Skip to Content

Frank's Friday

Friday 27 March | 17:00 - 20:00

This is not a PYM event. Registrations go through an external organization.
Europe/Amsterdam
Once a month, PYM co-founder Frank van Beuningen hosts a get-together at his home in Amsterdam to bring together wealth holders. Each month, a speaker introduces a new topic worth exploring.

These meetings are by invitation only and open to private wealth holders. If you are interested in joining, please register here; also if you've joined Frank's Friday before. We have limited seats available, so without email confirmation you are not able to join.

Our next Frank's Friday will focus on the oceans. For this edition, we welcome Wietse van der Werf, founder of the Sea Ranger Service, and Maria Velkova, Chief Portfolio Officer at Aqua-Spark.

TheSea Ranger Servicerecruits and trains young people to become full-time Sea Rangers — combining maritime work, ecology and data to restore marine ecosystems.

What makes their approach unique is that it connects ocean restoration with meaningful employment for the next generation. Working with government agencies, industrial partners and local authorities, the Sea Ranger Service creates training and career opportunities for young people while actively contributing to the protection and restoration of our oceans. 

During this Frank’s Friday, Wietse will share the story behind Sea Ranger Service, the lessons learned from building partnerships across sectors, and what it takes to turn ocean restoration into real opportunities for people and nature. 

Aqua-Sparkis one of the leading investment platforms when it comes to investing in the sustainable aquaculture sector. Aqua-Spark, founded in 2013 and based in Utrecht, invests in innovative companies across the entire aquaculture value chain, from feed and farming to genetics, health, and technology. The platform adopts a long-term vision in supporting entrepreneurs and companies committed to producing healthy fish feed while also helping to restore the health of our oceans.


Wietse van der Werf

Wietse van der Werf is a social entrepreneur and conservationist focused on large-scale nature restoration. He is the founder of the Sea Ranger Service, a social enterprise working to restore marine ecosystems while creating meaningful maritime careers for young people.

Wietse is known for bringing together unlikely partnerships between business, government and civil society. He has collaborated with organisations including The Crown Estate, the Royal Navy, the Port of Rotterdam, IKEA, Nestlé and Patagonia. Through his work, he explores how industry can become a driver of regeneration while creating new, meaningful career paths for the next generation.


Maria Velkova

Maria leads the investment team at Aqua-Spark. There, she works on investments that contribute to a more sustainable and future-proof food chain.

Before joining Aqua-Spark, she advised the Bulgarian Minister of Energy on policies related to the green transition and decarbonization. Previously, she was VP of M&A and Business Development at Enery, a renewable energy fund in Central and Eastern Europe, where she was responsible for investment deals and raising capital. She also worked at the UK investment fund Low Carbon, where she invested in sustainable energy and cleantech projects, from early-stage to more mature investments.

Maria earned a master's degree in Energy Trade and Finance from Cass Business School in London.

Would you like to join, but are you not available on March 27th? The next Frank's Fridays are on:




Frank van Beuningen

Who is Frank?

Frank is one of the founding fathers of impact investing in Europe after he first learned about it in the United States in the early 1990s. He now has a more than 30-year track record of investing his capital for good.

In 1994, he started Pymwymic, the “Put Your Money Where Your Meaning is Community”. Under his leadership, the first pioneers in impact investing brought Ben & Jerry’s to the Netherlands and invested in around fifty start-ups, including the disruptive FairPhone. Since 2017, the ever-growing cooperative of European investors has focused on regenerative agriculture and healthy food. The funds are managed in a Steward Ownership structure. 

Frank  has launched many other initiatives to develop impact investing in Europe. He is a founding member of the Donor Impact Invest Fund.

He continues to Put His Money Where His Mouth Is, as an investor and advisor in multiple impact enterprises and initiatives. His passion is sailing, and he loves nature.

PYM

What is PYM?

PYM is an independent foundation that connects and guides wealth owners to invest their capital consciously for a better world. We are a peer-to-peer community of families, philanthropists, individual investors, family offices, and foundations.
We believe in the power of money as a force for good. That is why we promote listed and non-listed impact investing. You can invest successfully in businesses, directly or through funds, that have a purpose beyond profit.

We focus on investors in the Benelux, but we welcome everyone who shares our goals to join us.

By signing up for this event, you also agree to PYM - the Conscious Investors' Community registering you and your guests for their bi-monthly newsletter mailing list and occasionally sending you personal invites for events.
You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time via the unsubscribe button at the bottom of each email.

You can unsubscribe from this communication at any time using the unsubscribe button at the bottom of each email.

Contact

PYM Foundation: Amstel 256, 1017AL Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Social media