Alison Lawton

Alison Lawton (born May 29, 1970) is a Canadian social venture philanthropist, social advocate, and business investor. Early years Alison Lawton was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. From a very young age she was involved in fundraising and volunteer work. As part of her NGO involvement, she attended the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, after which she started volunteer work for Earth Day International. It was this fundraising work that led her to approach David Richardson who convinced her to join Investor First Financial to learn about investing, knowledge that could one day enable her to start her own NGO to pursue the change she sought in the world. Lawton graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies from Concordia University in 1995. After graduating, she joined Investor First Financial in Vancouver, BC where she started her business career in private equity sales in the areas of syndicated software, film, television, real estate and tax shelter offerings. In 1997, Lawton founded her own private equity boutique investment firm, Winfield Venture Group Ltd, now known as Mindset Venture Group Ltd.