Public Appearances

“You fight for your home, and you fight to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to pursue their dreams,” said OFN President and CEO, Harold Pettigrew.

In an interview with The Aspen Institute, Pettigrew discussed the legacy he wants to leave as a leader and a father, the role of OFN in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, and the significant position CDFIs have as financial first responders in times of crisis.

Climate convenes global and local policymakers, scientific experts, corporate leaders, innovators, and more, to collaborate on addressing our collective future around the realities of a changing climate. OFN President and CEO, Harold Pettigrew, joined a panel on “Sharing the Wealth of the Energy Transition.” The discussion focused on how to bring communities into the clean energy transition while providing a shared sense of success, fairness, ownership, and wealth.

OFN President and CEO Harold Pettigrew appeared on a panel at COP28 focused on “Financing the Transition for Impact”  to discuss how CDFIs are financing the clean energy transition in underinvested rural, urban, and Native communities.

COP28, the largest global climate summit, has convened leaders, climate advocates, decision-makers, and more, in Dubai. The event, which touts around 90,000 registrants, will unfold over two weeks. All eyes are on the global climate meeting as time is running out to meet the commitment made at COP21 to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Watch plenary moderator Anna Alvarez Boyd, who serves as the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System’s senior associate director for research, analytics and engagement, pose questions to panelists Lisa Mensah, OFN president and CEO, and Melissa Jones, executive director of Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII), a network of public health departments and others.

Lisa Mensah joined a discussion with the National Press Foundation highlighting the Biden Administration contributing $1.25 Billion into rural lending and how community development financial institution experts say CDFIs can help alleviate rural poverty as well as racial inequities where previous pandemic relief failed.

Lisa Mensah joined the Urban Institute for a virtual event exploring data and research on why homeownership is so much more affordable than renting and a robust discussion of what can be done to increase access to homeownership. The discussion focused on not only what the federal government can do, but what states, local governments, and organizations such as community development financial institutions can do now by tapping into available resources.

Watch Lisa Mensah, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), and other prominent business leaders explore the future of diversity in small business, the challenges minority-owned businesses often face in raising capital and how government and the private sector can work to keep these critically important enterprises thriving.

Lisa Mensah joins host Monique Aiken to reflect on Juneteenth, community lending, and today’s opportunity for a just reconstruction. Log in or register for a free/paid subscription account to listen to the podcast episode.

Lisa Mensah, President and CEO of Opportunity Finance Network, joined Vice President Kamala Harris, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Chairwoman Maxine Waters, and Senator Mark Warner in announcing a federal award of $1.25 billion to more than 800 community lenders in an effort to speed the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.