DURHAM, N.H.—Anne Finucane, vice chairman at Bank of America and chairman of the board, Bank of America Europe, has been named the 2020 Social Innovator of the Year by the University of New Hampshire. A 1974 graduate of UNH, Finucane has regularly been named to Forbes’ and Fortune’s Most Powerful Women lists, along with American Banker’s 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking. She is responsible for leading Bank of America’s environmental, social, governance (ESG) and public policy efforts.

Among the university’s most prestigious honors, the award recognizes leaders with a demonstrated commitment to combining the purpose of a social and/or environmental mission with the rigor and accountability of a financially sustainable, scalable model for change.

Finucane will be honored during the concluding events of the annual NH Social Innovation Challenge Dec. 1, 2020, when she will be the keynote speaker in a live, online video conversation with UNH President James W. Dean, Jr. The event, “Stakeholder Capitalism in Action: Transitioning to a Net Zero Future, Advancing Other Challenges of Our Time,” is free and open to the public but registration is required. The challenge invites New Hampshire college students to compete for cash prizes by entering their ideas for ventures to solve pressing sustainability challenges spanning social, environmental and economic issues.

As a member of Bank of America’s executive management team, Finucane is responsible for the company’s global strategic positioning and oversees its public policy and capital deployment efforts. She also oversees the company’s operations in Europe and its €60 billion balance sheet. Her leadership in building Bank of America’s sustainable finance business include the company’s Blended Finance Catalyst Pool, which provides $60 million in capital to finance sustainable development in emerging and developing markets. Also under Finucane’s leadership, the bank met its goal six years ahead of schedule to deploy $125 billion to low-carbon sustainable business activities. She then built on that success by launching a new commitment under the company’s Environmental Business Initiative to deploy an additional $300 billion by 2030 in support of environmental business efforts globally.

Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, serving approximately 66 million consumer and small business clients. Finucane leads the company’s $1.6 billion Community Development Financial Institution portfolio. She chairs the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and ESG Committee, and co-chairs the Sustainable Markets Committee with the company’s COO.

The SVIC and Social Innovator of the Year Award is organized by the Changemaker Collaborative, a partnership of UNH’s Sustainability Institute, Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics and the Carsey School of Public Policy. The Changemaker Collaborative’s mission is to bring together students, faculty, staff, businesses, nonprofits and government agencies committed to advancing positive change for the good of all. The collaborative supports the next generation of skilled, courageous and confident leaders, through real-world experiences and the tools of public policy and business, while helping community partners advance their sustainability initiatives.

Major supporters of the SVIC include Kennebunk Savings Bank and Timberland as well as Prime Buchholz, Cirtronics, Cole Haan and CCA Global Partners; additional supporters include NH Businesses for Social Responsibility, the Maurice Prize for Innovation, Brent Bell and Wojtek Uzdelewicz.

The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. As one of the nation’s highest-performing research universities, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and receives more than $110 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.