Steven Godeke

Since 2001, Steven has worked with his clients to source, structure and execute impact investment strategies across a range of sectors and to connect them to the best partners and resources. He leads independent searches for impact investing advisors and works with investment managers and funds to deepen the environmental and social impact of their offerings. His clients have included the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ralph E. Ogden Foundation, Robin Hood, Voqal, F.B. Heron Foundation, K.L. Felicitas Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, The Conference Board, The World Economic Forum and investment management firms such as Domini Social Investment, Deutsche Bank, Thornburg Investment Management and the National Community Investment Fund.

Steven has led in the education of the next generation of impact investors. He is an adjunct professor of finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business where he teaches Investing for Environmental and Social Impact and at the Center for Global Affairs. Steven has also been at the forefront of knowledge building for the impact investing industry through several groundbreaking publications. He is the author of Building A Healthy and Sustainable Social Impact BondMarket: The Investor Landscape (2012); Solutions for ImpactInvestors: From Strategy to Implementation (2009) and Philanthropy’s New Passing Gear: Mission-Related Investing, A Policy and Implementation Guide for FoundationTrustees (2008). 

Prior to establishing his own firm, Steven worked for twelve years in corporate and project finance with Deutsche Bank where he structured debt and equity products and advised corporate clients in the natural resources, telecommunications, media and real estate industries.

Steven is Board Chair and a member of the Finance Committee of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, a private foundation with a long history of integrating its investments and social justice mission. Steven is also on the board of the Jackson Square Alliance and is a Core Team Member of the West Village CSA. Steven grew up on a family farm in Southern Indiana and attended Purdue University where he received a B.S. in Management and a B.A. in German. He studied as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cologne and earned an M.P.A. from Harvard University.

He lives in New York City with his partner Ted Trussell Porter, an architect.