Steven Godeke

Steven Godeke has been at the forefront of knowledge building for the impact investing industry since 2001. As an independent consultant, investor, researcher, and educator, Steven works at the intersection of investment and mission. He focuses on the nuts and bolts of how assets can create more good and less bad in the world. 

Steven leads independent searches for impact investing advisors and collaborates with asset owners to support investor readiness that deepens the environmental and social impact of their work. He is an adjunct professor of finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business, where he created and teaches Investing for Environmental and Social Impact. Steven is also the former Board Chair and Finance Chair of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation – a private foundation with a long history of integrating its investments and social justice mission. 

Steven is the co-author of the “Impact Investing Handbook” as well as “Building a Healthy and Sustainable Social Impact Bond Market: The Investor Landscape (2012)”; “Solutions for Impact Investors: From Strategy to Implementation” (2009); and “Philanthropy’s New Passing Gear: Mission-Related Investing: A Policy and Implementation Guide for Foundation Trustees” (2008). 

Steven speaks at industry, philanthropic, and academic gatherings such as Responsible Investor, Bloomberg, and Confluence Philanthropy.

Prior to establishing his own firm, Steven worked in corporate and project finance at Deutsche Bank, where he structured debt and equity products and advised corporate clients in the natural resources, telecommunications, media, and real estate industries. Steven grew up on a family farm in Southern Indiana and attended Purdue University, where he received a BS in Management and a BA in German. He studied as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cologne and earned an MPA from Harvard University.