Meet the Impact Investing team

Liz Roberts

Head of Impact Investing

Liz is the Head of Impact Investing at MassMutual. In this role, she directs impact investing’s strategy, oversees the MassMutual Catalyst Fund (MMCF) and First Fund Initiative, and guides a team focused on investing capital for market rate financial returns while reducing structural inequities and advancing racial equity. Prior to joining MassMutual in 2021, Liz focused her passions for innovation and education to deliver solid business results across industries. Formerly, as CEO of Valley Venture Mentors (VVM), she designed, built, and launched the VVM Accelerator in Springfield, Massachusetts, which awards equity-free funding to top-performing teams.

Under Liz’s leadership, VVM graduated 150 pre-seed startups that generated 600 jobs, $28 million in revenue, and $23 million in investment in less than four years. Liz’s former roles also include Chief Strategy Officer of SX2 Media Labs, Head of Operations for Distance Learning Co., and Interim Chief of Staff to CMO at Reuters. Her diverse roles and founder experience have prepared her to provide a wide spectrum of human capital to MMCF portfolio companies. In addition to her current role at MassMutual, Liz is an advocate for inclusion, equity, and access to seed and early-stage capital for underestimated entrepreneurs to further meaningful innovation. Liz worked with the Obama White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship to catalyze early-stage investment for underrepresented entrepreneurs through the Diversify Access to Capital Pledge. She is a proud Western Massachusetts local and attended Smith College.

Jason Allen

Lead Portfolio Manager

Jason joined MassMutual in 2021 as Lead Portfolio Manager for the Impact Investments team. Prior to MassMutual, Jason was the Vice President, Investments at MassVentures, where he led investments in Kytopen at the seed stage and Pison Technology at the Series A. Prior to MassVentures, Jason spent over eight years in the Boston startup ecosystem working at early stage startups such as CustomMade Ventures, Attivio (acquired by ServiceNow NYSE: NOW), and Ovia Health (acquired by LabCorp NYSE:LH). He also gained experience at later stage companies such as GoTo (formerly LogMeIn).

Jason is an experienced operator and early stage investor helping companies go from a few founders to Series B. His investment interests include enterprise software, healthcare, and fintech and marketplaces.

He earned a JD from Northeastern University School of Law, a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and a BA from Denison University.

Ariana Lucera

Senior Associate

Before joining the Impact Investments team as a Senior Associate, Ariana worked for MassMutual Investment Management for several years, holding roles across a variety of functions such as credit, macro/market research, and operational due diligence.

Ariana brings a strong financial lens to the team and is motivated by showing how impact and robust financial returns are possible. As an early and key team member, she has engaged with nearly all MassMutual Catalyst Fund (MMCF) portfolio companies and is especially excited by companies in the clean tech, future of work, and health and wellness verticals. In addition to her work on MMCF, she is involved in diverse fund investments called the First Fund Initiative.

Ariana holds a BS in Finance from Bentley University and works out of MassMutual’s Boston Seaport office.

Tamas Javor

Senior Associate

Tamas is a Senior Associate on the Impact Investments team. Prior to joining MassMutual, he worked for Techstars, a global startup accelerator, where he was responsible for piloting a new product. He was also a founding team member at the UMSL Accelerate, an entrepreneurship center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. There, he and his team built the first-ever university-led corporate accelerator, making 19 seed startup investments over three years. Tamas also gained experience in traditional investment management while working for Generali Asset Management in Hungary, where he managed approximately $1.3B for institutional clients.

He holds an MBA from the UMSL and a BA in Finance from Corvinus University of Budapest.

Chris Young

Impact Investment Analyst

Chris joined the MassMutual Impact Investment team in 2023 as an analyst handling investment operations, deal screening and due diligence. While pursuing an MBA, Chris served as a Graduate Research Fellow for the Center of International Securities and Derivatives handling hedge fund indices reporting for Morningstar and Bloomberg. He also interned with an impact investment firm working on a range of sustainability-focused investment projects in the Caribbean and worked as a co-op at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston within the Supervision, Regulation and Credit Department conducting research for the analysis unit. He began his career as an analyst with the University of Massachusetts Amherst Dining program helping to strengthen supply chain logistics and increase budgetary commitments to local and sustainable food purchasing by providing accurate, timely and actionable information to stakeholders.

Chris holds an MBA from the Isenberg School of Management and a BA in Economics from UMass Amherst.