Marguerite Mendell is an economist and Professor, School of Community and Public Affairs, Concordia University. She is also Director, Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy, Concordia University. She has published widely on the social economy in Quebec, local development, social finance, economic democracy and on the work of Karl Polanyi, especially as it relates to contemporary democratic economic development strategies.  She has collaborated with social economy actors in developing public policy proposals at the provincial and municipal level in Quebec. Professor Mendell co-founded the first microfinance organization in Canada, the Montreal Community Loan Association (ACEM) in 1990 and collaborated recently with practitioners to establish CAP Finance in 2009, a network of solidarity finance and development capital, following several years of partnership research (ARUC en économie sociale). Professor Mendell has written extensively on the evolution of “socially responsible finance” in Quebec and on the evolution of “social finance” internationally. She is a member of the Board of Directors, Chantier de l'économie sociale, the Advisory Committee of the Social Economy Partnership for Community-based Sustainable Development for the City of Montreal and the Advisory Policy Committee for the development of the social economy, Government of Quebec. Professor Mendell’s recent international research includes a study on “Improving social inclusion at the local level through the social economy” (OECD-LEED) that examines public policy enabling the social economy in South Korea, Poland, France and Slovenia. She is also a co-founder of ReCo, a continental network of researchers, practitioners and policy makers on the social economy in Quebec and in Argentina, with participation by other Latin American countries. Margie Mendell co-directed the CURA-Social Economy partnership research on finance and on the Montreal region and is currently co-directing the Impact investing stream of a CURA partnership on Responsible Investment. Professor Mendell was awared the inaugural Prix Pierre-Dansereau in 2012 from the Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS). Sponsored by Radio-Canada, the prize is awarded to an individual or organization that best exemplifies a commitment to improving society.