John Duong

Background

John’s

background

Born in Cambodia, raised in the Midwest, trained in New York City, John is an impact capitalist.  He believes financial instruments that are the tools of capitalism can be used to drive positive outcomes when structured and applied appropriately.  John started his career as an investment banker with the first job out of college as an analyst at JP Morgan & Company.  His investment banking career exposed him to billions of dollars in deal experience, supporting Fortune 500 conglomerates across various roles, including mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance, credit, and equity research. After Wall Street, John spent several years in entrepreneurial and operating roles, including serving as the Director of Business Analysis at White Energy, a major ethanol manufacturer. 

John transitioned to philanthropy when he joined the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 2011, where he began his impact investing journey in the Mission-Driven Investments group with a $100M carveout. In that role, he had significant flexibility to invest across the full spectrum of capital in debt and equity products, both as a limited partner in funds and directly into early-stage companies across various sectors and geographies.  Providing grants to support the impact investing ecosystem was also part of the team’s function.  Two notable accomplishments during his tenure at Kellogg Foundation was leading the creation of the Michigan Good Food Fund and the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund, working cross-functionally with internal and external stakeholders.  His role in philanthropy continued when he was hired by Lumina Foundation to build their impact investing strategy from the ground up, which became Lumina Impact Ventures, a leading EdTech investor focused on solutions in postsecondary education and workforce development. 

In 2020, John left to launch Kind Capital, an impact investing and advisory platform to build scalable, sustainable solutions in a profitable way.  The firm has an integrated model that can serve multiple stakeholders, leveraging the expertise of highly experienced executives coming together to better connect capital to impact.  Given his unique combination of experience across investments, finance, entrepreneurship and philanthropy, John has been a frequent speaker at major conferences and engaged by clients to support their various needs with customized solutions.