Marie Torres is the Senior Partnerships Manager at Investing in Women, an initiative of the Australian Government, which catalyses inclusive economic growth through women’s economic empowerment in South East Asia. Established in 2016, Investing in Women tackles one of the most critical social and economic issues of our time: gender inequality.  Marie Torres is a highly skilled Program Lead working 20 years at the intersection of finance and international development.  She oversees a portfolio of investment firms and contributes to IW’s learning agenda on blended finance and gender lens investing to accelerate women’s economic empowerment. Prior to IW, she was an Assistant Manager of ICCO Foundation’s (now CordAid) Global Guarantee Fund. Working across Southeast Asia, she led ICCO’s Financial Services Program that delivered grants and investments for small to medium enterprises and cooperatives. In the Philippines, Marie served as a Program Manager at the Foundation for a Sustainable Society, Inc. where she grew their Development investments portfolio by 3x. Marie holds an MBA from Ateneo Graduate School of Business and a BA from the University of the Philippines. She also has a Diploma in Corporate Finance, Certificate in Environmental Management Accounting, and completing her MA in Women and Development. She is passionate about entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and gender equality. We will hear from Marie on the work and model of IWA, why angel investors and early-stage VCs should think about applying a gender lens to their investment approach, lessons for the nascent ecosystem in Bangladesh, and how we can get more women investors involved in the ecosystem.