Jim Roth

Dr. Jim Roth (born March 1969) is a British businessman, social entrepreneur and author, and one of the pioneers of commercial microinsurance and impact investing. He holds a degree in Development Economics from the University of Manchester and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where his research examined how low-income individuals use financial services. Before his investing career he worked for the United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO) in India, serving as Chief Technical Advisor on microinsurance and co-authoring the book *Making Insurance Work for Microfinance Institutions*. He also served as Vice President of the MicroInsurance Centre and consulted for major insurers and development finance institutions including AIG, Allianz, KfW and the Asian Development Bank.

In 2007, Roth co-founded LeapFrog Investments alongside Andrew Kuper, building it into a world-leading "Profit with Purpose" private equity manager focused on financial services, healthcare and climate solutions for emerging consumers in Africa and Asia. At LeapFrog he helped raise well over $1 billion (reportedly £1.5bn) in capital, created the firm's impact-measurement function, and developed some of the first insurance impact-investing metrics. The firm was recognized by Fortune as one of the top companies "Changing the World," and its portfolio companies today reach hundreds of millions of underserved consumers.

In early 2018 Roth founded Zamo Capital LLP, described as Europe's first specialist investor in impact private equity and venture capital firms. Zamo provides capital, expertise and investor networks — including working capital, co-investment and deal warehousing — to help emerging impact managers scale and raise institutional capital. He is a frequent commentator on ESG, greenwashing and impact measurement, appearing on outlets such as Bloomberg and CNBC, and has served on the investment committee of the University of Edinburgh's endowment and on an advisory board to the IFC's CEO.

• "Profit with Purpose": Roth's core conviction is that commercial returns and measurable social impact are complementary, not opposing, goals — the founding premise of LeapFrog.
• Impact must be measurable: "If you can't measure it, you cannot manage it." He built LeapFrog's impact-metrics discipline and champions rigorous, quantified impact over marketing claims.
• Emerging consumers first (LeapFrog): invest in high-growth financial services, insurance, healthcare and climate businesses serving low-income and newly-middle-class consumers across Africa and Asia.
• Fixing the "pipe" (Zamo): he argues strong demand for impact capital is bottlenecked because most impact fund managers are too small to absorb the £30m+ cheques large pension funds need — so Zamo invests in and scales the managers themselves rather than end companies.
• What makes him say yes: commercial viability plus authentic, measurable impact and a credible team capable of scaling; he is skeptical of "greenwashed" impact that can't be substantiated with data.