Maria Teresa Zappia

Chief Impact and Blended Finance Officer and Deputy CEO, BlueOrchard Finance; and Head of Sustainability and Impact, Schroders Capital

Maria Teresa Zappia is Chief Impact and Blended Finance Officer and Deputy CEO at BlueOrchard Finance and Head of Sustainability and Impact at Schroders Capital.

Maria Teresa has covered a number of positions including as head of the investment team and Chief Investment Officer since 2008. At present, Maria Teresa leads the blended finance and impact management team and is responsible for BlueOrchard’s blended finance mandates (PPPs) and overall impact management and measurement practice. 

Maria Teresa also leads the Sustainability and Impact team at Schroders Capital, the private assets arm of Schroders which was created in June 2020. This includes real estate, private equity, infrastructure, securitised products, ILS, and impact investing.

Maria Teresa has over 25 years experience in emerging and frontier markets mainly in the financial sector, has authored and co-authored a number of publications and is a guest speaker at several universities’ postgraduate impact investing classes. 

Alongside this, Maria Teresa is the convenor of the Impact Principles Advisory Board and represents BlueOrchard at the G7 Impact Taskforce created by the UK under its G7 Presidency. 

Prior to BlueOrchard, Maria Teresa covered several positions at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asian Development Bank and the Overseas Development Institute based both in the field (Africa, Asia, Central Asia) and in head office.