The groundbreaking celebration of the new Impact and Prosperity Epicenter was an event befitting this exciting new campus landmark. Campus leaders including David Eccles School of Business Dean, Rachel Hayes, and University of Utah President, Taylor Randall, were joined by Epicenter anchor donors Bob and Lynette Gay and Jim and Krista Sorenson, to don hard hats, pick up shovels, and officially launch the university’s [...]
(April 21, 2022) —The David Eccles School of Business is proud to announce a new building that will break ground this summer. The new Impact and Prosperity Epicenter is envisioned as a multidisciplinary hub for innovation, impact, and prosperity, which will provide student housing and office space for the Center for Business, Health, and Prosperity and Sorenson Impact Center. The $114 million project is [...]
The seventh annual Sorenson Impact Summit with SOCAP Global took place May 25 through May 27. The summit featured three days of inspirational conversations around innovations in impact investing, building equitable entrepreneur ecosystems, the future of higher education, and using data to drive impact. This year, the summit gathered virtually, with the objective of delivering a more inclusive and accessible summit. For three days, [...]
University Venture Fund II has joined lead investor Christian Angermayer’s re.Mind Capital, an SPV sponsored by Peter Thiel, German entrepreneur Tim Sievers, and with investment advice from local investor LDD (Lead Dog Development) in closing a $10 million financing round for Blackrock Neurotech, the world’s leading platform for brain-computer interface (BCI) technology and manufacturing. “The impact Blackrock is making through BCI technology is transformative,” [...]
More than 170 students from around the nation shared their brilliant ideas for solving the housing affordability crisis at this year's Ivory Innovations Hack-A-House competition - and they are attracting notice. Read about the competition - and see some of students' proposed solutions - in Forbes.
Study co-authors Tiana Rogers, Ph.D., and Charles Rogers, Ph.D. A new study co-authored by Tiana Rogers, a Program Manager for Sorenson Impact Center’s Data, Policy, and Performance Innovation team, found that Black people disproportionally work in nine essential occupations that increase their exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19. “I find it ironic that the people we depend on as essential workers [...]
Geoff Davis will take on the new role of CEO for the Sorenson Impact Center at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. He begins his new position on July 13, 2020. Davis is a seasoned entrepreneur turned social entrepreneur turned impact investor, and his most recent position was CEO & Managing Partner of Cicero Impact Capital. He will bring [...]
In his 2018 book Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education, Nathan Grawe projected that a 10% decline in new students enrolling in higher education facilities would occur from 2018 to 2029. However, with the growing pandemic, it is possible this decline will happen within the coming year, nine years before Grawe’s hypothesis. This general decline in enrollment is not only detrimental to the [...]
During times of significant change, artistic movements have been a pivotal source of imagination, innovation, and community. Every pandemic throughout history has redefined the boundaries of artistic expression, such as Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Decameron” to employ storytelling during the 14th Century Black Plague, and Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” to embrace togetherness after surviving the 20th Century flu, and COVID-19 likely will do the same. [...]
Ivory Innovations is proud to announce the winners of this year's Ivory Prize in Housing Innovation. The winners, in three categories, are entities making measurable and scalable strides in housing affordability. The winners are: Finance Rhino; New York, New York Rhino partners with building owners and managers to offer low-cost insurance as an alternative to cash security deposits. Acting as an insurer for property [...]
We've been hearing quite a bit about the medical and economic impacts of COVID-19 and the coronavirus pandemic. But what about its social impact? The data science team at Sorenson Impact Center set out to measure just that, and they have a fascinating look at their findings in Forbes. And be sure to take a look at their interactive data map.
The Forbes OZ 20: Top Opportunity Zone Catalysts, a partnership between the Sorenson Impact Center and Forbes, has today announced a new list recognizing community organizations and OZ Funds that are committed to achieving equitable economic growth in underserved and overlooked communities throughout the country. More than 8,700 opportunity zones were designated as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. These zones [...]
Opportunity zones are emerging as a hot investment for Wall Street firms seeking a big tax break. The zones, long championed by Jim Sorenson and the Sorenson Impact Center at the David Eccles School of Business, are seeing a flurry of activity, according to The New York Times.
There is no doubt in our minds that the Sorenson Impact Center is a global leader in the impact investing space, but it's always nice to have outside confirmation. The team from Sorenson Impact just had their article "A Playbook for Designing Social Impact Measurement" named one of the top 10 most popular articles of the year by the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Check [...]
The David Eccles School of Business and the Sorenson Impact Center are building a unique student experience with impact investing. The University Venture Fund II focuses on impact investing, venture capital, private equity and entrepreneurship. UVF II is also one of the world's largest student-run investment funds. Read more about it in the latest issue of the Silicon Slopes Magazine.
The Sorenson Impact Center recently announced the successful first-round close of University Venture Fund — Impact Investing, or UVF II, an $8.2 million fund that follows on the heels of the original University Venture Fund. With that in mind, we sat down with Dean Taylor Randall of the David Eccles School of Business to look back on the first fund, and the role of [...]
When Calvin Pape interned at the Sorenson Impact Center in Salt Lake City in May 2018, his capitalist mindset was hard-earned. Between having to work part time jobs from when he was 14 and being raised by divorced parents busy with their own lives, “It wasn’t all flowers and unicorns growing up,” he says. It taught the 20-year-old David Eccles School of Business student [...]
Impact investing is "the next place" according to our founder, Jim Sorenson. We sat down with him to talk about what got him started in the social impact sphere and where he sees it heading in the future. Q: How did you first learn about impact investing, and what attracted you to it? A: Before impact investing, I was an entrepreneur looking for innovative [...]
Liberty & Justice is obviously having a huge impact on its community in Liberia. But the company has also changed the lives of the students at Sorenson Impact Center who worked on securing funding. Impact fellows work with real money and real companies — just like Liberty & Justice — to gain experience that will benefit them in their careers. “One thing they do [...]
