Hazel Henderson, president and founder of Ethical Markets Media, nominates Susan Davis as a true female activist forging her way to a new green economy.

Hazel Henderson | Jan/Feb 2009 issue

Susan Davis, president of Capital Missions, has been working in the trenches of our dysfunctional capital markets for decades. She helped found the community bank ShoreBank; the Committee of 200, a group of top women business owners she empowered to take charge of their money; and Investors’ Circle, a national network of social venture capital investors. Susan founded most of the effective networks of investors funding solar energy and shifting our global economy toward sustainability. Susan is working closely with me to ­accelerate the growth of the green economy. We’ve given up on Wall Street, so we’re helping launch a new electronic stock exchange exclusively devoted to socially responsible investors and enterprises, Mission Markets. Like most female leaders, Susan isn’t ego-driven, nor does she seek publicity or power. Only since the current financial crises are women being called on for advice; Wall Street has always been a male bastion and still deeply resists women. Susan has long believed the most effective approach to deep social change is to fly under the radar. So it gives me great pleasure to nominate her in the hope that she gets some richly deserved credit at last.

Susan Davis was nominated as one of Ode’s top 25 Intelligent Optimists by Hazel Henderson.
— Hazel Henderson, president and founder, Ethical Markets Media, and author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy.