Essma Bengabsia

Essma Bengabsia is an impact investor by profession and social justice advocate by passion. Through her work in impact investments, she focuses on how to leverage the power of capital markets to advance inclusion, equity, and well-being for society’s most vulnerable, including people of color, people with low incomes, and people living under occupation.

Ms. Bengabsia is a Senior Impact Investing Advisor at an impact investment consulting firm, where she advises foundations, endowments, and family offices on how to maximize the environmental and social impact of their investment portfolios.

Ms. Bengabsia served as a portfolio manager at The Annie E. Casey Foundation, where she co-managed the foundation’s $150 million portfolio of impact investments to advance socio-economic opportunity and racial equity in the United States.

Prior to that, Ms. Bengabsia was a sustainable and impact investment specialist at Glenmede Trust, where she worked with over 300 clients including endowments, foundations, and high net worth individuals to invest their assets in impact opportunities across diversity and inclusion, environmental sustainability, and other thematic areas.

Ms. Bengabsia serves as a board member and investment committee member at the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, a $60 million New York-based family foundation whose endowment is 100% mission-aligned to advance gender, racial, environmental, and economic justice.

Ms. Bengabsia co-founded the Investor with Solidarity with Palestine Working Group at the Racial Justice Investing Coalition, a group of over 450 investment professionals and firms who regularly convene to build partnerships, resource-sharing, and educational opportunities to advance racial justice through their investments.

Ms. Bengabsia completed multiple fellowships focused on impactful private equity and venture capital investments, including the 2024 NAIC Up Fellowsjip and a 2025 Impact Venture Capital fellowship at Africinvest, the largest Africa-focused impact fund.

Ms. Bengabsia holds multiple advisory roles where she advises investment firms on advancing human rights and environmental stewardship through their investment strategies. Her work has been featured in  the United Nations, Mission Investors Exchange, ImpactAlpha, SOCAP, FundFire, FinancialTimes, the Global Impact Investing Network, and more.

Ms. Bengabsia earned her Bachelor of Science degree from New York University’s Stern School of Business where she specialized in finance. She earned her Master of Public Administration from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service where she specialized in social impact, innovation, and investment.