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Tracy Palandjian

Portrait of Tracy Palandjian, a smiling woman with long, dark hair, wearing a white top, set against a solid blue background.

CEO & Co-Founder

2011

Tracy Palandjian is CEO and Co-Founder of Social Finance, a national nonprofit and registered investment adviser. In 2011, Tracy co-founded Social Finance with Sir Ronald Cohen and David Blood to seed the Pay For Success field in the United States, sparking a national conversation about new funding models to tackle systemic challenges and drive measurable impact. Since then, Social Finance has mobilized over $500 million in investments designed to achieve improved outcomes across a range of issue areas, including economic mobility, health, and housing. In 2023, the organization launched the Social Finance Institute to advance the field through actionable research and educational outreach.
Prior to Social Finance, Tracy was a Managing Director for eleven years at The Parthenon Group, where she established and led the Nonprofit Practice to support foundations and NGOs to accomplish their missions in the U.S. and globally. Tracy also worked at Wellington Management Company and McKinsey & Company.
A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, Tracy is a frequent speaker and writer on impact investing, social innovation, and results-oriented policymaking. She is an author of Workforce Realigned: How New Partnerships Are Advancing Economic Mobility, and co-author of Investing for Impact: Case Studies Across Asset Classes. Tracy co-founded the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, where she serves as Vice Chair.
Tracy is a member of the Harvard Corporation and serves on the boards of The Barr Foundation and The Boston Foundation. She is an Independent Director of Affiliated Managers Group (NYSE: AMG). Previously, Tracy served as Board Chair of Facing History and Ourselves. She also served on the boards of The Surdna Foundation, RFK Human Rights, Milton Academy, and Mass General Brigham. She is a 2019 recipient of the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award and a 2026 recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Her work was featured on the 2026 Forbes 50 Over 50 list.
A native of Hong Kong, Tracy is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin. She graduated from Harvard College with a B.A. magna cum laude in Economics and holds an M.B.A. with high distinction from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar.

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