OUR PRINCIPALS

Eli Ingraham
Advisor

Barbara Clarke
Advisor

Eli Ingraham is a social impact and sustainability advisor for startups and organizations including the Business Equity Initiative, a program providing access to capital markets, networks, and expertise to enterprises of color positioned for growth.

She joined Astia Angels in 2016 and now serves as an advisor to startup founders as part of Astia's Expert Sift™ model.

Eli is a graduate of Cambridge University's executive program in Sustainability Business Management focused on supply and value chain best practices within the framework of the U.N. Sustainability Development Goals.

Previously, Eli led YPO’s [Young Presidents’ Organization] global business and social impact divisions as their Chief Networks Officer. Her team supported 25,000 CEOs across 132 countries in social entrepreneurship, business sustainability, corporate social responsibility, economic empowerment, global diplomacy, peace action, and other social impact topics.

After YPO, Eli led development operations and corporate partnerships at Facing History and Ourselves [FHAO], a global organization fighting racism and bigotry through a unique educational pedagogy. She also served on the Diversity & Inclusion Committee at FHAO.

Eli began her career in finance and then joined PBS and NPR to create digital startups before working with Fortune 500 companies, including Aetna and Pearson, as part of their digital innovation teams.

She is a graduate of Wellesley College and MIT, and is deeply committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as global sustainability. Eli currently serves as a Human Rights Commissioner in her home city.

Barbara Clarke is a leading investor in early stage, high-growth companies across industries. She has a personal investment portfolio of over 40 companies and is part of over ten venture capital funds. She has committed to focusing her portfolio on entrepreneurs working toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

She is a founding member of Astia Angels, investing in women-led high-growth companies, and a member of Pipeline Angels, an investment group focused on women-led social impact entrepreneurship. Other highlights include serving: on the Investment Committee of the Portfolia Funds focused on leveraging women’s capital to change innovation; as Deal Lead for the Rising Tide Europe program, a network of women investing in European startups; on the Leadership Committee for Digitalundivided, a program elevating the talents of black and Latinx founders; and as a Limited Partner in LearnLaunch, the premier international early-stage edtech fund and accelerator.

In addition, she is also the co-founder and principal of The Impact Seat, a strategy consulting company focused on scaling diversity and high-performance teams at corporations.

Previously, Barbara spent ten years as an executive in the non-profit sector, serving in a variety of executive and board of director roles.

As an economist, Barbara’s expertise is in intellectual property valuation with an emphasis on international markets. Early in her career, she worked as a management consultant for KPMG and PwC in New York, London, Washington DC and Boston after earning her degree in quantitative economics from Tufts University and a Masters in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University.