Jana Bakunina joined TSIC in April 2024 as a Senior Advisor on Impact Investing and DEI. Jana has decades of experience in corporate finance, venture capital investments, strategy, entrepreneurship and DEI. Born in Russia, she received MA in Economics & Management from Oxford University and began her career in the City first at Merrill Lynch and later at LongAcre Partners, a corporate finance advisory boutique later acquired by Jefferies.

She led corporate development at Zodiak Media (now part of Banijay) and later at Sony Pictures Television – Kids. In 2012, she founded Ladies Who Impress, a community and a series of live events celebrating inspiring women from all works of life. In 2019, she co-founded Silvergate Investments, a private investment office, backing underrepresented founders: women, non-white and LGBT entrepreneurs. Her investments include Olio, Rubies in the Rubble and Good Loop.

Now as a consultant she helps entrepreneurs develop their business plans and pitching decks, helps clients on strategy, impact investing and DEI, advocating for gender equality and people with invisible disabilities. Jana is the author of a memoir, Bird’s Milk (2017), about growing up in the Soviet Union and moving to the West and Stories by a Russian Londoner (2024), a collection of fictional short stories. She is based in London.