Jenna Nicholas, MBA ’17: What Matters to Me Now and Why

When I applied to Stanford GSB, I was already certain about one thing: I wanted to use capital as a force for good.

Before business school, I worked on green bonds at the World Bank Treasury, invested in impact companies at the Calvert Funds, and helped build a coalition of more than 170 foundations committed to moving capital out of fossil fuels and into climate solutions. Those years taught me that the hardest questions in this field are not technical but human and that capital moves when investors become clear about their values.

There is a line in the Bahá’í writings that says, “Every choice we make… leaves a trace.” This idea came alive for me in Professor Roderick Kramer’s Lives of Consequence, one of the GSB courses that shaped me most. He asked each of us to write our own obituary, reflecting on our lives to date and what we hoped a loved one would say about us at the end.

When I read mine back, the lines I most wanted to be true were about the people and lives that I would impact. I often return to this exercise because it planted a question I have carried ever since: What is the trace I am trying to leave?

What I have come to understand in the years since graduating — through building LightPost Capital, an impact investment and acquisition firm — is that the most durable form of impact is not a transaction. It is a shift in worldview.

That conviction took root at Stanford GSB as I saw classmates rethink their career paths to be more aligned with their purpose after a single reflective exercise, and it has been confirmed repeatedly in my work. It’s also echoed in my conversations with successful investment and business leaders (many of them GSB alumni) about what sustained their sense of purpose through market cycles, setbacks, and successes.

The concept of seven-generations thinking in Indigenous communities asks us to consider the legacy we inherit from generations past and how we steward our time, talent, and treasure for generations to come. This is not an abstraction but a filter. It is one reason my firm concentrates on healthcare, climate, and AI — sectors where decisions made in this decade will compound for generations. Before we invest, we ask not only what returns a company can generate over the life of a fund, but what trace it will leave long after we have exited.

One of my greatest joys is the opportunity to reengage with Stanford GSB through speaking in classes and meeting with students. What strikes me in those conversations is that today’s students no longer ask whether business can be a force for good; they ask how to build careers that compound meaning as well as returns. Their questions fuse analytical rigor and moral purpose. Their search for clarity gives me enormous hope.