Upkar Arora (he/him)

Upkar Arora sits at the nexus of traditional finance, impact investing and arts and culture. He is the CEO of Rally Assets, Canada’s leading impact investment management firm, an award-winning B Corporation and one of three fund of fund managers selected to implement the Government of Canada’s $400M social finance fund. Rally has been focused on impact investing for almost fifteen years, and its purpose is to shift capital systems to deliver sustainability, equity and justice for all. Over his 25 year career prior to Rally, Upkar has worked in finance and leadership roles with some of Canada’s most successful and well known corporations, families and philanthropists - building, operating and advising public and private companies of varying sizes, stages and sectors, domestically and globally.

Upkar has been a passionate champion of the arts for the past two decades as a patron, donor, advocate and board member. He served as Chair of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection for six years and Chair of the Steering Committee for the 17th Canadian Arts Summit. He is currently the Chair of Why Not Theatre in Toronto. Along with the Metcalfe Foundation he is exploring the use of social finance to enhance funding to strengthen the arts and culture sector.

Upkar has extensive governance experience, having served on boards of several for profit and not-for-profit organizations including Meridian Credit Union, Vancity Community Investment Bank, Metrolinx, University of Waterloo, Institute for Canadian Citizenship and several early-stage startups. He holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

He is an FCPA, FCA having been awarded the accounting profession’s highest honour (the “Fellow”) in 2017. Upkar is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Waterloo where he received the Distinguished Teacher Award in 2022. He is also a BMW Foundation Global Responsible Leader. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in accounting and economics from the University of Waterloo.