Amaris R. White is the inaugural impact investing principal at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. Amaris serves as an ambassador and client portfolio manager to the firm’s impact clients. She is a resource for clients in accessing the firm’s full community of impact lawyers, and she also collaborates with impact clients and the firm’s lawyers to ensure timely and cost-effective legal services. Amaris also facilitates the growth and development of the Morgan Lewis impact practice, including establishing and maintaining clients and marketplace relationships.

Amaris is an impact leader with experience in nonprofit management, public policy, corporate law, and academia. She is a lawyer by training and prior to joining Morgan Lewis she served as the Executive Director of NYU Law School’s Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship; the Director of Operations for Youth Services and the Director of Volunteer Coordination and Community Engagement of Catholic Charities New York; Vice President and Senior Counsel of Citibank; and an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. She has a J.D. from Columbia Law School, and a B.S. in Business Administration and B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Steven M. Cohen, partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, represents entrepreneurs, private equity investors, and venture capital funds. He advises clients in such industries as technology, life sciences, chemicals, consumer products, digital health, and fintech. Steve counsels mid-Atlantic region investors and emerging growth companies in a variety of business transaction including equity financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), divestitures, initial public offerings (IPOs), joint ventures, and international strategic partnerships. He is the former chair of the firm’s emerging companies and venture capital practice.

Steve helps develop and implement growth strategies, working with companies throughout their entire lifecycle. Widely recognized on the East Coast for his knowledge and skill, Steve lectures frequently on planning profitable exit strategies, obtaining angel and venture capital financing for early-stage companies and business leadership.

Karyn Polak, Founder of Shift the Prism Advisory, works at the intersection of values-aligned impact and financial services to support changes in mindsets, systems, and approaches to capital and economic development. She previously served as a senior counsel, trusted advisor, and C-suite executive in her various roles at Citigroup, PNC Bank, and Transamerica – from her first senior position as General Counsel for Citi Private Bank to her most recent as Chief Legal Officer for Transamerica. Karyn’s roles across the spectrum of traditional finance — from consumer banking, to brokerage and wealth management, investment banking and institutional asset management, and insurance and retirement — highlighted the gaps in capital tools and access that she works today to close.

Karyn also has over a decade of experience advising global financial institutions, multinational corporations, and family businesses in corporate finance, securities, and mergers and acquisitions at three top-100 U.S. law firms. Throughout her career, Karyn has consistently sought to reduce inequities and increase inclusion through concrete contributions as a business executive, board member, mentor, and community convener and connector. She serves as advisory and governance board member for various for-profit and non-profit entities and industry groups in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and nationally. She’s also a devoted mother of two young adults and a doting labradoodle and a dedicated multi-sport athlete who loves to cook, travel, read, and most importantly continue to learn.

Margot Kane has been leading innovative investment strategies in impact-aligned sectors for over 15 years both in the U.S. and globally. At Spring Point Partners, Margot leads a uniquely flexible, impactdriven investment strategy that supports wealth-building pathways for underrepresented founders, workers and communities in early-stage private equity and asset ownership in the U.S. Margot has structured various public-private investment partnerships and other forms of blended finance structures to effectively channel complementary forms of mission-driven capital into investments into complex markets and systems.

Previously, she served as Vice President of Strategy at Calvert Impact Capital, a global non-profit impact investment firm where she developed strategies and funding mechanisms to invest in gender equity, environmental resilience, and economic development. She was also Chief Financial Officer at Closed Loop Partners, a circular economy-focused private equity firm that utilized capital from multinational corporations, foundations, and government agencies to achieve its mission. She began her career working in reproductive justice and international development at Boston-based NGO Pathfinder International.

Margot also serves on investment committees for impact-driven organizations, including Builders Initiative Foundation, a Chicago-based foundation that invests globally in food and agriculture, oceans, and climate; and Singapore-based Circulate Capital, a private equity platform that invests in highpotential companies that divert plastic waste from landfills and advance solutions towards a circular economy.