Roy Swan
Director, Mission Investments
Roy Swan is the inaugural head of the Ford Foundation’s Mission Investments program, which deploys endowment capital for market rate impact investments, program-related investment capital for catalytic opportunities ranging from market rate to concessionary, and grant capital to support inclusive economies across the globe. Roy’s team covers the United States, Africa, China, India, Indonesia and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Roy’s background includes banking, finance, general management, investments, and law. Over the last three decades, he has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards and advisory committees. Roy currently serves on the boards of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and Parnassus Funds. Roy is also a member of the AQR Funds Advisory Board and KKR Sustainability Expert Advisory Council. In the past, Roy has served on boards including Aequi Acquisition Corp. (Ticker: ARBG), the Dalton School, Enterprise Community Partners, LIIF, the Morgan Stanley Foundation, the SASB Foundation, and Varo Bank, among others.
Roy is a frequent opinion piece contributor and has been published in Forbes, Fortune, The Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Institutional Investor, and Pensions & Investments. His column in The Observer, “The Patriotic Capitalist,” shares ideas on investing in the interests of country, democracy, and the common good. Roy is a 1986 graduate of Princeton University, where he was a recruited member of the track and field team, and a 1992 graduate of Stanford Law School, where he was a notes editor of the Stanford Law Review.
