Skip Links

Content Area Main Navigation

Sustainability and Social Impact

header.search.alt

The Optimists

Celebrating the people and partners behind our progress

Partners
Clients
UBS Optimus Foundation employees
Ambassadors

Launched especially for our anniversary, we’re pleased to share a series of interview shorts called The Optimists, which highlights some of the incredible people who have been instrumental in our progress – those brave enough to make pivotal decisions, significant donations and extraordinary efforts to advance our shared goals. Nominated by their peers, let’s get to know some of the people that have had an impact on our 25-year journey and what they’ve learned along the way.

We will add more Optimist interviews as we celebrate in the weeks and months ahead – do come back again soon!

We are the Partners

Batya Blankers

Batya Blankers

Portrait image of Batya Blankers

Batya Blankers

CEO and co-founder, Chancen International

I am inspired by how the UBS Optimus Foundation is redefining philanthropy–combining financial innovation with a clear social mission. My hope is to see the UBS Optimus Foundation continue to lead in catalyzing solutions that can be scaled globally. I envision it championing new asset classes like ISAs, making education financing a mainstream tool for development.

The UBS Optimus Foundation made its first significant commitment to student financing for post-secondary education with Chancen International. Chancen uses Income Share Agreements (ISAs) to help students access high-quality education without upfront costs. Its mission is to ensure that marginalized youth have the opportunity to learn skills that lead to meaningful employment, breaking cycles of poverty and enabling intergenerational mobility. The partnership over the past five years has significantly shaped understanding of what ethical, fair and affordable financing for students looks like, helping the UBS Optimus Foundation to further expand in this space across multiple organizations that do student financing through loans and income share agreements in multiple geographies (across Africa, Asia and Latin America).

Q: How has the UBS Optimus Foundation helped you advance your goals?

A: The UBS Optimus Foundation has been a cornerstone in our journey. As one of our first supporters, they provided catalytic funding that helped us establish the Future of Work Fund. This has been instrumental in scaling our impact, allowing us to finance thousands of students while attracting additional investors who share our vision for equitable education access. The UBS Optimus Foundation taught us the importance of aligning impact with financial returns to attract diverse stakeholders and ensure outcomes-based financing. Their rigorous due diligence process also reinforced the value of transparency, measurement and adaptability in proving our model. The UBS Optimus Foundation’s trust in our model has validated our approach and encouraged others to see the potential in investing in young people.

Q: Why are you optimistic about solving the issues you’re working on?

A: The sheer resilience and ambition of Africa’s youth fuel my optimism. Despite systemic barriers, they demonstrate incredible determination to learn and grow. Additionally, we’re seeing growing global recognition that investing in young people drives economic growth, social stability and innovation. Our model has shown tangible results: students graduating, finding employment and giving back. This progress proves that the challenges we face are surmountable.

To that end, we are scaling strategically by expanding to more countries and diversifying the education programs we fund—from traditional degrees to short-term technical training aligned with high-demand sectors. Our partnerships with proven education providers ensure that students graduate with market-relevant skills.

Jamie Fyleman

Jamie Fyleman

Portrait image of Jamie Fyleman

Jamie Fyleman

Managing Director, Justice and Care

We are seeking to demonstrate how human trafficking can be effectively combatted, reversing the worldwide trend. In doing so, we aim to help create blueprints for others to follow.

Established in 2009, Justice and Care pioneered their approach to fighting slavery and trafficking in India. The UBS Optimus Foundation has been a partner since 2017 and Justice and Care now works across three strategic locations – Bangladesh since 2017, UK since 2018 and Romania since 2020. Justice and Care’s model of reducing modern slavery is anchored in improving survivor care, closing the impunity gap for exploiters by strengthening the justice system and protecting vulnerable communities through lasting change. The UBS Optimus Foundation admires their victim-centered approach, always elevating the voices of survivors in their work through their podcast and champion survivor programs, recognizing that those with lived experience know best what needs to change.

Q: How has the UBS Optimus Foundation helped you advance your goals?

A: The UBS Optimus Foundation has helped us in so many ways – we simply would not be the organization we are today without its support. Our work in Bangladesh is a concrete example of this. Eight years ago, our staff team there numbered three – in effect, supporting survivors of human trafficking to return home from India. Today, the work is multifaceted and has grown exponentially. We have a staff team of more than 60, 19 of whom are Champion Survivors who are now helping others at the start of their journey of recovery. We work across protection, survivor care, prosecution and work closely with Government to help shape their response to the issue - for example, creating the country's national guidelines on victim identification.

The UBS Optimus Foundation were the first investors in our work in Bangladesh. Today, our work continues to be supported by the UBS Optimus Foundation, but also the UK and US Governments. The work has won major accolades and our country director there was named by the US State Department as one of the 2022 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report Heroes - only a handful of people every year are honored in this way. From seed funding to brilliant introductions and wise counsel, the UBS Optimus Foundation has been integral to the story of Justice and Care in Bangladesh. The ripples of that impact will continue to grow.

Q: Why are you optimistic about solving the issues you’re working on?

Modern slavery is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world. It is estimated there are some 50 million victims globally. It is an issue that is hidden in plain sight, impacting so much of society. Our challenge, perhaps because it is so often hidden, is to make people care - whether that be politicians, business leaders, philanthropists or the public. Our work in Bangladesh pays testimony to the impact you can have in a relatively short period of time - changing hundreds of individual lives but also impacting the whole country's response to the issue. Of course, we've got so much more to do, but we've demonstrated it is possible to make significant change.

Alexander Litovsky

Alexander Litovsky

Portrait image of Alexander Litovsky

Alexander Litovsky

Founder and CEO, Earth Security

Earth Security has always had data and analytics at the core of its innovative ideas. We continue to innovate in how data, analysis and artificial intelligence can be deployed to build the capacity and scale in how companies and investors invest in nature as an asset.

Earth Security champions the vision and knowledge of how nature and nature's ecosystem services are an asset to companies and investors, and how they can invest in nature and its services. Earth Security’s research and collaborative approach to thinking about innovation in financing the blue economy has supported the UBS Optimus Foundation in developing our coastal and marine portfolio, providing crucial data and analysis to inform decision making. Their partnerships and wide networks have provided ideas, pipelines and connections for the UBS Optimus Foundation and our partners, strengthening our own networks and enabling new relationships and programming.

Q: How has the UBS Optimus Foundation helped you advance your goals?

A: The UBS Optimus Foundation has been a strategic partner, providing funding for research, convening, pilots and partnerships that have enabled us to demonstrate nature as an asset and remains a highly strategic ally in helping us mobilize partners as we now take this vision to scale. What is interesting about the UBS Optimus Foundation, in my opinion, is how it is willing to use philanthropy as risk capital to drive innovation in this space. We can't achieve the alignment of the economy and nature with the same thinking, systems and frameworks that created the problems. Innovation and experimentation are needed to create the insights on which to build new investment systems – we have seen that very directly throughout our work. Additionally, UBS’s interest in exploring ways of cross-fertilizing the way innovation finds its way towards more mainstream investment processes and opportunities is very promising and I hope this will continue to deepen.

Q: Why are you optimistic about solving the issues you’re working on?

From the very beginning 14 years ago, the idea of pairing "Earth" and "Security" meant being prescient about the systemic risks that would come with humanity crossing planetary security thresholds. These crises are already at play. I am not optimistic about the chances of averting the impacts coming our way. We are going into a world that is riskier and more unpredictable because the planet's life support systems have been disrupted, perhaps irreversibly. But I am optimistic to see the pathway for a wider transformation of industry and finance in opening up to align capital with the planet's natural operating system. I'm excited by those possibilities.

We are the Clients

Sir Crispin Davis

Sir Crispin Davis

Video Player is loading.

Current Time 0:00

Duration 0:00

Loaded: 0%

Stream Type LIVE

Remaining Time 0:00

Sir Crispin Davis

Chair, Crispin Davis Family Trust

The UBS Optimus Foundation is very good at finding charities that have strong leadership and a clear sense of purpose, and they monitor those charities regularly. I like to get involved, so I know the CEOs of most of the charities that we support through the UBS Optimus Foundation.

After a successful career in a variety of business executive roles, Crispin set up the Crispin Davis Family Trust to help disadvantaged children around the world, particularly by giving money to smaller charities with very specific, measurable aims. Early on, there were challenges in finding really good charities that met the strategic goals of his foundation. Crispin had worked with UBS on the banking side, so turned to the UBS Optimus Foundation for insights. The partnership has grown ever since. Nominated for his commitment to ensuring we deliver on our impact transparency vision and together finding the right partners to work with, the partnership has grown ever since. Crispin and the UBS Optimus Foundation review strategic goals together every year, looking at programs currently supported and exploring new ones.

Q: Can you share a particularly memorable impact success story?

A: One of the principles I believe in strongly is continuity of support. I think nearly all the charities we've supported now for 5, 6 or 7 years. One of the first was Last Mile Health in Liberia, a brilliant charity training high caliber women to look after villagers and provide medical support, advice, pastoral care and so on. We supported the very first pilot in one small area that was very successful. We then expanded that to one district, which was also very successful. The Liberian government started to get interested and worked with Last Mile Health to expand it to a province. Today, the Liberian government has taken over financial responsibility for the program and it's gone national, working superbly well to bring health care to every Liberian. This kind of situation where you’re able to help turn acorns into oak trees – it's a really rewarding experience.

Q: If you were speaking with a philanthropist just starting out, what advice would you have?

Be very clear on what your objectives are. Together with my trustees, we spent nine months really debating what we were after. We determined that we wanted smaller charities – not bigger. We wanted programs that were focused on disadvantaged children with very specific end results that were measurable. And we wanted to really like the management team. I think it's very important to pick the charities you support carefully. The aim should be to support them for 5 to 10 years, all the way through. It's therefore important to me that I meet the chairman, the CEO and the team members so that I can really be confident.

Pete Wilson

Pete Wilson

Video Player is loading.

Current Time 0:00

Duration 0:00

Loaded: 0%

Stream Type LIVE

Remaining Time 0:00

Pete Wilson

Client and UBS Accelerate Collective member

If you are working with people who share the same passion that you do and working on the ground with experts that have experienced track records in what they can do to deliver great outcomes, then we can use those two features combined to drive better outcomes, better stories, better ways of engaging other people – whether it's philanthropists, the financial community through lending, or other sources like partner organizations that provide other kinds of catalytic capital on the ground to widen our reach.

Pete has been a UBS client for many years. He was looking to bring some structure to deployment of his philanthropic resources when his client advisor told him about the three UBS Collectives. The UBS Collectives pool funds and expertise with fellow philanthropists to achieve exponentially more impact on a particular issue such as climate, child protection, healthcare and education. He immediately was drawn to the mission of the UBS Accelerate Collective, which harnesses social finance to bring much needed funding to improve health and education outcomes for children living in vulnerable communities in the world, while creating additional funds for new programs. He’s now been active in the UBS Accelerate Collective for two years. Pete was nominated because of what we have been able to learn from him about how we can best support the next generation of philanthropists and how he is willing to innovate alongside us.

Q: What has your experience been with the UBS Accelerate Collective?

A: I've found the whole journey to be incredibly rewarding and interesting on a bunch of different levels. We started with getting quite a good grounding around what I came to understand to be called catalytic philanthropy – where you take money from a collective of philanthropists that can hopefully unleash, or bring other capital together with it, to support different projects. We learned about outcomes-based funding. And for someone who's been involved in financial services, the idea of tying measurement and reward to the actual outcomes that are generated by the project was very, very compelling.

What really was exciting for me is we had an opportunity to go into the field. We went to Ghana and we were able to see a number of the projects linked to the Ghanaian Education Outcomes Fund that our Collective supports. When you're there live with these other people that I've only met on Zoom before and we were able to be on the ground seeing the projects come to life, that was incredibly interesting, very eye opening and really gratifying to see on the ground, in real life what the capital that we had helped to generate was actually doing.

Q: The Ghanaian Education Outcomes Fund has been quite effective. Why do you think that is?

A: It’s early days, as we've only had probably five or six quarters of results. But the two programs in Ghana that we witnessed –from Schools for Life and Rising Academies – are on the way to delivering the mission of bringing more kids into schools and driving better educational outcomes in literacy and math.

What’s really important is that we're trying to deliver programs in a way that with evidence of outcomes, we can make an argument back to the government of Ghana that it should support rollout of these programs across the entire country, rather than just in a couple of local communities. And we're doing it at a price point that the Ghanaian government over time will hopefully be able to afford themselves. There's no point, in my view, in going to Country X and delivering a fantastic program that costs USD 150 per child per year when you know that the government will never be able to afford it. What we're doing right now in Ghana is about USD 55 per child per year. That's a level at which our initial capital can hopefully prove success. And then the Ghanaian government and other funders over time can take over responsibility for a wider rollout.

Alan McCormick

Alan McCormick

Video Player is loading.

Current Time 0:00

Duration 0:00

Loaded: 0%

Stream Type LIVE

Remaining Time 0:00

Alan McCormick

Partner, Legatum

I think it’s fair to say that Legatum couldn’t have achieved what it has without our strong partnership with the UBS Optimus Foundation. My biggest learning is that the most effective and productive relationships need to be built through shared values and over the long term. I’m so proud of what we have achieved together, but I’m equally excited about what we can do in the future.

Legatum and the UBS Optimus Foundation have a longstanding partnership, collaborating since 2013. The Foundation joined as an investor in all three of Legatum’s flagship collaborative philanthropic funds: the END Fund, the Freedom Fund and the Luminos Fund. And then Legatum was a launch investor in the UBS SDG Outcomes Fund at its launch in 2023. Nominated for their commitment to a collaborative vision for innovation, the valuable partnership continues to expand into exciting new areas.

How are your organization’s goals aligned with the UBS Optimus Foundation's mission?

For the past two decades, my fellow Legatum partners and I have been focused on furthering Legatum’s prosperity mission, which is really all about believing the best in people – that they are more than competent to change their circumstances and lives. We see roles as serving alongside to help people to thrive, overcome obstacles and live their best lives. Specific examples of how we deliver that mission are the collaborative endeavors we founded – the most well-known example being the END Fund, which set out with the bold ambition of eliminating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in countries worst affected by these debilitating but treatable diseases. From small beginnings, with a pilot program in Burundi, the END Fund is now one of the world’s largest privately funded interventions in public health.

We have seen philanthropy evolve through various phases – emotional, where we are stirred to make a difference; rational, where there’s a greater focus on monitoring, evaluation and impact; and more laterally, relational philanthropy, where philanthropists collect around shared objectives, bound by a set of values and a desire to create impact. Optimus has been at the center of this change. And like all the best collaborations, Legatum’s and the UBS Optimus Foundation’s values and strategic goals are very well aligned and that has manifested in us supporting each other’s innovations. Our commitment of funds to the UBS SDG Outcomes Fund is a great example of this mutually supportive relationship.

How have you seen the UBS Optimus Foundation make a difference in the communities it serves, and can you share a particularly memorable impact success story?

The UBS Optimus Foundation has played an instrumental part in helping Legatum hone and prove the collaborative fund model on a number of levels. A great example of this is its involvement in supporting the Freedom Fund, our collaborative fund addressing the terrible problem of modern-day slavery and human trafficking. The UBS Optimus Foundation provided direct funding to support the fund’s vital work in the area of child protection. The Foundation also provides generous match funding to the Freedom Fund in two areas, for grants through UBS clients with whom the fund has a relationship and also for grants provided by Legatum as founding investor. This match funding has been an important source of funding for the Freedom Fund’s programs.

Have you used the social finance approach in your philanthropy? If so, what is it that makes this approach part of your strategy and what do you wish others knew about it?

We are certainly paying close attention to the development of the social finance approach, which blends the objective of traditional philanthropic investment, social return, with the commercial returns of pure financial investment. We see great opportunities for social finance models to increase flows into important causes. The UBS SDG Outcomes Fund is a good example of innovation in this space because it provides a vehicle for investors with a range of investment goals and differing risk appetites. These innovative approaches are an important way of experimenting and learning what works.

What excites you most about the future of the UBS Optimus Foundation, and what are your aspirations for its growth and impact?

We are very excited about deepening our collaboration with the UBS Optimus Foundation in two particular areas. Firstly, we see the Foundation continuing to be an important part of the new collaborative funds we intend to launch. We are launching our fourth fund this year in the area of community-led, hyper-local humanitarian response which is a new area for Legatum.

Second, we see the UBS Optimus Foundation continuing to drive innovation with financial instruments such as outcomes-based contracts, which should broaden access to capital for the high-impact, humanitarian programs we wish to support. The recent launch of the SDG Outcomes Fund is a great example of this kind of innovation. Having the institutional leadership of an organization like UBS matters. Over time, we believe they will see many of their clients drawn to its way of thinking and ways of creating positive impact in the world.

Why are you an optimist about the future of philanthropy in general?

The etymology of the word philanthropy means simply to “love humanity” or “love people.” The impulse to help each other comes from the heart and having seen the generations beneath coming up, I am excited to see they ways in which they desire to help shape a better world. Optimism is a key value at Legatum. In a sense optimism is a key entrepreneurial value. We share the belief that all humans are capable of achieving amazing things given the opportunity and if certain obstacles can be removed from their path. Ultimately, we want everyone to live a life worth living, and that requires us to be hopeful and optimistic in everything we do, while at the same time being fully focused on doing things well based on sound analysis and measurement.

On a more personal note, what has been the most rewarding aspect of your involvement with the UBS Optimus Foundation?

One of the most rewarding aspects of our mission and work is forming really strong, long-term and collaborative relationships with partners. Our relationship with the UBS Optimus Foundation team, in particular CEO Tom Hall, is unique from my perspective because it works on so many levels.

What is the biggest learning from your experience working with UBS Optimus Foundation and how do you think that has driven forward what we/you do?

I think it’s fair to say that Legatum couldn’t have achieved what it has without our strong partnership with the UBS Optimus Foundation. My biggest learning is that the most effective and productive relationships need to be built through shared values and over the long term. I’m so proud of what we have achieved together, but I’m equally excited about what we can do in the future.

Trish Turner and Ewan Kirk

Trish Turner and Ewan Kirk

Portrait image of Trish Turner and Ewan Kirk

Trish Turner and Ewan Kirk

Founders, Turner-Kirk Trust

Our approach to philanthropy involves taking on high-risk projects – a core feature is the concept we term ‘permission to fail’.

Trish and Ewan’s Turner-Kirk Trust was a launch funder of the Power of Nutrition, a unique ongoing global initiative addressing the issue of childhood malnutrition. Trish and Ewan were seed funders of One to One and Hope and Homes in South Africa, both successful UBS Optimus Foundation partners for the deinstitutionalization of children. Ewan was an instrumental advisor on, and investor in, the UBS Optimus Foundation's development impact bonds in India and the more recent SDG outcomes initiative. Trish was the first philanthropist in residence at the UBS Optimus Foundation, developing the very successful UBS Philanthropy Insights Trips and undertaking the very first 'test' trip. She was also a founding member of the 2021 Transform Collective, a new collaborative approach to the protection of children. The Kirks were nominated for their exemplary investment of time, expertise and feedback in ensuring our Foundation keeps innovating with and for the philanthropists and partners we work with.

Q: What inspired you to get involved with the UBS Optimus Foundation?

A: Our approach of leveraging philanthropy as a catalyst for sustainable change, innovation and collaboration fits with the UBS Optimus Foundation’s mission of using evidence-based philanthropy to deliver breakthrough solutions to pressing social and environmental issues. In our view, a defining feature of the UBS Optimus Foundation is bringing together philanthropists, partner organizations, projects and communities to work together in solving problems. Philanthropy takes time and effort to be effective – by partnering with UBS, we benefit from the experience, knowledge and networks that helps us to make the most impact.

Q: What has been the most rewarding aspect of your involvement with the UBS Optimus Foundation?

A: Personally [Trish], my most rewarding involvement has been as a key contributor to the concept and development of the UBS Philanthropy Insights Trips. These are a very successful component of the UBS Optimus Foundation, enabling philanthropists – perhaps especially those at the beginning of their philanthropic journey – to experience firsthand the challenges faced by partners on the ground and to participate in their success stories.

We are the Board Members

Amy Lo

Amy Lo

Portrait image of Amy Lo

Amy Lo

Head and Chief Executive, UBS Hong Kong

Philanthropists might be able to create impact on their own, but the impact would be incomparable if we pool funds and expertise among other like-minded peers to deliver aligned outcomes towards one goal.

Amy has worked in the industry for 30 years. One of the most rewarding aspects of her work is the ability to make a difference to clients, colleagues and communities every day. As a UBS Optimus Foundation board member, she welcomes the opportunity to be directly involved in helping clients address their philanthropic passions. She is also Chair of the board of UBS Optimus Foundation Hong Kong, a local entity launched in March 2023. Amy believes that investments can be a tool to unlock opportunities, empower clients and help reshape the world and has demonstrated full leadership support for ensuring our programs and clients in APAC receive the support and visibility they need and deserve.

Q:How have you seen the Optimus Foundation make a difference in the communities it serves, and can you share a particularly memorable impact success story?

A: I'm deeply moved by the difference the UBS Optimus Foundation is making in communities. Collaboration is at the heart of our mission to create systemic, scalable change. We've witnessed the heartbreaking stories of China's "left-behind" children—those who remain in rural areas while their parents seek work in urban cities. These children, often raised by aging grandparents, face significant challenges, especially on education. Improving rural education is a critical means to provide them care and equal development opportunities, and help them break the deadlock of inter-generational poverty. Education has the power to influence lasting social change. In 2023, we partnered with clients and the China Development Research Foundation to address this issue in Bijie City, Guizhou Province. Our innovative program enhances early childhood education by empowering local teachers, offering online and offline training, and providing affordable teaching tools. This initiative will benefit 2,400 students across 50 kindergartens in this rural area, with the potential to reach even more villages through policy advocacy. This is just one of many programs we offer to nurture young minds, foster brighter futures and transform lives through education.

Q: And more client focused, can you tell us about a client case you’ve handled in your market and how it has impacted the foundation’s initiatives?

A: Notably, our 10-year partnership with Dr. Peter Lee’s Care for Life Foundation has invested over USD 100 million to support and save over 40,584 underprivileged children with critical illnesses in China. Over the past decade, UBS and the Care for Life Foundation have been collaborating in promoting public welfare with an expanded scope of coverage, from the beginning of only targeting orphaned children, to now providing assistance to children from less-privileged families. I joined the Care for Life Foundation children’s summer camp in 2023. It was heartwarming to see the children doing well and leading a healthy life. This is a perfect example of how we can create bigger social impact when clients work together with UBS Optimus Foundation.

Q: What excites you most about the future of the UBS Optimus Foundation, and what are your aspirations for its growth and impact?

A: I'm excited about the future of the foundation because of our unique position in UBS. Over the past 25 years, we have been connecting philanthropists with transformative organizations to make positive changes, which is central to UBS's purpose of creating a better world. Our global efforts in philanthropy allows us to focus on vulnerable populations and urgent environmental issues. We support scalable, sustainable programs in health, education, and the environment, maximizing impact with every dollar raised and matched. Linked with UBS, we access a vast network and resources, offering innovative financial tools such as outcomes contracts, and blended finance funds, to drive meaningful change globally. My aspiration for the foundation is to expand its reach and enhance its impact and to serve as a beacon of possibility in global philanthropy.

Q: Why are you an optimist about the future of philanthropy in general?

A: We estimated that roughly USD 83 trillion are expected to be passed to the next generation within the next two decades, which is almost the equivalent of the value of all the economic activity in the global economy in a single year. The huge amount of wealth transfer means that our next generation will become our key client segment soon. Philanthropy, especially through social finance, has been one of the key topics among the next gen. With the next gen taking over family businesses and offices, we see a lot of opportunities in helping these passionate philanthropists to achieve their goals. Philanthropy can and must do better – and more and more people see that now.

Q: On a more personal note, what has been the most rewarding aspect of your involvement with the Foundation?

A: One of the most rewarding moments of my journey with the UBS Optimus Foundation is to be in a position to be able to connect passionate philanthropists and support them to commit to their vision and reach their goals .It’s always heartwarming and very motivating to see like-minded philanthropists addressing the pressing social and environmental issues collaboratively via combined skills and resources, and the role we’ve been able to play in that.

Q: What is the biggest learning from your experience working with UBS Optimus Foundation and how do you think that has driven forward what we do?

A: One of the things that really struck me with UBS Optimus Foundation is the sense of possibility and optimism where we work with people who can generate big ideas. Many projects are co-created with partners. My biggest learning from the Foundation is that collaboration is key to achieve better contribution and impact. Philanthropists might be able to create impact on their own, but the impact would be incomparable if we pool funds and expertise among other like-minded peers to deliver aligned outcomes towards one goal. Leveraging on our global connectivity via UBS Collectives, we are proud to have been building a network of philanthropists, experts and organizations around the world to combine their efforts and resources towards solving global challenges that are close to their hearts. Looking ahead, collaboration is key to solving the intricate global challenges we face together.

Christl Novakovic

Christl Novakovic

Portrait image of Christl Novakovic

Christl Novakovic

Head UBS Global Wealth Management EMEA, Switzerland

As a bank, we can achieve so much more when we unite our philanthropic efforts with those of our clients, creating solutions that can scale and drive systematic change in the world. This collaborative approach is at the heart of the Foundation’s success, and it continues to push us forward in everything we do.

As Chair of the Board of UBS Optimus Foundation Europe, Christl helps to steer the growth of UBS Philanthropy & Impact across Europe. And as head of UBS Global Wealth Management for the EMEA region, she works to ensure that all client advisors know how to connect clients with the UBS Optimus Foundation, enabling them to align their wealth with impactful and sustainable philanthropy. As a result, Christl was the first market head to ensure her advisors enrolled in the philanthropy ambassador trainings at scale. Helping clients scale collective impact through the UBS Optimus Foundation is a personal passion, driving a lot of her work at UBS. Not only that, Christl takes her commitment to the foundation seriously – personally investing her time in fundraising and volunteering in our communities to lead by example.

Q: Can you share what initially inspired you to get involved with the Optimus Foundation, and what continues to drive your commitment today? 

A: What deeply resonated with me from the very beginning was the opportunity to engage in giving back collectively alongside our UBS clients. Bringing together like-minded people to scale our impact has been truly inspiring. A recent example of this collective engagement is the African Conservative Forum we hosted in June 2024. It was incredible to witness the inspiring conversations with key clients and prospects, who were so open in exchanging thoughts and ideas on how to promote conservation in Africa collaboratively. This forum was not just about discussing challenges but about planning tangible next steps that we could take together as a united force. It is this kind of collaboration – connecting philanthropy with sustainability and partnership – that continues to drive my commitment today. What keeps me motivated is seeing the profound, lasting impact we’re making on both people and the planet through these efforts.

Q: Can you describe some of the specific ways you have and continue to promote and dedicate yourself to the foundation's mission? 

A: As the head of GWM EMEA, it’s important to me to ensure that all of our advisors know how to connect clients with the Foundation, enabling them to align their wealth with impactful, sustainable philanthropy. I also serve as the Chair of the Board of UBS Optimus Foundation Europe, where I help steer the growth of UBS Philanthropy & Impact across Europe. Ultimately, helping clients scale our collective impact through the Foundation is a deeply personal passion for me, driving a lot of my work at UBS. And last but not least, I participate in Volunteer Vision, mentoring young people globally on skills like job orientation and language development. Staying connected with my mentees reinforces my belief in the tangible difference we can all make.

Q: How have you seen the Optimus Foundation make a difference in the communities it serves, and can you share a particularly memorable impact success story? 

A: What left a long-lasting impression on me was the reaction of one of our longstanding partners to the Ebola epidemy in Liberia. The funds contributed by UBS clients for the partner Last Mile Health helped to train and employ over 1,300 community healthcare workers, support 38 health facilities, educate people about how to respond to and contain the outbreak, and distribute essential personal protective equipment when 300 to 400 new cases per week were reported. In our continued collaboration with Last Mile Health after this, the community health worker model was adopted by the Government of Liberia and now reaches all 1.2 million Liberians living in remote communities. The program is increasing treatment rates for children with malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea, as well as increasing the percentage of women giving birth in clinics.

Q: And more client focused, can you tell us about a client case you’ve handled in your market and how it has impacted the foundation’s initiatives?

A: We started collaborating with a client to develop a sustainable model for a national park, an area larger than Switzerland, which had experienced significant degradation over the years. Together, we created a fee-based operational model to restore the park’s unique biodiversity, which is already showing signs of recovery. This project has broadened the UBS Optimus Foundation’s focus to include climate and environmental issues. We understand that a protected environment is crucial for ensuring a prosperous future for our children. Our next step is to engage additional funders to help expand the project further in the coming years. This initiative shows our commitment to integrating environmental sustainability into our mission of creating lasting positive change.

Q: What excites you most about the future of the Optimus Foundation, and what are your aspirations for its growth and impact? 

A: What excites me most about the future of the UBS Optimus Foundation is our unique position, working so closely with UBS as the world’s largest global wealth manager. This connection allows us to not only channel philanthropic capital but also to expand our blended finance solutions, enabling UBS clients to deploy both philanthropic and commercial capital. By structuring investments with concessional or market return expectations, we can attract more capital to impactful, sustainable projects.

Philanthropy alone cannot solve the world’s most pressing issues, but by growing the flow of commercial capital into sustainable initiatives, we can drive significant change at scale. My aspiration is to see the Foundation continue to leverage this blend of resources, fostering more innovative solutions that deliver both financial returns and measurable impact for the world.

Q: Why are you an optimist about the future of philanthropy in general?

A: The reason I’m optimistic about the future of philanthropy is our clients. We’re seeing a new generation of wealth owners who are increasingly focused on the impact their investments have on the world. They are deeply committed to engaging in philanthropy, particularly around issues such as climate change and biodiversity. Secondly, our latest Family Office report shows that philanthropy is on the mind of 50% of respondents, reflecting a growing commitment to giving back. This rising awareness and engagement make me confident that philanthropy will continue to grow in both scale and impact, driven by individuals who are passionate about making a difference in the world.

Q: What is the biggest learning from your experience working with UBS Optimus Foundation and how do you think that has driven forward what we do?

A: One of the biggest learnings for me is the power of collaboration. Over the years, the Foundation has grown from a small initiative to a vehicle that creates significant impact, largely by working hand-in-hand with our clients. This partnership is key. As a bank, we can achieve so much more when we unite our philanthropic efforts with those of our clients, creating solutions that can scale and drive systematic change in the world. This collaborative approach is at the heart of the Foundation’s success, and it continues to push us forward in everything we do.

We are the CEOs

Phyllis Kurlander Costanza

Phyllis Kurlander Costanza

Portrait image of Phyllis Kurlander Costanza

Phyllis Kurlander Costanza

Former CEO, UBS Optimus Foundation (2011-2022)

Partners choose to work with the UBS Optimus Foundation because of its reputation for rigor, honesty and a commitment to evidence-based philanthropy.

Phyllis was immediately drawn to the UBS Optimus Foundation’s unique position in the philanthropic landscape. Having previously worked at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, she saw the potential for applying rigorous financial methodologies to philanthropic endeavors to create a paradigm shift in how high net worth individuals approach giving, ultimately leading to more effective and sustainable solutions to critical global challenges. During her tenure, the UBS Optimus Foundation grew from a primarily Swiss-focused entity to one with a global presence, with an increase in annual client donations from approximately USD 10 million to over USD 200 million. Phyllis helped position the UBS Optimus Foundation as a leader in strategic, client-driven philanthropy within the financial sector, ultimately amplifying its ability to improve the lives of vulnerable children globally.

Q: What key learning impacted the way the UBS Optimus Foundation operated during your tenure?

A: The biggest learning from my experience with the UBS Optimus Foundation was recognizing the critical importance of trusting and empowering our implementing partners on the ground. They’re doing challenging work in incredibly difficult circumstances – we should support and enable them rather than add to their burdens. This realization led to a significant shift in our approach. We began focusing on ways to alleviate stress for our partners by streamlining reporting requirements, offering more flexible funding and providing capacity-building support where needed. This approach not only improved our partner relationships but also enhanced program effectiveness. By believing in our partners' ability to deliver and by removing obstacles from their path, we could achieve far greater impact.

Q: Why are you an optimist about the future of philanthropy in general?

A: We are witnessing a transformative shift towards greater transparency, accountability and collaboration in the sector. As more donors recognize the importance of evidence-based approaches and measurable impact, there is a growing commitment to aligning philanthropic efforts with the needs of communities and the priorities of governments. This evolution is being fueled by innovative technologies that enhance data collection and analysis, allowing for more informed decision-making. Additionally, the rise of social enterprises and impact investing is creating new avenues for positive change. With a new generation of philanthropists who are passionate about social justice and environmental sustainability, I believe we are on the brink of a more equitable and impactful philanthropic landscape that prioritizes the well-being of all individuals, particularly the most vulnerable.

Tom Hall

Maya Ziswiler

We are the UBS Optimus Foundation employees

Dhun Davar

Dhun Davar

Portrait image of Dhun Davar

Dhun Davar

Head of Social Finance, UBS Optimus Foundation

There are several growth opportunities for scale as a foundation but, personally, what excites me is that I strongly believe we not only have a shot at realizing scale but doing so with quality and depth.

Years ago, Dhun was CEO of a non-profit in Mumbai working on integrated community development. She was deeply engaged in the communities and involved in every aspect of program delivery, even personally going door to door for health surveys. At the time, she could not imagine a more rewarding job. When she joined the UBS Optimus Foundation, she wondered whether she would ever be able to make that same kind of impact. Well, she hasn’t looked back since: her work with the UBS Optimus Foundation has enabled her to help many organizations doing great work and to innovate, influence and inspire new thinking and action for impact at scale. Nominated for her dedication to innovation for more impactful use of philanthropic capital, Dhun is a true Optimist!

Q: Can you share what initially inspired you to get involved with the UBS Optimus Foundation?

I joined as Education and Early Childhood Development Program Director in 2017 as I was interested to get involved with an innovative program they were supporting: the Educate Girls Development Impact Bond (DIB). I came into a high-pressure environment with the UBS Optimus Foundation as risk investor because the project hadn’t been on track. But I very soon saw a dramatic change unfold before me and in that final year Educate Girls ended up overachieving on all fronts, bringing out-of-school girls into school and improving learning levels of students. The energy, the sense of achievement and the joy of that success is something I will never forget. And it was replicated a few years later when our Quality Education India DIB saw outstanding levels of achievement despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact mid-project. The UBS Optimus Foundation’s commitment to results and the opportunity it has provided me to innovate to make a genuine impact on young lives is what continues to drive my commitment today.

Q: Can you describe some of the specific ways you work toward the UBS Optimus Foundation's mission?

A: I get to work with some of the most talented individuals in my industry to drive financial innovation for impact. As an ex-CEO of a non-profit organization, I know how challenging it is to plan long-term programs to solve complex social and environmental challenges when funding streams are uncertain. Helping impact organizations find financial sustainability by partly or entirely developing strong financial models – and providing them with funding that is fit for purpose and supports them appropriately for their growth stage – is how I dedicate my time and drive the UBS Optimus Foundation’s mission. Taking that to scale with blended finance makes it even more exciting.

Nalini Tarakeshwar

Nalini Tarakeshwar

Portrait image of Nalini Tarakeshwar

Nalini Tarakeshwar

Deputy CEO, UBS Optimus Foundation and Head of Programs and Impact Transparency

It’s important to take a beginner’s mindset – sharing about both what is working as well as what is not working, and being open to learning from others.

Nalini was initially inspired to join the UBS Optimus Foundation because of its willingness to engage in issues such as anti-trafficking, support for small-to-mid size organizations in building their evidence base and path to scale, and the different types of financial support used – from grants to outcomes-based financing models. Nalini has shown incredible leadership in advancing the UBS Optimus Foundation's impact transparency agenda, in particular with the development of the Impact Rating Tool, which ensures greater consistency in applying and interpreting impact assessments and allows for comparisons across time and portfolios, and the introduction of the annual Impact Survey, which facilitates enhanced aggregation of impact across a range of programs and portfolios.

Q: Can you share a particularly memorable impact success story?

A: I have two! And they’re both related to our UBS Collectives and the magnified impact philanthropists can have when they come together to pool their passion, resources and skills.

To raise funds for the UBS Transform Collective we called upon JK Rowling, who had dedicated so much of her time and resources to the issue of ensuring children thrive in family-based care rather than orphanages. Her impassioned speech and call to action over a UBS-hosted dinner inspired 11 philanthropists to join the UBS Transform Collective and the global movement we are building for this cause.

Another success story has to do with the way our clients within the UBS Collectives have used their skills to solve problems. One of the clients in the UBS Climate Collective with expertise in building tech products built an app to measure the sequestration of carbon in mangrove conservation/restoration. This app is now being used by some of our partners within the UBS Climate Collective. It’s so inspiring to see how clients are so willing to give their time, money and skills to have an impact.

Q: What has been the most rewarding aspect of your involvement with the Optimus Foundation?

A: Personally speaking, my prior experience has been with endowed foundations. Working within the UBS Optimus Foundation where we are allocated capital each year, I have come to appreciate both the change one can make with limited capital and the value of collaboration and partnerships. It has forced me to think critically about the most important things to focus on and, more importantly, what we should stop doing.

Sietse Wouters

Sietse Wouters

Portrait image of Sietse Wouters

Sietse Wouters

Program Director, Innovative Finance, UBS Optimus Foundation

While many of us have great ideas, listening to how our partners understand these problems – and their proposed solutions – is essential to successfully addressing them.

Sietse was working at UBS Asset Management and was asked to help on the financial modelling and legal structuring of the Quality Education India and the Utkrisht Maternal and Newborn Health impact bonds. Sietse led the development of Utkrisht, the first-ever impact bond in health, aiming to improve health quality standards for small hospitals where pregnant women give birth. Utkrisht brought together a range of public and private stakeholders, including USAID and Merck for Mothers, which Sietse adeptly managed, including through the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sietse has been instrumental in helping build the ecosystem for impact investing and blended finance, for example, in his work with the SDG Impact Finance Initiative (SIFI) and the Outcomes Accelerator.

Q: Can you share a particularly memorable impact success story?

A: A particular success was the Quality Education India impact bond that was able to achieve great results despite the long school closures in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. The education partners we were working with were able to shift their activities in various ways to continue engagement with students: from shifting to small outdoor classes to creating video recordings of the schools best teachers for students to watch. These pivots were enabled by the deliberate focus on outcomes and the flexibility the education partners had to re-direct their funding to what was effective, not to mention possible. As a result of this, despite the record-long school closures, students performed significantly better than the control groups. This is an impressive and inspiring result, as well as proof of the power of outcomes-based financing.

Q: What do you find most promising about the use of innovative finance?

A: What’s most promising about innovative finance in my view is taking tools and approaches from the financial world and applying these in a social and environmental context through UBS Optimus Foundation. This creates an unprecedented ability to adapt funding to the challenge that we are trying to address. This can be through a grant, a loan or an equity stake – or even through a combination of both, such as a grant that can convert to equity. This flexibility gives partners the funding they need to achieve impact. Over time this allows us to change and grow impact together with the partner. In the social impact space, which is often hampered by funders with very limiting funding conditions and investment frameworks, this makes the UBS Optimus Foundation unique.

We are the Employee Ambassadors

Nicole Sebastian

Nicole Sebastian

Portrait image of Nicole Sebastian

Nicole Sebastian

Senior Philanthropy Strategist, UBS, United States

There have been instances where UBS has won asset mandates because prospects really valued that UBS ‘walks the talk’ and has such a robust philanthropic offering that is truly differentiated in the market.

Nicole was hired a decade ago to launch and run the UBS Optimus Foundation in the United States. She worked tirelessly to get the offering up and running, craft the narrative, ingratiate stakeholders and train US team members. She joined financial advisors on road shows across the country so that they could understand and articulate the tremendous value proposition for UBS clients. A decade later, the UBS Optimus Foundation is something US financial advisors know well and are very happy to speak about on their own. In this time, Nicole helped secure major donations to the UBS Optimus Foundation in a win-win fashion. Now that she is fully client-facing, she continues to demonstrate leadership in championing the UBS Optimus Foundation in a key market, not only with clients but by training new senior strategists.

Q: Why do you believe your clients choose to work with Optimus?

A: We offer something unique, and that requires explaining what we are and what we are not. We still get approached to fund charities or causes near and dear to our clients. While we encourage their individually driven efforts, we welcome them to join us in supporting the organizations and programs that our exceptionally talented program team have identified, extensively vetted and engaged with an often multi-year grant framework. Once there is greater comprehension, clients often become very excited about where the UBS Optimus Foundation can plug into their larger philanthropic schematic. And we are able to engage with clients on multiple levels: via our main strategic philanthropy portfolio and social finance offerings, through learning interactions with our program team, with our insight trips to visit programs in the field, within our UBS Collectives, and at numerous philanthropy events in the US and abroad. Our interactions with clients also provide an opportunity for them to learn about effective grant-making strategies, due diligence and impact assessment that they can incorporate into their overall philanthropy, even beyond direct engagement with the UBS Optimus Foundation.

Q: Can you share a particularly memorable impact success story?

A: I often say that the UBS Optimus Foundation serves as a bridge between the top 1% and the bottom 10%. If it weren’t for the UBS Optimus Foundation, client donors would not know of or have the opportunity to find and fund many (if not most) of the programs on our platform (certainly not the innovative financing vehicles) and grantee partners and beneficiaries would not benefit from UBS client support. We have a client whose philanthropic journey has led her to support both local causes near and dear to her as well as organizations via the UBS Optimus Foundation doing great work halfway across the globe. When we first started working together, so much of this was new. She traveled with us to various countries, engaging with grantee partners on the ground. She participated in one of our UBS Collectives, joined global UBS client events and began to involve her family in grantmaking decisions. Now they are starting to incorporate impact considerations into their local grantmaking efforts. This engagement started in the very early days of the UBS Optimus Foundation in the United States. In many ways, we grew and evolved together in this holistic partnership, working together toward better outcomes for the world’s most vulnerable.

Winston Yap

Winston Yap

Portrait image of Winston Yap

Winston Yap

Client adviser and executive director, UHNW global wealth management team, UBS, UK

For me, UBS’s philanthropy offering – and within that, the UBS Optimus Foundation – has been a key part of building my book and central to how I’ve been able to differentiate the UBS proposition.

Winston joined UBS in 2015. When he became a client advisor and started building his own book, he really leaned on philanthropy as a way to differentiate. Previously he worked for a competitor with a global philanthropy team of one. Coming to UBS was quite eye-opening for him in how the bank was able to not only talk about philanthropy but offer practical solutions to meet client needs. He finds the advisory approach of the UBS Optimus Foundation, with the deep due diligence on projects and landscaping on issues to be a benefit to clients.Winston was nominated for his leading by example approach to ensuring clients understand the opportunities for philanthropic capital to work smarter through the foundation.

Q: What’s been the added value of the UBS Optimus Foundation to your client relationships?

A: I had a client who came to us initially because of our donor advised fund (DAF) offering. After learning more about his specific philanthropic interests, I was able to introduce him to the UBS Optimus Foundation. The UBS Optimus Foundation was able to do a landscape analysis and, later, brought in partners to pilot a program targeting this client’s issue of interest. From this, a full program was launched and is now supported by other clients through the UBS Optimus Foundation.

Q: Why do you believe all advisors should be talking to their clients about philanthropy?

Talking to clients about philanthropy broadens the conversation and helps clients think about wealth in a different dimension. It also encourages them to think about the next generation. It’s essential to successful succession planning to help the next gen be ready to take over the entire wealth – starting with philanthropy is a great way to do that. The next gen is now taking the lead with the causes that are important to them. It helps them stay grounded and gain confidence in being responsible stewards of wealth.

UBS Optimus Foundation

Celebrating 25 years of impact

Over the past 25 years, and together with you and our partners, we have driven meaningful change in health, education, climate and the environment.

Celebrate with us

Happy girls in vibrant pink dresses dancing barefoot under a large tree