“The community believes that multi-generational families and those families seeking to build a sustainable legacy for generations to come are uniquely positioned to play a leadership role in this transition.”
What is CREO?
CREO, which stands for Clean, Renewable and Environmental Opportunities, is a NYC-based 501c3 public charity launched by family offices with a mission to address climate change and resource scarcity. To achieve its mandate, we focus on five activities: 1) building the global pool of active investors in the climate and sustainability marketplace; 2) capacity building by providing a peer-to-peer educational platform where members and aligned stakeholders can share applied knowledge and expertise, resources and investment opportunities; 3) relationship building to foster more collaboration amongst active investors; 4) aligned opportunity origination; and 5) conducting select research to support the advancement of its mission.
Why does it make sense for family offices to join CREO?
CREO is a value-based community that puts intent into action through investment and enterprise. The community believes that multi-generational families and those families seeking to build a sustainable legacy for generations to come are uniquely positioned to play a leadership role in this transition.
CREO is also a community of experts, with some members having been investing in the clean and sustainable marketplace for over 20 years. When you combine this multi-faceted expertise, required for systemic change, with a community that is willing to share experience, insights, and lessons learned to help build the pool of knowledgeable capital investing in this space, you end up with a very powerful channel for positive change.
CREO makes sense for those families and family offices interested in enhancing their capacity to be effective custodians of their legacy by using the tools of investment and family enterprise to create positive systemic change and by engaging, sharing and partnering with like-minded peers in a safe, non-sponsored space.
What do you believe ViaTalenta brings to the existing CREO network?
ViaTalenta joined CREO in 2018 and represents a perfect example of how a family and its family office can contribute and benefit from engaging with CREO. ViaTalenta brings strong leadership that embodies the belief that we are empowered by having aligned values and commitment and that we achieve more together.
Through its engagement with CREO, ViaTalenta is collaborating with members of the community on a sustainable project that will be announced in 2019. ViaTalenta has contributed important knowledge and operating expertise on sustainable, on-land aquaculture farming, contributing to CREO’s Primer on investing in sustainable fish feed and on land farms in 2018.
ViaTalenta is also playing a meaningful role in helping CREO understand the cultural nuances of European families, how they think about climate and sustainability investing and enterprise, and how they engage with one another. We are excited to be building CREO Europe in partnership with European families, as we did in the U.S., building a strong base for launching a successful collaborative platform in Europe and creating a channel to build partnerships across the pond with American families.
What is one of your fondest memory with ViaTalenta?
I met Christina Kyosti, the Chairwoman of ViaTalenta, at the Skoll World Forum in 2017. She caught my attention when she stood up at the investment meeting with the very question underpinning CREO’s existence: “how do we, families, who want to invest in transformative and highly technical sustainable solutions, learn from peers and build internal expertise to diligence, develop and invest in complex tech solutions? Eager to respond, I could not wait to introduce myself, hear more about ViaTalenta’s needs and explore if CREO could be a good fit for them. The next part of the story was not what I expected. “We do not do networks”, she responded. Despite this, we had a memorable human exchange later that evening. Eight months later, Christina traveled to Seattle to join a CREO meeting, which marked the beginning of our friendship and collaborative work.