B Corporations and the Mission-Driven Company
About the Webinar
As customers increasingly seek responsible products and companies, and companies increasingly integrate impact into their business models, the movement to categorize, legally support, and rate these businesses has grown. How does becoming a certified B Corp or seeking legal status as a benefit corporation impact a company, drive revenue, and affect customer acquisition? Join this discussion between Andrew Kassoy, co-founder of B Lab, and Shazi Visram, founder and CEO of Happy Family, on how this classification is impacting the way good companies do business.
Andrew Kassoy is Co-Founder of B Lab, a nonprofit that is dedicated to harnessing the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. He created B Lab with longtime friends Bart Houlahan and Jay Coen Gilbert. Before leaving the private sector to form B Lab, Andrew spent 16 years in the private equity business, most recently as a Partner at MSD Real Estate Capital, an affiliate of MSD Capital, the $12 billion investment vehicle for Michael Dell. He is a Board Member of the Freelancers Union and the Freelancers Union Insurance Company and a Board Member of Echoing Green, a non-profit venture fund that provides seed capital to emerging social entrepreneurs.
Shazi Visram is Founder and CEO of Happy Family. For as long as she can remember, Shazi Visram has wanted to be a part of something bigger than herself. As a daughter of immigrants who took life-changing risks in order to create a better world for their children, Shazi has always sought to create wealth and pay it forward—the question was: how? Her journey took her to Columbia Business School, where she had an “Aha! Moment” while listening with a compassionate ear to a friend’s anguish about the difficulty of finding the time to make her own baby food, and the lack of healthy options in the traditional baby food aisle. In that moment Happy Family was born. Shazi made it her mission to create a business that could positively impact the health of our children and give back to those who are in need.
Her beneficence has earned her the respect and admiration of her peers and colleagues, including being honored by Ernst & Young as Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011. In addition, Shazi works with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) as a mentor to young and aspiring entrepreneurs from low-income communities. She also serves on the board of Hydros, which manufactures portable filtered water bottles.
Shazi lives in Jersey City, NJ with her husband, Joe, her son, Zane, and their perfect pup, Willy. While she considers Happy Family to be her first “baby,” true motherhood is what she loves the most in the world. In the little free time she has, she enjoys yoga and spending quality time with her family.