BGF appoints Roshni Bandesha as head of ESG and sustainability

BGF has appointed Roshni Bandesha to the role of head of ESG and Sustainability.

In her role, Roshni will be responsible for embedding BGF’s sustainability strategy and integrating ESG within new and existing portfolio companies. She will report directly into executive chairman, Stephen Welton.

Roshni has spent the last decade working with global organisations to harness the power of ESG and purpose. Most recently, she led the impact and ESG strategy at LeapFrog Investments, one of the largest dedicated impact investors, reaching over 170 million low-income people across 11 emerging markets.

Roshni led Leapfrog’s impact and R&D hub Impact Labs, working with companies such as World Remit, a cross-border digital payments service that covers more than 130 countries worldwide, and Goodlife pharmacy, a fast-growing pharmacy and health hub serving communities in East Africa, both reaching underserved low-income consumers and households

Prior to that, Roshni was a senior research analyst at McKinsey & Company, serving clients across EMEA, including The Gates Foundation, which was set up to alleviate poverty worldwide.

Originally from India, Roshni completed a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University in New York. She is a member of the Forbes Ignite network which was set up in 2020 to help organisations become more sustainable by using technology, data, design thinking, and behavioural science. She was an expert guide in their inaugural cohort of the Forbes Ignite Impact Fellowship, a four-month innovation focused programs that brought together 31 women at different life stages to create new solutions at the intersection of healthcare and artificial intelligence.

Commenting on her new role, Roshni Bandesha said: “I’m delighted to be joining BGF at a time when there is a growing recognition that businesses are not just driven by profit, they must also focus on the impact of their activities on employees, communities and the planet. BGF has shown itself to be incredibly committed to leading best practice in this area, and this has been driven right from the very top. The fact that BGF has such a large portfolio also means there is an opportunity to drive change at scale, and that is an extremely exciting proposition indeed.”

Stephen Welton, executive chairman at BGF, said: “Roshni has received numerous accolades for demonstrating that there is no trade-off between profit and purpose, and we are absolutely thrilled to welcome her to BGF. Her extensive experience adds further strength to our operations and investment activity as we look to supercharge our efforts in this critical area. ESG sits at the very heart of our investment process, however there is more we can do to fully embed that, and with Roshni driving ESG strategy for BGF, alongside our investment teams and portfolio companies, we look forward to effecting real change throughout the business and the communities we service. BGF’s ability to leverage knowledge and best practise across a large and diverse portfolio of growth companies in the UK and Ireland can be incredibly powerful and we are excited to be leading that effort”