Pieter Oostlander is the founding partner of Shærpa. His professional background is in accountancy and finance. In that field, he held various top-level finance functions. In 2004 he switched to the venture philanthropy sector to build the service organisation of a family foundation. This ultimately was the basis for shærpa. The decision to switch resulted from his ambition to make social impact and value creation (in addition to creating shareholder value) a significant part of his professional activities. He sees it as "reconciling the soul of philanthropy with the spirit of venture capital". The work with shærpa and the build of its European Social Investment Fund is dedicated to doing exactly that. As the Chair of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA), Pieter actively pursues to further professionalise venture philanthropy and social investing in the European arena. Pieter is also a member of the board of directors of SROI Network, promoting the use of a systematic approach to social value accounting.