VP Capital is one of three lead case studies featured in CSP's upcoming program, How Leading Family Offices Grow Future-Fit with Impact, taking place 22–24 June 2026 in London. We spoke with Guus van Puijenbroek about the moment the family moved beyond philanthropy, how they onboarded multiple generations, and what he'd tell other family offices about building a team and culture around impact.
What sparked VP Capital's move from impact through philanthropy to impact across all family office and business operations?
We started with philanthropy because the family is very aware of the privileged position we're in and we wanted to give something back. The family was already active in philanthropy and after reading a book from the Rockefeller Foundation on impact investing, we realized we could also use business as a force for good. This idea that we could expand the family’s impact toolkit to include investing and channel more of our capital towards outcomes we care about was a turning point.
We started investing with a focus on sustainability, and after five years of doing that successfully, the family was ready to take it a step further. We decided to become an impact-first family office, meaning impact is no longer just one part of what we do but the lens through which all our investment and business decisions are made. We looked at areas where we not only could allocate capital, but where the family’s heritage, expertise and networks could really contribute to our long term impact ambitions. The textile industry, for example, was a natural extension of the family’s heritage and we’ve made several investments on solutions to advance a more circular, lower-impact, and socially responsible textile value chain. Building on the family’s long history in farming, agriculture is also an area we made investments in. Solutions that support the transition to regenerative and resilient food systems, including sustainable agriculture, soil health, biodiversity restoration, water stewardship and technologies that improve efficiency across agricultural value chains are closely aligned with the family’s values and expertise.
How did you onboard the family on this impact journey? What were the key ingredients in getting them involved?
We started by having individual conversations with all shareholders, their spouses, and their children, who were quite young at the time, between six and sixteen years old. We prepared a presentation and questionnaire that really dug into their views on doing good: what impact themes resonated with them personally, and what types of companies they would feel comfortable investing in.
What emerged was that the sixth generation was particularly in favor of investing for good, while the fourth seemed more skeptical at first. It sparked further discussions, sometimes debates, during which family members shared their perspectives on thematic focus areas, risk appetite, and portfolio diversification, as well as their concerns on finding the right balance between investment and impact returns. We compiled the insights from all of these talks into a strategy that we then presented back to the family. The way forward wasn’t clear cut, and challenging at time.The key to building alignment was to make the process inclusive, to give everyone a voice, and really lean into the conversations. With the younger generation it also included pizza sessions on topics like societal challenges.
Based on your experience, what advice would you give other family offices about building a team and culture to align with impact?
You really have to live and breathe impact and communicate about it openly, so that investable companies, potential partners, but also people who are looking for a job with a purpose know where to find you. That's why I think it's much easier to go all-in on impact instead of doing it with just a part of your portfolio. When impact defines the entire organization, it becomes much simpler to attract the right talent and build a cohesive culture. Looking back on our journey, we spent much more time discussing values and trade-offs than we did discussing actual investment products. And in hindsight, that was probably the right order.
It's also very important to educate new staff on impact from the start, and it helps to have some form of variable compensation linked to impact outcomes. Most importantly, make sure that impact is embedded in the whole investment process, not treated as something that sits alongside it.
How can this program help family offices grow future-fit with impact?
You'll learn from family offices that have gone through the whole process and are willing to openly share that knowledge with participants. Learning about how families navigated governance decisions, discussing the trade-offs involved in becoming impact-first and taking an honest look at what worked, what didn’t, and how different family offices approached similar challenges. The program provides concrete next steps for setting up your family office for impact and allows for real and open conversations that we have always found particularly valuable.
Guus van Puijenbroek is Director of Strategic & Family Matters at VP Capital and a featured speaker at CSP's Family Office program, How Leading Family Offices Grow Future-Fit with Impact, taking place 22–24 June, 2026 in London. The program is designed exclusively for Principals and Single Family Office leadership.
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