organization, USSIF (US Sustainable Investment Forum). Calvert attracted young talent in support of the vision, such as Seth Goldman (later founded Honest Tea and Exec Chair of Beyond Meat), Malon Wilkus (later founded American Capital Strategies), and Monica Brand (Accion Ventures). Silby also recruited Muhammad Yunus as a board member of Calvert World Value Fund in 1990 which brought him from Dacca to the USA to tell the micro finance story of his Grameen Bank. In 2011, Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Calvert was sold to Eaton Vance in 2017 and Silby retired as chairman of Calvert Funds.
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Calvert Impact Capital
Silby and Guffey co-founded Calvert Impact Capital in 1987 (aka Calvert Foundation) with Terry Mollner and Rebecca Adamson whose non profit mission was to help direct investment monies from social investors into community needs by leveraging the Calvert operational infrastructure. CIC was approved as a CDFI (Community Develpment Financial Institution) by the US Treasury in 2000. Assets of this Note loan program are now in excess of $500m. CIC has been trailblazing in many of its deployments in supporting low income communities and also sponsored the first environmental social bond in the country.
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ImpactAssets
Silby co-founded ImpactAssets in 1999 with Ron Cortes (AssetMark chair) and Tim Freundlich with a novel program to unlock money in the donor advised space. This platform was the first to enable investors to make impact investments with their charitable portfolio. Assets recently exceeded $1B.
Social Venture Network/Circle
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Silby, together with Josh Mailman, co-founded Social Venture Network/Circle in 1987 with the aspiration of creating a community of entrepreneurs and investors committed to using business as a tool for social change. The Network had many initiatives, such as seeding BSR (Businiess for Social Responsibility) and NetImpact (MBA students). Members have included Ben & Jerry and Anita Roddick(Bodyshop), Gary Hirshberg (Stoneyfied Yogurt), Now in its 30th year, the Network continues to match entrepreneurs and impact investors as Social Venture Circle.
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Groupware Systems. GroupServe.
In 1983, Silby was invited by the Department of Commerce to be a part of a 100 member community, most of whom were Fortune 500 CEOs, to explore the future of computer mediated communications. Silby became enamored with the possibilities of what would become the Internet and formed Groupware Systems with software partners Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz, who coined the word "groupware." The company was ahead of its time and folded in 1986. He restarted the effort as GroupServe in 1999 with Ted Achacoso as CTO. The company was honored to demonstrate at the annual World Congress in Lisbon the first phone software that enabled social media interactions. The company collapsed right after the Internet bubble burst of 2001..
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China - Syntao and ZenFlo
Silby first visited China in 1985 and now considers his Beijing Hutong a second home. Calvert became a founding investor and advisor to the pioneering China Environment Fund in the late 90s. In 2004, he recruited GuoPeiyuan to co-found Syntao, Ltd, now a leading Chinese consulting company in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility. Syntao Green Finance was spun off from Syntao with Moody’s as a strategic investor in 2019. Syntao Academy is an initiative which trains young professionals in the emerging field. Beginning in 2007 Silby chaired the China Committee of the Grameen Foundation USA board and helped promote micro finance to China including legal reviews in meetings with the now chairman of The Peoples Bank of China, Yi Gang. He has given various lectures on Impact Investing at the China Philanthropy forum and universities in China including Tsinghua and Beida. In 2018, he was invited to share his thoughts on emerging impact investment opportunities with the senior executives of Temasek, the world's second largest sovereign wealth fund. He was a founding board member of CASVI – China Association of Social Value Investors. In 2013, Silby helped arrange a USAID $25m funding of the Sichuan Market Development Fund in support of Tibetan Entrepreneurs. Silby is currently an advisory board member to the George HW Bush China Center in Texas which seeks to take a “middle road” on US-China issues.
ZenFlo. In 2015 Silby and Qing Chen co-founded ZenFlo which is a Beijing based mindfulness / floatation center with a view to bring Silicon Valley transformational neuroscience technologies to advance the mediation / mindfulness experience. As neuroscience technologies evolve, the company hopes to franchises its activities throughout China to create more practical science based offerings in the Well Being space.
PERSONAL LIFE
His daughter, Georgjna Silby, lives on a First Nation's reserve in Canada with her husband Kevin, who is chief of the small tribe. Silby splits his time between Beijing and Washington DC and summers on Cortes Island in British Columbia with his residence contiguous to the Hollyhock holistic growth center. A member of the philanthropy communities of Threshold Foundation and Synergos Global Philanthropy Circle. He is close to the Santo Daime spiritual community, based in Brazil.
AWARDS & Board Service.
Wharton Impact award (2010). Patent holder of certain social media software concepts. Lead author in MIT Enterprise Journal on its Impact Investing edition. Other board memberships have included AAHE (American Association of Higher Education) East-West Institute, BENS (Business Executive for National Security), Ameritas Insurance, Wallace Global Investment Committee, Grameen FoundationUSA, and the Emerging Europe Fund for Sustainable Development.
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