Bobby Turner is a social impact investor with star-studded connections.
The celebrity alliances began in 2001, when Turner, then co-founder and CEO at Canyon Capital Realty Advisors, joined with former basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson to launch a series of real estate funds designed to spur revitalization in neglected urban neighborhoods across the country. Over a dozen years, Turner and Johnson raised $2 billion in private equity capital that spurred nearly $6 billion in urban revitalization, Turner says.
About 10 years later, Turner, 56, launched the Turner- Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund at Canyon, a Los Angeles private equity firm, with former tennis star Andre Agassi to develop a series of charter schools.
Turner left Canyon Capital in late 2013 to start Turner Impact Capital, a private equity real estate fund focused on social impact. Earlier this year the firm marked its first five years in business by announcing it had raised funds totaling $1.25 billion, impacting 100,000 people.
Turner’s shift from running a for-profit real estate firm, as a “traditional gladiator of finance,” to running a social impact firm full-time was deliberate.