Remembering Suzanne Biegel: A Life of Purpose and Connection
We are deeply saddened to share that Suzanne Biegel passed away in London on September 20, 2023, after bravely navigating metastatic lung cancer for more than two years. Her beloved husband Daniel Maskit was by her side along with her brother Bruce and many dear friends.
Born in New York City on August 8, 1963 and raised in Hartsdale, New York, Suzanne attended the University of Pennsylvania and lived in New York and Los Angeles, settling in London in her later years.
Suzanne will best be remembered for her work as a pioneer in gender-smart investing. She was instrumental in growing the field from a disparate group of people around the world working to mobilize investment by and for women, into a connected movement with an increasingly sophisticated and multi-dimensional analysis, which has moved billions of dollars of capital and influenced trillions more.
Suzanne was influential for both her research and thought leadership, and for her role as a connector and “catalyst at large” across the impact investing arena.
Collaborating with organizations as diverse as Veris Wealth Partners, Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Wharton Social Impact Initiative, UNICEF, Kite Insights, and UBS, Suzanne co-produced cutting-edge research on the growth of gender lens investing across public and private markets, as well as the investment opportunities at the nexus of climate and gender.
As co-founder of GenderSmart, Suzanne created physical and virtual spaces for gender-smart investors from different continents, sectors, and expertise to come together; fostering learning, idea exchange, and impactful collaborations that will continue to catalyze and grow the movement long after her passing. At the end of 2022, GenderSmart merged with 2X Collaborative to become 2X Global.
Suzanne was a generous and much respected member of the many communities she participated in. She was a Fellow of the Aspen Institute, served on the Board of the Liberty Hill Foundation in Los Angeles, founded the Women In Social Finance community, and was the former Chief Executive Officer of Investors’ Circle in the US.
Prior to her work as an impact investor, Suzanne began her career at IBM and Prodigy. She then worked alongside her close friend Sandy Rand to build IEC, a strategic communication and custom training development company that helped forge a new industry of technology-delivered learning programs before its sale in 1998.
In addition to her many professional accomplishments, Suzanne was remarkable for the way in which she connected and took pleasure in her relationships with other people. Her colleagues were not just colleagues but dear friends, and the circle of women with whom she built the gender-smart investing movement were some of her closest confidantes and supporters in her final months.
Suzanne was a life-long environmentalist whose love of sailing gave her a special affinity for the ocean. In the last five years of her life, she devoted her energy and intellect first to understanding the nexus of climate and gender, and then to moving capital to fund managers investing at that intersection. Heading for Change: The Suzanne Biegel and Daniel Maskit Endowment was the culmination of this mission, initiated by a $1 million donation from Suzanne and Daniel, and attracting to date another $2.35 million from more than 70 individual and institutional donors since the launch in April 2023.
Suzanne leaves behind her cherished husband Daniel, parents Nedra and Paul Biegel, sister Jaclyn Biegel and husband James Harper, brother Bruce Biegel and wife Wendy, nieces Jillian Biegel, Sarah Biegel, Vanessa Harper and husband Josh Rosenberg, and Marissa Harper and husband Max Newfield, brother-in-law Sid Maskit, brother-in-law Jonathan Maskit and wife Barbara Fultner, nephew Adrian Fultner Maskit, goddaughter Sophia Dantzic, godson Jack Wadbrook, her kitten Luna, and a legacy that would require many lifetimes to fully honor.
The Heading for Change team sends our deepest love and condolences to everyone who is grieving Suzanne, and hope her life and legacy serve as an important reminder to live boldly, bravely, and compassionately.
Daniel requests that you not send flowers. For those who wish to express sympathy, Suzanne and Daniel invite you to consider making a donation to Heading for Change. Please visit the Contribution Page for more details. If you have any questions, please reach out to Samantha Anderson at samantha@headingforchange.org