Tracy Palandjian

Tracy Palandjian is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Social Finance, an impact investing nonprofit which is leading the development of Pay for Success financing and Social Impact Bonds, an innovative public-private partnership that mobilizes capital to deliver measurable and lasting impact on our communities.

For more than a decade, Palandjian has committed to re-imagining the role of the capital markets in enabling social progress. Inspired by Social Finance UK, Palandjian co-founded Social Finance in Boston in 2011 to build the Social Impact Bond field in the United States. The firm’s innovative financing approach has catalyzed over $400 million to address a range of social challenges in criminal justice, early childhood, education, workforce development, health and homelessness.

Prior to Social Finance, Palandjian was a Managing Director for 11 years at The Parthenon Group where she established and led the Nonprofit Practice and worked with foundations and NGOs to accomplish their missions in the US and globally. Palandjian also worked at Wellington Management Co. and McKinsey & Co.

A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, she is an author of "Workforce Realigned: How New Partnerships Are Advancing Economic Mobility," a book and podcast series published by Social Finance and the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Philadelphia, and co-author of “Investing for Impact: Case Studies Across Asset Classes.” Palandjian co-founded the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, where she serves as Vice Chair. She is a member of the board of the International Foundation for Valuing Impacts and a Trustee of the Global Steering Group on Impact Investing.

Palandjian is a member of the Harvard Corporation and serves on the boards of The Surdna Foundation, The Barr Foundation, and The Boston Foundation. She is an Independent Director of Affiliated Managers Group. Previously, Palandjian was Board Chair of Facing History and Ourselves and Co-Chair of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. She also served on the boards of Milton Academy and Mass General Brigham. She is a 2019 recipient of Harvard Business School’s Alumni Achievement Award.

She is a frequent speaker and writer on impact investing, social innovation and results-oriented policy making, having been covered in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Economist, TIME, Forbes, and The New York Times. A native of Hong Kong, Palandjian is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin. She graduated from Harvard College with a BA magna cum laude in Economics, and holds an MBA with high distinction from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar.