Reinventing Our Relationship with Money: How to Make it Work For What You Care About

Janine Firpo

Janine Firpo is an author and speaker who spent more than 20 years in executive roles at Hewlett-Packard, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and more. She is a values-aligned investor in companies that make the world a better place and is passionate about teaching women to learn how to invest their own money. Embodying these principles, Janine is releasing her first book, Activate Your Money - Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World in April of 2021. The company Janine founded, SEMBA, will create a community for those looking to take control of their investments and bring them in line with what matters most to them.

Activate Your Money serves as a resource that women can use to become confident values-aligned investors. SEMBA, the company she founded in support of these efforts, is a Ladakhi word for "a cross between your heart and mind." This is a fitting name since the company helps investors discover that balance of profit and passion.

Since “retiring” from her former career, Janine has been on a personal mission to invest all of her assets in alignment with her values. In 2017, she left a 35-year career in technology and international development to focus on creating a more just and equitable society through financial investments. This mission also helps women find the confidence to take control of their money and use it to change the world.

Through investment advisory, curricula, text, and investing clubs, SEMBA intends to facilitate a movement of people activating their money nationwide and making a societal impact. As the book inspires readers, SEMBA will provide a community for value-aligned investors ready to take action.

She is one of the lead investors in the Next Wave Impact Fund, an impact angel fund designed to help more women become angel investors. Janine also sits on the board of Zebras Unite, an organization developing the capital structures, community, and culture that non-unicorn start-up businesses need to thrive.

In 2008, she became one of the first mobile money experts and advisors to mobile network operators, financial institutions, and start-ups in emerging markets. From an early career stop at Apple Computer to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Janine has always found herself making an impact. Across six continents, she helped bring the internet to hundreds of people in some of the most remote places in the world.

A graduate from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) with a BA in Biology, she earned her Masters Degree in Zoology and Computer Science from the University of Florida.