TEAM
Sebastian von stauffenberg
Sebastian is the Founder and CEO of Luminis. He has been a leader and expert in impact fund evaluation and social performance management. His impact fund and MFI evaluation expertise give him hands-on, practical experience in the entire impact investment process.
Sebastian’s impact investing experience began in 2003 when he joined and eventually led MicroRate (www.microrate.com), the first rating agency specializing in evaluating microfinance institutions. As MicroRate’s CEO he was responsible for building an effective multinational team with offices in three countries and overseeing over 500 financial, social and performance ratings. In 2014, he spun-off Luminis from MicroRate to establish Luminis Advisors, LLC which provides investment advisory services to impact investors.
In 2016, Sebastian joined Gray Matters Capital (www.graymatterscap.com) as Director of Investments for Latin America, building up a portfolio of education investments. This experience, coupled with helping leverage GMC’s global portfolio gave him a unique insight into the entire investment process from sourcing, diligence, structuring, monitoring, and reporting to value creation after the investment has been made. Sebastian has served on the boards of several organizations in Latin America, India, and the US. He has taught and lectured in topics including microfinance, social performance management, ethics, and philosophy at the university and postgraduate level as well as religious education at the elementary school level. Sebastian has an M.B.A. from Georgetown University, a B.S. in Economics from Virginia Tech and graduated Summa cum Laude with a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from Regina Apostolorum in Rome, Italy.
Stephen Brown
Steve is the Director of Investor Services at Luminis Advisors, LLC and specializes in performance, risk, and social evaluations of impact investment vehicles. Since 2008, Stephen has led over 300 ratings of more than 125 impact investment vehicles, first at MicroRate Inc. , the first rating agency specializing in evaluating microfinance organizations, and subsequently at Luminis Advisors, LLC, which he helped launch in 2014.
Previously, Stephen worked in private wealth management for Ameriprise Financial (formerly, American Express Financial Advisors), and at the United States Export-Import Bank. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Colgate University.
