F Conners

F. Duane Conners is the Director of Investments at the Western New York Impact Investment Fund, a for-profit, place-based social impact fund created in 2017 (organized with the help of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo) that pools corporate, private, and philanthropic capital to back high-upside commercial ventures located in the eight counties of Western New York. Led by founding CEO Tom Quinn, the fund seeks both a financial return and measurable social benefit for the region, and has deployed capital across roughly two dozen investments out of its Series 2 vehicle.

Conners is a finance and operations leader by background. A 2000 graduate of Pioneer Central, he earned a B.S. in Financial Analysis from the University at Buffalo School of Management (attending UB from roughly 1996–2004). He began his career in wealth management and investment banking with State Street in Boston before returning to Western New York in 2007. He then spent years in healthcare finance at Kaleida Health, joining in 2008 and rising through roles including Manager of Budget and Financial Analysis, Senior Decision Support Advisor at Buffalo General Medical Center, and ultimately Finance Director for Buffalo General Hospital and the Gates Vascular Institute.

That deep exposure to Western New York's health and social-care systems led Conners into entrepreneurship. He founded and ran rprt (2015–2022), focused on reporting and data practices for nonprofit and non-tertiary care providers, and was a partner at VBP Forward (2018–2021) helping healthcare organizations implement value-based and population-health solutions. In March 2021 he co-founded wellconnected with Jamie Bono, and he serves as its CEO and Board Chair. wellconnected's flagship platform, "allco," is a centralized social-care platform — which Conners describes as "a blend of a specialized CRM, an ERP, and an electronic health record" — that unifies intake and case management across human-services organizations.

His dual vantage point — a company founder who has raised seed capital in the same ecosystem where he now allocates it — informs his role on the investing side of the WNY Impact Fund.

• Invests through the WNY Impact Investment Fund, which backs "high-upside commercial ventures" that also generate social returns for the Buffalo–Niagara / Western New York region.
• Geographically constrained by design: portfolio companies must be located in (or committed to) the eight counties of Western New York — the fund exists to accelerate the region's economic resurgence and improve equity, diversity, job creation, and neighborhood revitalization.
• Stage: seed and early-stage rounds; the fund is a patient, mission-aligned pool of corporate, private, and philanthropic capital rather than a traditional returns-only VC.
• Sector lean informed by Conners' own background: healthcare and social-care technology, plus the fund's broader appetite for clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and scalable local businesses.
• What makes them say yes: a credible path to commercial upside *and* a demonstrable regional/social impact — the fund explicitly seeks a "double bottom line."