William McGlashan

Bill McGlashan is an American executive and investor. A prolific businessman, over the course of his career McGlashan has engaged in a number of diverse endeavors ranging from founding the movie and television studio STX Entertainment to acting as a turnaround CEO to the troubled software company Critical Path. However, he is perhaps most known for his position as a central voice in the impact investing movement, and has led multiple initiatives focused on quantifying impact and showcasing the interconnected correlation between impact and returns. McGlashan is the co-founder of the impact investing fund The Rise Fund, alongside philanthropists Bono and Jeff Skoll. An impact fund aimed at attaining competitive financial gains alongside quantifiable social and environmental benefits, it was the largest impact fund ever raised with a cumulative investment total of $2.1 billion across over 25 investments. Of those investments, 12 were based in emerging markets, and the social and economic benefits created by the fund have been quantified at $26 billion. These accomplishments encompass preventing more than 2.7 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, safeguarding six million acres of land, reducing energy expenses by $10 million for low-income households, granting two million underprivileged individuals access to financial well-being programs, and allocating over $350 million to groundbreaking healthcare innovation research and development. In addition to its success in social and environmental impact, the fund made waves within the investment world and proved to excite a number of institutional players about the potential of impact investing. It attracted high-profile LPs such as Washington State Investment Board, Regents of the University of California, and UBS Group, and 70 percent of the capital that was raised came from entities brand new to impact investing. This was thanks in part to McGlashan’s determination to ensure that all investments were able to generate returns in addition to impact. The Rise Fund utilized the Impact Multiple of Money (IMM) metric and only moved forward with potential portfolio companies if they were determined to deliver at least 2.5 times IMM. The success of the fund inspired him to launch Y Analytics in 2019, a public benefit corporation aimed at enhancing the comprehension, valuation, and management of social and environmental impact for capital allocators. Y Analytics employs the IMM for company analysis and openly shares the methodology, fostering the expansion of impact investing's influence. McGlashan has said his hope is for the IMM metric to be used with the same frequency and consistency of indicators like GDP or IRR. McGlashan’s work in impact investing was based on the foundation of his work at the global private equity firm TPG. First joining the company in 2004 as managing director and managing partner, he went on to found TPG Growth, the firm’s growth equity investment arm focusing on the mid-market. The fund was an early investor in the sharing economy, with stakes in companies such as Airbnb and Uber as well as other successful companies in the technology sector such as Spotify. In total, TPG Growth raised and deployed $13 billion in assets across a range of sectors including media, technology and industrials, and in the last five years created over 500,000 jobs per year. McGlashan gained considerable notoriety for his work in private equity, being named twice on Vanity Fair's prestigious "New Establishment List" and awarded Private Equity International's "Game Changer of the Year" title. Prior to his work at TPG, McGlashan was the chairman and CEO of the software company Critical Path. He joined the company in 2001, within three months of an accounting scandal that had caused the company’s stock to drop 75 percent over a few weeks, prompted two dozen shareholder lawsuits, and resulted in criminal charges against four executives. He is attributed with averting Critical Path's bankruptcy, successfully eradicating 87 percent of the debt burden, swiftly resolved lawsuits within three months for $17.5 million—remarkably lower than the potential claim of $240 million—postponed NASDAQ delisting due to insufficient market capitalization until shortly after his tenure, and orchestrated a complete turnaround by 2003. He continued his chairmanship of the company’s board until 2005. McGlashan’s roots lie in venture capital and business formation. He has worked for the investment firms Bain Capital, during which time he got his first taste of turnaround work when he became CEO of a small troubled private company that the venture capital firm had partially funded. In 1994 he started his own venture firm with two partners called Generation Ventures, and in that time became excited about one of their portfolio companies called Pharmanex. Serving as its CEO, the supplement company became one of the largest in the United States and was eventually acquired for $125 million. He would eventually become a venture partner out of San Francisco at the firm Whitney & Co in 1997. In addition to his work in private equity and capital allocation, McGlashan has also founded several other companies including STX Entertainment, an American film and television studio launched in 2014 with producer Robert Simonds, and Evolution Media Capital, a merchant bank that offers M&A advisory, industry research, and capital-raising services. Notable successes for the organization include a three-year deal with the China-based film firm Huayi Brothers to produce 12 to 15 movies annually, and a significant investment from Tencent Holdings. It has gone on to produce a number of box office hits including Bad Moms and The Gift. McGlashan attended Yale University for his undergraduate degree, graduating with honors, before earning his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.