Mariana Bozesan: Integral Investing in a World of Abundance

Thinking Ahead with Carter Phipps

Mariana Bozesan, author of Integral Investing: From Profit to Prosperity, has lived her life in several distinct worlds—from a childhood of painful poverty in communist Romania, to the technological optimism of Stanford and Silicon Valley, to the progressive business world of Germany and Europe where she found great success as an entrepreneur and investor. Perhaps it is that unique background and experience that has led her to has led to her to develop such a global and forward-looking perspective on business and investing—and also on life. Dr. Bozesan’s work and financial resources have allowed her to create the investment group AQAL Capital, named after the philosophical model of integral theorist Ken Wilber, who is one of her personal heroes. It is a model that she feels integrates the best of traditional investing and impact investing. She is an optimist, and her success speaks for itself, but I was particularly impressed with her commitment and passion, and also her willingness to explore a diversity of topics in what ended up being a robust, far-ranging dialogue. What future areas of innovation are giving her the most hope? What can Germany learn from the US and what can the US learn from Germany? Can the challenge of climate change be addressed with new technologies? What spiritual practice does she uses to revitalize herself and deepen her own inner universe? We explore all of this and more in this stimulating conversation about how to build a truly abundant future out the raw material of a difficult present.