Akobe Sandy
Impact Investment Officer
Akobe Sandy joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in 2021, bringing his extensive experience in investment management and socially responsible investment to his role as an impact investments officer. His work bridges capital gaps for under-invested people and communities and employs impact capital to advance RWJF’s longstanding history of championing solutions that further opportunities for equitable health and wellbeing.
Previously, Akobe was an impact investments senior associate for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where he helped manage MacArthur’s $500 million impact investments portfolio, including Benefit Chicago, a $100 million fund advancing economic development throughout the Chicago region. He also developed new grantmaking within MacArthur’s Impact Investments program to advance racial equity and expand inclusive investment practices.
Before joining MacArthur, Akobe spent several years as an investment banker with KPMG Corporate Finance and Madison Street Capital, a middle-market investment bank. Within this role, he advised on mergers and acquisitions and capital-raising transactions across several industries. Previously, he provided research and analysis on hedge funds and commodity trading advisor (CTA) strategies with AlphaMetrix, an alternative investment management firm.
Akobe received a BA in Political Science from Yale University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). He is a 2019 IMPACT Leadership Fellow of the Chicago Urban League and University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Akobe currently lives in suburban Chicago with his wife and young son. Born in Trinidad and Tobago but raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., he is excited to return to the East Coast with RWJF. He is an avid traveler, a reformed DJ, and a documentary enthusiast.