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Speaking at US SIF Members-Only Event
Mellody Hobson
is president of Ariel Investments. As president, Hobson is responsible for firm-wide management and strategic planning, overseeing all operations outside of research and portfolio management. Additionally, she serves as chairman of the board of trustees for Ariel Investment Trust.
Beyond her work at Ariel, Hobson has become a nationally recognized voice on financial literacy and investor education. She is a regular contributor and analyst on finance, the markets and economic trends for CBS News. She also contributes weekly money tips on the Tom Joyner Morning Show and pens a regular column for Black Enterprise magazine. As a passionate advocate for investor education, she is a spokesperson for the Ariel/Hewitt Study: 401(k) Plans in Living Color and the Ariel Black Investor Survey, both of which examine investing patterns among minorities.
Hobson is chairman of the board for DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. as well as a director of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., Groupon, Inc., and Starbucks Corporation. Her community outreach includes serving as chairman of After School Matters, a non-profit that provides Chicago teens with high quality, out-of-school time programs. Furthermore, she is a board member of The Field Museum, Lucas Cultural Arts Museum, The Chicago Public Education Fund, The Sundance Institute and is on the board of governors of the Investment Company Institute. Hobson earned her AB degree from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of International Relations and Public Policy. She also received honorary doctorate degrees in humanities from both Howard University and St. Mary’s College.
Confirmed Plenary Speakers
Shari Berenbach
is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the United States African Development Foundation, a public corporation of the U.S. government that awards economic development grants to marginalized and underserved populations in conflict and post-conflict areas of Africa.
Her distinguished 30-year career spans from microfinance to international banking. At USAID from 2010-12, she directed the Office of Microenterprise & Private Enterprise Promotion, increasing the reach of financial and market resources to rural areas and smallholder farmers. A pioneer in the impact investing field, Berenbach served as President and CEO of the Calvert Foundation, a non-profit financial intermediary that mobilizes capital from social investors to meet critical financing needs in communities. Over 14 years, Berenbach grew the foundation from a pilot project to a $500 million institution serving thousands of investors and hundreds of local financial intermediaries in the US and around the globe. Berenbach's earlier international development work included in-country programming in more than two dozen countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In the mid-1990s, Berenbach was engaged in various consultancies – preparing a monograph on banking regulation for microfinance, helping to launch MicroRate, and conducting program design and evaluations on behalf of USAID and the World Bank. Berenbach served as an Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation, and also has held private sector positions at Solomon Brothers, Citigroup and a start-up telecommunications firm, Radio Movil Digital.
Berenbach holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School, an MA in Latin American Studies from UCLA, and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from UC Berkeley. Berenbach serves on the Not-for-Profit Advisory Committee of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the Finance Committee of the Needmor Fund, and the Board of Directors of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity.
Francis Coleman
, Executive Vice President, is responsible for corporate strategy and planning, strategic planning and board member and trustee relations and development, as well as overseeing the Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and Information Technology departments at Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS). During his tenure, he has held the following positions: Director of Socially Responsible Investing (1994-1999), Director of Marketing and Participant Services (1989-1994) and Director of Participant Services and Operations (1987-1989). As Vice President and Director of SRI (1999-2002), he was responsible for incorporating ethical standards into investments and developing a policy and approach for CBIS that reflects the Church's broad concerns in an effort to impact corporations. He is on the boards of the IRRC Institute, a research center for social, environmental and corporate governance issues, Georgian Court University, a Catholic university in New Jersey sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy, and the Park Foundation, which supports environmental and educational causes. He is also a member of the SRI Committee for the SRI Fund, an alternative hedge fund serving primarily Catholic investors, and of the Independent Committee of the STOXX Christian Values Index, a screened faith-based index of European stocks. In addition, he serves on the Investment Committees of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) and American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). He formerly served as Chair of the Board of Partners for the Common Good, a community investing program sponsored by CBIS, as well as Vice-Chair (1997-1998) and Chair (1998-2001) of the Board of ICCR (1997-2001). He is a member of the Social Venture Network, is on the Board of the Montessori School of Syracuse and served a nine-year term on the Board of the Leviticus Fund. Coleman holds a B.A. from Columbia University.
Russell D. Feingold
represented Wisconsin in the United States Senate for 18 years from 1993 to 2011. He served on the Judiciary, Foreign Relations, Budget, and Intelligence Committees. He also served in the Wisconsin State Senate from 1983 to 1993 and practiced law for six years at Foley & Lardner and LaFollette & Sinykin in Madison, Wisconsin.
Well known for leading the fight for campaign finance reform in the Senate alongside Senator John McCain, Feingold has always championed efforts to limit the influence of special interests. He was also the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act, was the first senator to propose a timetable to exit Iraq, and believes we need a timetable to leave Afghanistan. In addition, he has always fought against unfair trade agreements like NAFTA and fought against financial deregulation.
Feingold was the recipient of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation’s Profile in Courage Award in 1999 and also received the Four Freedoms Award from the Roosevelt Institute in 2011.
Since leaving the Senate, Feingold has been a visiting professor at Marquette University Law School and the inaugural Mimi and Peter Haas Distinguished Visitor at Stanford University during Spring quarter of 2012. He will return to Stanford to its Law School as a Lecturer in Law in early 2013.
Feingold founded Progressives United in 2011 to stand up to the exploding corporate influence we’ve seen in our political system since the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United.
Amy Francetic
has over 18 years of operational and executive management experience in the high technology sector with specialties in cleantech and information technology. She is the Executive Director of the Clean Energy Trust, which she helped found with Nicholas Pritzker and Michael Polsky. Prior to Clean Energy, Francetic worked as an investment professional for MVC Capital, a publicly-traded private equity firm (NYSE:MVC), in their Chicago office. Before joining MVC, she commercialized R&D as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence for Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California and produced the prestigious wireless product launch event, DEMOmobile, for IDG Publishing with high-tech industry expert Chris Shipley. Francetic served on the Board of Directors of Glu Mobile (NASDAQ:GLUU), a wireless games publisher, whose founder she advised during fundraising. Earlier in her career Francetic was Co-Founder and CEO of Zowie Intertainment, a high-tech toy company funded by Vulcan Ventures which spun-out of Interval Research. She sold Zowie to Lego Systems, the Danish toymaker, in 2000. Zowie employed RF sensing tags, a custom ASIC, and software to enable a natural interface for the PC for children. She began her career producing software for Electronic Arts and Hasbro Interactive. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Political Science from Stanford University where she ran Varsity Track. She is a Chicago Council on Global Affairs 2011 Emerging Leader and serves on the Illinois Institute for Technology's Knapp Center for Entrepreneurship Board. She was recognized as a Woman to Watch by Crain's in 2011.
John Fullerton
is the Founder and President of Capital Institute, and a recognized new economy thought leader and public speaker. He is also an active impact investor through his Level 3 Capital Advisors.
Previously, he was a Managing Director of JPMorgan where he managed multiple capital markets and derivatives businesses around the globe and then ran the venture investment activity of LabMorgan as Chief Investment Officer through the merger with Chase Manhattan Bank in 2001. Fullerton served as JPMorgan’s representative on the Long Term Capital Management Oversight Committee in 1997-98. Following JPMorgan, Fullerton was a seed investor and CEO of Alerian Capital Management, which became a leading investment firm focused on MLPs and created the Alerian MLP Index. He is a co-founder and director of Grasslands, LLC, a holistic ranch management company with the Savory Institute, a Director of New Day Farms, Inc., the New Economics Institute, Savory Institute.org, and an Advisor to Armonia, LLC, Richard Branson’s Business Leader’s Initiative (“B-Team”) and the New America Foundation's Smart Strategy initiative.
Fullerton is the creator of the “Future of Finance” blog at www.capitalinstitute.org, which is also syndicated with the Guardian, The Huffington Post, the New York Society of Security Analysts, and other publications. Fullerton appeared on Frontline and has been interviewed by The Laura Flanders Show, Bloomberg, WOR radio, Real News Network, INET, Think Progress, and Free Forum with Terrence NcNally. Fullerton has an MBA in Finance from the Stern School at New York University, and a BA in economics from the University of Michigan..
Chris Jochnick
is the Director of the Private Sector Department at Oxfam America and co-coordinator of the Private Sector Team of Oxfam International. Jochnick co-founded and led two human rights organizations, the Center for Economic and Social Rights (NY) and the Centro de Derechos Economicos y Sociales (Ecuador). He has worked for two decades on issues of human rights, development and corporate accountability, including seven years in Latin America. At Oxfam, he has managed partnerships with, and led adversarial campaigns targeting, Fortune 500 companies and participated in various standard setting initiatives with the United Nations and other global bodies. Prior to joining Oxfam, Jochnick worked as an attorney with the Wall Street law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison. Jochnick is a graduate of Harvard Law School and a former fellow of the MacArthur Foundation and Echoing Green. He has published and lectured widely on issues of human rights, business and development. He teaches a course on business and human rights at Harvard Law School.
Erika Karp
is a Managing Director and Head of Global Sector Research at UBS Investment Bank. Karp chairs the UBS Global Investment Review Committee and manages a global team of analysts and strategists. She sits on the UBS Securities Research Executive Committee and the Environmental and Human Rights Committee of the UBS Group Executive Board.
Karp created and drives the UBS Q-Series®, the Global I/O®, and the weekly "UBS Global Portfolio Manager's Spotlight" products. Her work has been featured by Euromoney, the Financial Times, BloombergBusinessweek, Investor Relations Magazine, Greenbiz, and Forbes to which she is a regular contributor. In driving collaboration across the capital markets, Erika was named among the nation's "Top 50 Women in Wealth" by AdvisorOne.
She is a founding Board member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and sits on the Program Design Advisory Council for Harvard Business School's Executive Education Program. Erika is a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Agenda Council on Financing and Capital, and represents UBS at events including those of the OECD, the UN Global Compact and PRI, Oxford University, the EPA, and the White House. She holds an MBA Columbia University and a BSE from the Wharton School.
Joseph F. Keefe
is President & Chief Executive Officer of Pax World Funds. Pax World launched the first socially responsible mutual fund in the U.S. in 1971, and currently manages approximately $2.8 billion in assets across twelve funds, all of which follow a Sustainable Investing approach – fully integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment analysis and decision making.
Prior to joining Pax World, Keefe was President of NewCircle Communications (2000 - 2005), served as Senior Adviser for Strategic Social Policy at Calvert Group (2003 – 2005) and as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Citizens Advisers, investment advisor to Citizens Funds (1997 - 2000). He is a former member of the Board of Directors of US SIF (2000 – 2006), the industry association representing sustainable investment professionals throughout the United States; is Chair of the Board of Directors of Women Thrive Worldwide, a leading non-profit organization shaping U.S. international assistance and trade policy to help women in developing countries lift themselves out of poverty; and is a member of the Board of Directors of Americans for Campaign Reform, an organization promoting public funding of federal elections.
Keefe was named by Ethisphere Magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics” for 2007, 2008 and 2011, and in 2012 was recognized by Women’s eNews as one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century,” where he was the sole male honoree.
Keefe is a former Democratic Nominee for United States Congress in New Hampshire's First Congressional District, and a former Chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and member of the Democratic National Committee. He received a BA in Philosophy from the College of the Holy Cross, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Michael Lent
is a founding principal and the Chief Investment Officer of Veris Wealth Partners, a wealth management firm specializing in sustainable investing. The firm is dedicated to aligning families’ and foundations’ financial objectives with their mission and values. For 17 years, Lent has delivered financial planning and investment consulting services to high net worth families, family offices and foundations. Prior to Veris, he co-founded the New York office of Progressive Asset Management, the first full service national broker/dealer to focus on socially responsible investing.
Lent is currently Chair of the Board of Directors of US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment. He is also Treasurer and a Trustee of the Edward W. Hazen Foundation. Lent is a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) and a member of the Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA). He graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Biology.
Bill McKibben
, a well known environmental author and activist, is the founder of 350.org, an international climate change campaign. 350.org is named for the safe level of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, 350 parts per million.
When he is not busy organizing, McKibben is an active writer on the climate crisis and other environmental issues. He has been leading the fight against global warming for 20 years. His 1989 book The End of Nature was the first book to warn the general public about the threat of global warming. McKibben is a frequent contributor to various magazines including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Orion Magazine, Mother Jones, The New York Review of Books, Granta, Rolling Stone, and Outside. He is also a board member and contributor to Grist Magazine. He has been awarded Guggenheim and Lyndhurst Fellowships, and won the Lannan Prize for nonfiction writing in 2000. He is currently a Scholar in Residence at Middlebury College.
Kevin Parker
was a member of the management board of Deutsche Bank, a major global bank, for 10 years and was the Global Head of Deutsche Asset Management Company, a Top 10 asset management platform responsible for $750 billion in AUM. Widely respected as one of the world’s most vocal advocates for a global shift towards sustainability, Parker identified climate change in 2004 as a megatrend that will drive financial markets over the coming decades. Kevin established a world-class research team in 2007 that specialized exclusively in climate change/ sustainable investment trends and produced over 40 white papers. Parker raised over $12 billion of AUM in sustainable investment strategies, making his platform one of the largest ESG investors in the world. Parker’s past professional experience includes Global Head of Equities, Global Head of Equity Derivatives Trading, Chief Information Officer and Founder of a $7.5 billion Hedge Fund.
Parker is a frequent keynote speaker at industry events, including World Future Energy Summit, UN/Ceres Investor Conference, and Investor Summit on Climate Risk. He has been the author or co-author of articles published in the Financial Times, Institutional Investor, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and many others. Parker has received numerous rewards and recognition for his contribution to sustainability, including the “Corporate Pioneer” Award by New York League of Conservation Voters and the “Environmental Advocate of the Year” Award by the Environmental Advocates of New York.
Rev. David M. Schilling
has worked at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) since 1994 and is Senior Program Director. Schilling works with ICCR members and allies to engage corporations on issues of human rights in corporate operations and global supply chains, and social, environmental and economic sustainability. Schilling has participated in ICCR delegations to a number of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America focused on the human rights of supply chain workers. He has co-authored ICCR’s Social Sustainability Resource Guide; Effective Supply Chain Accountability: Investor Guidance on Implementation of the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act and Beyond with CBIS and Calvert and Investing in the “Rights Way:” A Guide for Investors on Business and Human Rights. Schilling is chair of the Advisory Board of the Global Social Compliance Program, member, International Advisory Network of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, RFK Center Compass Education Advisory Committee and the UNICEF CSR Advisory Group.
Lisa Woll
has been the CEO of US SIF and the US SIF Foundation since 2006. While at US SIF, she has led strategic planning, expansion and diversification of funding and developing a robust policy presence.
Prior to US SIF, Woll was executive director of the International Women’s Media Foundation, an organization focused on press freedom and expansion of women’s role in the media. During her tenure, the IWMF played a significant role in re-orienting the way journalism training was carried out on the issues of HIV-AIDS, malaria and TB in several African media organizations. Woll also spent a decade working on children’s human rights. She was the director of the first international study to look at the impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and directed the Washington, DC office of Save the Children. Her early career focused on domestic social policy and began in the New York City Human Resources Administration and the US Congress. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch.
Confirmed Breakout Speakers
William Atwood
has served as Executive Director of the Illinois State Board of Investment (ISBI) since March of 2003. ISBI is responsible for investing assets totaling approximately $12.5 billion for the State Employees’ Retirement System of Illinois, Judges’ Retirement System of Illinois, and General Assembly Retirement System of Illinois. Since joining ISBI, Atwood has managed the restructuring of its investment portfolio, established an emerging manager program, initiated the utilization of a general consultant, expanded the portfolio’s exposure to alternative investments, increased the Board’s shareholder activism, and made improvements to the State of Illinois’ Deferred Compensation Plan.
Atwood has professional experience in both the public and private sectors, including service on the staff of U.S. Senator Charles Percy and in the administrations of Governor Jim Thompson and Governor Jim Edgar, both of Illinois. In 1994 he joined Investment Counselors Incorporated, a money management firm in St. Louis where Atwood was Vice President for Business Development. At ICI he was responsible for marketing, client service, and corporate operations. Atwood formed Midwest Managed Money Services in 1997 through which he provided consulting services to money management firms working in the public and Taft-Hartley pension plan arenas. He worked closely with equity, fixed income, and real estate investment companies and a variety of institutional plan sponsors.
Atwood served as a Director of the Chicago Stock Exchange and is a regular speaker at professional symposia. He received a Masters of Liberal Arts degree from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Southern Illinois University.
Susan Babcock
has been involved in the responsible investing field for 14 years, first at Rockefeller & Co and now as an independent consultant for family offices and private impact investing clients.
She was a board member and Treasurer of the Social Investment Forum from 2001-2006 and continues to work closely with US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment. At Rockefeller & Co, she was the company’s SRI/ESG analyst for large cap global public equities for six years and then Senior Environmental Analyst for the Rockefeller Clean Tech Ventures Fund, a private equity/venture capital fund of funds. In 2008 and 2009, she served as Agenda Chair of the SRI in the Rockies Conference.
For the past 20 years, Babcock has also served as a trustee of several environmental organizations including the Open Space Institute, the New York League of Conservation Voters, and RARE Center for Tropical Conservation. Babcock received an A.B. in History from Bryn Mawr College, a Master’s in Environmental Studies from Yale University, and a Master’s in Business from Boston University (in Rome).
Mike Bedessem
has been employed by Organic Valley as Chief Financial Officer since 1994. He has over 30 years of financial and information systems management experience with both regional and national firms. As Chief Financial Officer of Organic Valley, Bedessem is responsible for Accounting, Finance, and Information Resources. He is committed to creating an environmentally sustainable and healthy food supply by enabling farmers and consumers to mutually support each other through their actions of growing and buying organic food.
Bedessem was a member of Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools (CROPP), the farmer-owned cooperative that operates under the Organic Valley brand, from 1990-1997. As a member of CROPP, he was an owner and manager of Turkey Ridge Organic Orchard in Gays Mills, Wisconsin. Mike also served on the Board of Directors for Organic Valley from 1992-1994. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from St. Mary's College in Winona, Minnesota.
Abby Bownas
is a Senior Advisor at NVG. Since joining NVG in 2009, she has successfully helped our clients to ensure diabetes preventive care was included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; to broaden access to healthy food; and to fund and authorize “Promise Neighborhoods,” communities of opportunity centered around strong schools.
Prior to her career at NVG, Bownas served as the Director of Federal Government Affairs at the American Diabetes Association, where she played a key role in the Association’s efforts to increase funding for diabetes research and prevention programs, expand the federal commitment to stem cell research, ensure that all Americans with diabetes have access to affordable and adequate health coverage and protect people with diabetes from discrimination. Bownas helped lead the Association to victory on passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act, working closely with a bipartisan coalition of disability, health, civil rights, religious, and business groups to restore the Americans with Disabilities Act to its rightful intent.
Earlier in her career, Bownas spent over five years on Capitol Hill, in both the Senate and House of Representatives. After working for Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), she moved to the office of Rep. John F. Tierney (D-MA), where she served as a Legislative Assistant handling a number of issues, including health care.
Bownas earned a Master’s degree in Political Science in 2002 and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in 2000, both from the American University in Washington, DC.
Stephanie Braming
is a Partner at William Blair & Company, which she joined in 2004 as a member of the International Team. In addition to co-managing the China A Share fund, she conducts portfolio analysis and is responsible for communicating current portfolio structure and outlook to clients, consultants, and prospects. She is a frequent speaker at national and regional conferences and events. Prior to joining the firm, Braming was a Principal at Mercer Investment Consulting, where she was responsible for the strategic investment direction of her public fund, corporate, healthcare and foundation clients. In addition to her client responsibilities, Braming served on Mercer’s United States Research Rating Committee, which assessed research ratings for investment manager strategies. Prior to her role at Mercer, Stephanie worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. She is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Chicago where she recently served on the Society’s Board of Directors. Braming received a Bachelor of Arts from DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, and her Masters of Business Administration with concentrations in Economics and Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Tony Campos
joined FTSE in 2004 and leads the ESG business and product development in North America, working closely with FTSE’s asset manager and asset owner clients. Prior to his current role, Campos managed FTSE's global program of engagement with companies in the FTSE4Good Index Series, which features extensive work on ESG issues with some of the world's largest public companies. Previously, Campos worked with the Multi-State Working Group on Environmental Performance (MSWG), a US not-for-profit organisation, advising on the development of market-driven environmental disclosure. Campos holds degrees in Political Science and History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has a Level 3 Certificate in Investment Management from the CFA Society of the UK. Campos is a member of the Integration Working Group of UN PRI, and the International Working Group of US SIF.
Peter Coffin
is founder and President of Breckinridge Capital Advisors, Inc. Prior to founding Breckinridge in 1993, Coffin was a Senior Vice President with Massachusetts Financial Services (MFS.) At MFS, he managed municipal bond portfolios totaling over $2 billion and supervised the management of another $3 billion. He also was a member of the firm's Fixed Income Policy Committee, which oversaw the management of close to $20 billion in bond portfolios. Coffin began his career in fixed income as an credit analyst at The Connecticut National Bank and Aetna Life, & Casualty. He received a B.A. with honors in Classical Studies from Hamilton College in 1982. He has been a member of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts and the Boston Municipal Analysts Forum and served a term on the Municipal Securities Rule Making Board (MSRB). He speaks regularly at conferences on topics related to the management of fixed income portfolios and his comments on the developments in the fixed income markets are regularly reported in numerous publications.
Lisa Davis
is a Program Officer at Ford Foundation. Her work focuses on the foundation's investments in quality housing, and on planning and land use innovations in metropolitan regions across the country. Her grant making supports integrated regional strategies and capital tools for building more equitable, sustainable regions.
Previously, Davis worked for more than a decade in both nonprofit and private sector organizations to improve housing and economic conditions in low-income communities. She was vice president and project executive at the New Boston Fund, a private real estate investment management firm. There, Davis built an innovative partnership among for-profits, nonprofits, financiers, public agencies and community groups to secure entitlements for various units of housing, developments and land purchases.
Before joining the New Boston Fund, Davis was director of development for the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation and director of housing and development for the Asian Community Development Corporation, two large, nonprofit community development corporations in Boston.
Richard Eidlin
is the Policy Director for the American Sustainable Business Council, a national business advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., that he helped to found in 2009. Eidlin has worked for twenty-five years on sustainable business and policy issues in the public and private sector.
He consulted to the UN Environment Programme in the late 80’s and early 90’s and attended the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. He worked in the U.S. solar energy industry for ten years, building several regional and national system integration businesses. He also has experience in the public sector, having worked in two senior management positions in New York City government.
Eidlin was the Business Outreach Director for the Apollo Alliance from 2005 to 2009. He served as an adjunct faculty member with Boston College’s Center for Corporate Citizenship and a board member of New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility. During the 2008 Presidential election, he co-directed the Colorado Clean Tech for Obama campaign. He currently teaches environmental policy at the University of Denver, serves on the board of Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center and directs the Greater Good Academy a training program for early stage, moderate-income entrepreneurs on how to build triple bottom line businesses. Eidlin earned a Master of Public Policy from the University of Wisconsin and a B.S. from the University of Maryland.
Margie Flynn
shares her deeply ingrained passion for the community and belief in “doing well by doing good” as Principal and Co-owner of BrownFlynn, an award-winning corporate responsibility and sustainability consulting firm based in Cleveland, OH. Founded in January 1996, BrownFlynn is the first U.S.-certified training organization to the Global Reporting Initiative and is a Silver Consultancy Partner to the Carbon Disclosure Project.Flynn speaks the language of triple bottom-line impact and has been instrumental in shaping a variety of responsible practices for regional, national and global corporations and organizations. Her strong commitment to ethical business practices and eye on global impact also make Flynn a dynamic speaker and trusted advisor for clients who seek to improve their business practices while catalyzing positive change. She is a guest lecturer for numerous local and national conferences, venues and colleges/universities, and is author of several published articles regarding sustainability and entrepreneurship in local and national publications.
Bennett Freeman
directs the Sustainability Research Department and serves on the Management Committee at Calvert Investments, where he has led the social, environmental and governance research and analysis, shareholder advocacy and public policy work since April 2006.
Before joining Calvert, Freeman led Burson-Marsteller's Global Corporate Responsibility practice from 2003-06 advising multinationals on policy development, stakeholder engagement and communications strategies related to human rights, labor rights and sustainability. As Principal of Sustainable Investment Strategies from 2001-03, he advised multinational corporations, international institutions and NGOs on corporate responsibility and human rights, and co-authored the first-ever human rights impact assessment of a large extractive project in the world.
As Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 1999-2001, Freeman directed U.S. bilateral human rights diplomacy under Assistant Secretary Harold Koh. In that position, he also led the development of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, the global human rights standard forged by governments, companies and NGOs for the extractive sectors operating in zones of conflict.
Andrew Geer
is vice president and Chicago market leader for Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. He focuses on identifying regional product opportunities in coordination with business line colleagues. Geer is the lead in expanding Enterprise’s programmatic presence in Chicago with a priority on advancing initiatives with local partners that will improve the livability of low-income residents in Chicago, including green design, regional sustainability goals and healthy housing for vulnerable populations.
Geer has nearly 20 years of experience in community development and nonprofit leadership and most recently served as executive director of Heartland Housing, Inc., a Chicago-based affordable housing organization. He led the company in all affordable and supportive housing activities for the parent organization – Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights. Under his direction, Heartland Housing was involved in the development of more than 1,300 units of affordable, supportive and mixed-income housing with an asset base of over $150 million. During his 14 years at Heartland Housing, Geer was deeply involved in the development of affordable housing to support the city of Chicago’s Plan to End Homelessness and the Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation.
Geer holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor and a master’s degree from University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy Studies.
Kimberly Gladman, CFA, Ph.D.
serves as Director of Research at GMI Ratings, a provider of environmental, social, and governance information. She has written widely on topics in responsible investment, and in 2012 was recognized as one of the industry’s leading corporate governance analysts in the Independent Research in Responsible Investment (IRRI) survey of asset managers. Before joining GMI Ratings’ predecessor, The Corporate Library, in 2008, Dr. Gladman directed a team of associates researching global corporations at Domini Social Investments, and also spent several years participating in the firm’s shareholder advocacy. Prior to joining Domini in 2001, Dr. Gladman had an academic career.
Dr. Gladman holds a B.A. from Yale University, a Ph.D. from NYU, and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. She currently serves on the Steering Committee of the PRI Academic Network, the Socially Responsible Investing Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the Research Advisory Committee of US-SIF.
Colin Harris
is a Business Development Manager for the Carbon Disclosure Project - a non-profit organizationthat administers public disclosure of companies environmental impact annually, on behalf of theinvestor community, globally. He has been working in the nexus of environmental and financial issues since 2008 as a salesman with JP Morgan's Environmental Markets team; and Directing Sales for Skystream Markets. Harris has 6 years experience in management and litigation consulting with Oliver Wyman and holds an MBA and Bachelor's degree from Cornell University.
Lisa Hayles
is Head of Client Services (North America) at EIRIS. Founded in 1983, EIRIS provides research on corporate environmental, social, governance (ESG) and other ethical performance indicators to more than 150 institutional investors around the world. EIRIS’s clients range from those who use its research for stock selection or exclusion, to pension funds and other institutional investors applying an engagement or sustainability overlay to their investment strategies.
In her current role, Hayles supports institutional fund managers and pension funds in North America seeking to implement a variety of responsible investing strategies in their investment processes. She also serves as a resource person on responsible investing issues to several independent investment committees. She joined EIRIS in November 2003 and previously worked at the Social Investment Organization in Toronto, Canada, where she was assistant director.
Paul Hilton
,
CFA, is a Portfolio Manager at Trillium Asset Management. He has been involved in sustainable and responsible investing for over 15 years, working on both the investment and sustainability research and advocacy sides. Prior to joining Trillium in 2011, Hilton was Vice President, Sustainable Investment Business Strategy at Calvert Investments, leading SRI product and business development. He also previously held senior positions within Calvert’s Equities and Marketing Departments. Before Calvert, Hilton served as Portfolio Manager for Socially Responsible Investing at The Dreyfus Corporation, and as Research Analyst in the Social Awareness Investment (SAI) program at Smith Barney Asset Management, then a division of Citigroup. He started his career in the field of SRI as an analyst with the Council on Economic Priorities.
Hilton serves as Vice Chair of the board of US SIF. He served as Treasurer of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI) and was co-project lead on the influential UNEP-FI report entitled: Fiduciary Responsibility – Legal and Practical Aspects of Integrating Environmental, Social and Governance Issues into Institutional Investment.
John Hodges
leads BSR's financial services practice, which assists banks, investment firms, insurance companies, and credit card companies to improve the sustainability of their corporate operations, implement new approaches to socially responsible investing, and adhere to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards. Most recently Hodges served as the founder and president of SunOne Solutions, a leading carbon project developer. He managed the company's staff across five offices in North and South America and led the company's efforts to assist its corporate clients in becoming more environmentally sustainable and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Previous to SunOne Solutions, Hodges served as a staff member in the World Bank's Sustainable Development Group, where he managed energy, transport, and environmental infrastructure projects in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. During his time at the World Bank, Hodges also managed the vice president for sustainable development's front office and served in the World Bank's Thailand and Kosovo country offices. He has also held positions with a private infrastructure project developer in Santiago, Chile, and an impact investing fund in Sofia, Bulgaria. Hodges has authored several publications on infrastructure development, competition policy, and climate change issues. Hodges holds an MPA from Harvard University, an International MBA from the University of South Carolina, and a BS in International Trade and Finance from Louisiana State University.
Calvin Holmes
has served as President of the Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF) since 1998. Under his leadership, CCLF’s lending has leveraged nearly $1 billion in additional public- and private-sector capital in over 50 lower wealth Chicagoland communities, in turn supporting over 6,700 units of affordable housing, more than 2.4 million square feet of community facility and commercial/retail space and 2,000 jobs, and community social enterprises. CCLF manages over $36 million in assets, making it one of the 10 largest nonprofit Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) in Illinois, and was one of only eight organizations worldwide honored with the 2009 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.
Holmes’ community development career spans 26 years, including work as a budget planner for a more than $140 million rapid-transit project, and as property manager of a 200-unit assisted housing portfolio. He currently serves as an advisor to the Bank of America National Community Advisory Council, Citibank NMTC Corporation, Mercy Loan Fund CDE, Kroger Community Development Entity, LLC, and the Great Lakes Region Sustainability Funds LLC. He holds a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning, with a concentration in real estate development, from Cornell University, and a BA in African American and Urban Studies from Northwestern University.
Holmes Hummel
is the Senior Policy Advisor in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Policy & International Affairs. In earlier public service, Hummel served as a Congressional Science Fellow focused on energy and climate policy. Experience on Capitol Hill informed Hummel’s Climate Policy Design Pro-Series, a program for Silicon Valley professionals and public interest organizers that remains an active online resource for educators and entrepreneurs alike.
Prior to moving to Washington, D.C., Hummel designed corporate energy strategies for clients of the energy intelligence software firm Itron and later consulted with the Google Energy & Climate team. As one of the first candidates to earn a PhD from the Interdisciplinary Program on Environment and Resources at Stanford University, Hummel researched Methods for Interpreting Technology and Policy Implications of Energy Scenarios for Climate Stabilization.
Hilary Irby
is Executive Director of the Morgan Stanley Global Sustainable Finance (GSF) group and Head of the Morgan Stanley Investing with Impact Initiative. GSF harnesses the power and discipline of the capital markets to enhance environmental sustainability, advance economic opportunity and promote community development. The firm’s Investing with Impact initiative aims to provide clients with investment opportunities focused on providing financial returns as well as positive environmental and social impact. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Irby was Operating Partner at JVP, a leading Israeli venture capital fund with over $900 million under management, where she oversaw the Firm’s fund management, international operations, investor relations and marketing. She also worked as part of the management team to drive the Firm's organizational strategy and spearheaded business development in the US for JVP and its portfolio companies. Previously, Irby worked at Goldman Sachs & Co., helped manage the growth of an internet consulting and integration firm, Fort Point Partners, and worked for four years as a change management consultant at Andersen Consulting. Irby holds a Masters in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Bachelor of Science from St. Lawrence University.
Adam Kanzer
is Managing Director and General Counsel of Domini Social Investments and Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of the Domini Funds. His responsibilities include directing Domini’s shareholder advocacy department, where for more than ten years he has led numerous dialogues with corporations on a wide range of social and environmental issues.
In June 2009, Kanzer was named to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee, representing “social investors." He is a founding member and serves on the board of the Global Network Initiative, an organization addressing threats to freedom of expression and privacy rights on the Internet and other communication technologies. In addition, he serves on the public policy committee of the Social Investment Forum. He is the author of “Putting Human Rights on the Agenda: The Use of Shareholder Proposals to Address Corporate Human Rights Performance,” and is a frequent speaker and commentator on socially responsible investing and corporate accountability.
Alya Kayal
is Director of Policy and Programs at US SIF. Kayal’s responsibilities on public policy include interacting with congressional offices, regulatory agencies and other organizations working on policy priorities; working on the implementation of financial reform, budget and appropriations issues at key federal agencies; monitoring environmental, social and governance issues; and keeping US SIF members informed on policy and programs, among other things. She is also involved in all program staff activities related to the various US SIF working groups. Before joining US SIF in June 2011, Kayal managed corporate sustainability research and analysis at Calvert Investments, Inc. She focused on human rights, international labor issues in the global supply chains, as well as corporate impact on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Kayal has also served on the Steering Committee of the International Working Group (IWG) of SIF. Prior to her career at Calvert, she worked at the US Department of Labor on an international child labor report that identified countries and industries that used child labor in the export of manufactured products from industry or mining to the United States. Kayal has also worked on a special project for the U.S. Information Agency and the Soros Foundation on the status of independent media in Eastern Europe and the states of the former Soviet Union. In 1992, she worked as an aide to the U.S. expert member of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. While there, she drafted several human rights resolutions and assisted in the negotiations on complex political and human rights issues with representatives from various countries. She has written and published numerous articles on human rights issues, including on the 44th session of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. She earned a JD from the University of Minnesota Law School and a BA in Sociology and International Communications from Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey.
Dinah A. Koehler, Sc.D.
is research leader for sustainability and climate change at Deloitte Research – the research division of the Deloitte US firm. She earned her Doctor of Science degree in Environmental Science and Risk Management from Harvard's School of Public Health, did coursework at MIT Sloan and Harvard Business School, received an M.A., Law & Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a BA from Wellesley College. Her research, writing, environmental management, and public policy experience and practice span 20 years in the public and private sectors and academia, including several Fortune 500 firms, the Wharton School, The Conference Board and with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Research. Her research at Deloitte has focused on the financial materiality to companies of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and eco-label strategies. She is currently working on measurement of corporate sustainability, scaling up of impact investment, and stakeholder tipping points. She has expertise in life cycle assessment, risk communication & management, sustainability performance metrics, and environmental program evaluation.
Heather Lang
is Director, Research Products, North America for Sustainalytics. She is responsible for Sustainalytics’ global platform development and managing the North American research analyst team. She sits on the board of directors of Canada’s Social Investment Organization and is also a steering committee member of the Sustainable Investment Research Analyst Network (SIRAN). Her previous work experience at Sustainalytics was as a senior research analyst focusing on the consumer staples sector.
Prior to joining the company, Lang worked as a corporate social responsibility consultant and spent two years working for a human rights organization in Israel/Palestine. She has an undergraduate degree from McGill University, a Master’s degree from Carleton University and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Toronto.
Chris Larson
oversees the Real Assets and Sustainable Agriculture Programs at New Island Capital. Prior to his work at New Island Capital, Larson worked as an independent farmland investment and conservation finance consultant. Earlier, Larson worked at Cambridge Associates, helping the firm launch its Mission-Related Investment initiative, and authored research on real assets investments for institutional clients. He served as the Executive Director of the Mattole Restoration Council, a community-led conservation non-profit in rural northwestern California. At the Council, Larson facilitated restoration and acquisition projects across 189,000 acres of range, forest and parkland. Larson completed a BS at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and an MBA at the Yale School of Management. Larson operates a small farm in Marin county focused on organic vegetable, fruit and berry production.
Linda-Eling Lee, PhD
is Head of Research for MSCI’s flagship ESG ratings product (IVA). Prior to joining MSCI ESG Research predecessor Innovest, Lee was the Research Director at the Center for Research on Corporate Performance, developing academic research at Harvard Business School into management tools to drive long-term corporate performance. She started her career as a strategy consultant with Monitor Group in Europe and in Asia, where she worked with Fortune 500 clients in industries ranging from beverages to telecommunications.
Lee has published research both in management journals such as the Harvard Business Review and MIT’s Sloan Management Review, as well as in top academic peer-reviewed journals such as Management Science and Journal of Organizational Behavior. She received her AB from Harvard, MSt from Oxford, and PhD in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University.
Maria Lettini
is Head of Signatory Relations and Outreach for the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). She joined the PRI in September of 2011 as Global Outreach Manager and is responsible for the recruitment of new PRI signatories worldwide. She has over fifteen years experience in business and finance. Maria spent eight years working in Institutional Equity Sales at J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank, based in both US and Europe. Lettini has a Master of Arts in Environment, Politics and Globalization from King's College London and a Bachelor of Arts in International Business and Latin American Studies from San Diego State University.
Stephen Liberatore
is a fixed-income portfolio manager for the TIAA-CREF organization. Liberatore is responsible for investment strategy and securities selection for several of TIAA-CREF’s fixed-income portfolios. Liberatore joined TIAA-CREF in June 2004 and has 18 years of investment management experience, including positions at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. and Protective Life Corporation, where he was responsible for portfolio management, credit research and trading for both total return and general account assets. Liberatore holds a B.S. from the State University of New York at Buffalo in finance and MIS, and an M.B.A. in finance and operations from Wake Forest University’s Babcock Graduate School of Management. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA North Carolina Society.
Lucas Mansberger
is a Consultant with Pavilion Advisory Group Inc. He provides strategic investment advice to defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans, healthcare organizations and Taft-Hartley funds. He also serves as the lead for Pavilion’s sustainable and responsible investing efforts. Mansberger joined Pavilion in 2005 and has eight years of investment experience.
Mansberger is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Chicago. He is also a member of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy with a concentration in Professional and Applied Ethics from Western Michigan University. Mansberger is currently an MBA candidate at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Amol Mehra
is the Director of the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable, a Washington D.C. based policy and advocacy organization focused on ensuring that businesses respect human rights in their global operations.
As an international human rights lawyer with expertise in corporate accountability for human rights violations and corporate social responsibility (CSR), Mehra has developed extensive insight on issues related to business and human rights, including at the United Nations and through scholarly work and publications.
Mehra has worked to build accountability frameworks in both domestic and international arenas, including over private military and security companies, around supply chains and extractives industries, and has worked to strengthen measures related to non-financial disclosure, anti-corruption and due diligence regimes.
Mehra received his Juris Doctor Degree with an Honors Certificate in International and Comparative Law from the University of San Francisco School Of Law, and also holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a concentration in Global Strategic Management and the Social Context of Business from McGill University.
In addition to his work at ICAR, Mehra is a Board Member of Human Rights Advocates, a Coordinating Member and Thematic Specialist for Amnesty International USA.
David E. Miller
is the Co-Founder and CEO of Iroquois Valley Farms LLC. Rooted by heritage in Iroquois County, Illinois, Miller returned to his native landscape as an investor in 2005 after a 30 year career in banking and real estate financial management. Purchasing a small 10 acre family farmstead, he re-connected with local relatives farming organically. In 2007 he started Iroquois Valley Farms LLC by connecting a small group of family and friends to a 142 acre farm. Prior to seeding sustainable farmland ventures, Miller held executive positions at Bank of America, Santa Fe Southern Pacific and First Chicago Corporation. His extensive experience in structuring alternative real estate investments led to the formation of the first company in North America to connect investors with organic farmland. An MBA graduate of Columbia University’s School of Business and 1975 graduate of Loyola University of Chicago, Miller views education as the primary key to changing the nature and health of our current food production system.
Meredith Miller
is the Chief Corporate Governance Officer of the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust (“Trust”). The Trust was established in 2010 as a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) to pay the medical benefits for over 840,000 UAW retirees. The Trust is the largest private healthcare payor in the U.S. and has assets of $54 billion. Miller oversees the Corporate Governance Program of the Trust for domestic and international equities, including building relationships with the Trust’s investment managers around sustainability issues and proxy voting practices.
Miller joined the Trust in 2010 after serving twelve years as Assistant Treasurer for Policy for the Connecticut State Treasurer, where she was responsible for the Treasurer’s initiatives related to Corporate Governance for the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trusts, economic development and financial education. Miller previously served in the Clinton Administration as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. Miller also served as the Assistant Director of the Employee Benefits Department, AFL-CIO and previously as the Assistant Director of Research for Employee Benefits, Service Employees International Union.
Miller received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts and her Master’s of Science from the London School of Economics, London, England.
Trisha Miller
serves as a senior adviser at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, where she works to advance energy and green building policy. Previously, she managed the Green Communities initiative at Enterprise Community Partners. Her work focused on leveraging private and public investment in green affordable housing development and sustainable building practices across the country. Miller led all aspects of the initiative, including maintaining the Green Communities Criteria and deploying more than $4 million in grants and technical assistance. She created a national technical assistance network and supported the development of 20,000 units of green housing. Miller has testified before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and frequently delivers keynote addresses and lectures on green housing. Before joining Enterprise, she directed the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights’ Community Development Initiative. As a Skadden Fellow, Miller launched this innovative project to bring legal resources to nonprofit housing and economic development organizations and thousands of individuals across the southern United States.Miller graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan, with a degree in environmental policy. She received her master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her law degree from Stanford Law School.
Michael Mufson
co-founded Redwood Investments in 2004 and is responsible for day-to-day management of the firm. He serves as co-CIO and Portfolio Manager for the Large Cap and Small Cap equity investment strategies. He is responsible for primary research coverage of information technology, industrial, telecom and utility stocks. In addition, he directs the Redwood information technology effort including implementing the firm’s proprietary quantitative model. He is a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society and has 25 years of investment experience.
Before Redwood, he was a Managing Director at Putnam Investments and member of the Executive Committee. Among the products he managed at Putnam were the TH Lee Putnam Emerging Opportunities Portfolio, Putnam OTC & Emerging Growth Fund, Putnam Vista Fund, and Putnam Capital Appreciation Fund. In addition to his portfolio management responsibilities, Mufson was charged with developing new products, managing investment professionals, and providing team leadership. His career started with Stein Roe & Farnham where he was a research analyst and portfolio manager for the Liberty Utility Fund, which was ranked #1 among utility funds during his tenure.
Mufson serves on the Jimmy Fund Visiting Committee for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Board of Trustees for CJP, Treasurer for PEJE, volunteer for Valeo FC (youth soccer) and as a General Partner for the Mobile BayBears (AA Affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks).
Mufson earned his Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Vanderbilt University. He earned his Masters of Business Administration from the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University.
John McCareins
is Senior Vice President and Practice Lead for Northern Trust's Core Institutions Practice. He leads Northern Trust’s Multi-Manager Solutions practice for core institutions including corporate, public and multi-employer retirement plans. McCareins and his team serve as an extension of an institutional investor’s staff, responsible for design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the client’s entire investment program. He serves on the Investment Oversight Committee. He is also a member of Northern Trust’s enterprise-wide corporate social responsibility committee and leads a task force focused on developing business strategies to address the growing global demand for responsible investing investment solutions.
Prior to returning to Northern Trust in 2005, McCareins was a Vice President with T. Rowe Price responsible for mutual fund and sub-advisory product development and management. He began his career with Northern Trust serving as an associate in a management training program and subsequently managing global investment services relationships as a Trust Officer and Account Manager.
McCareins earned his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Northwestern University. He earned his Masters of Business Administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Ciaran J. Murphy
is Senior Vice President at Neuberger Berman, having joined the firm in 2008. Murphy is a Client Service Officer and has specific responsibility for managing relationships for select institutional clients. Most recently, he served as a director and senior institutional portfolio strategist with Bank of America. Previous experience includes roles in sales and client service at State Street Global Advisors, where he was a principal, as well as working at Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo and Harvard Management Company. Murphy received a BBS from the University of Dublin, Trinity College and an MBA from Babson College.
Jennifer Christian Murtie
is Chief Operating Officer of Federal Street Advisors. As Chief Operating Officer, Murtie has leadership responsibility for client operations, business practices, financial performance, strategic planning and marketing and business development. In her first nine years at Federal Street Advisors, she served as Office Administrator, Director of Foundation Services and then as Director of Client Services. Passionate about philanthropy, she serves on the Advisory Council of The Haiti Fund, the Investment Committee of the Fair Food Fund - Northeast, and the Massachusetts Advisory Board of The Trust for Public Land. She is a member of the Boston Estate Planning Council, and served two years on the Professional Advisors Network for The Boston Foundation. Murtie was recently named a “Rising Star” in the wealth management and family office industry by Private Asset Management (PAM) magazine.
Prior to joining Federal Street, Murtie spent six years working at The Moriah Fund in Washington DC. She served as the foundation’s Administrative Director, where she oversaw the day to day operations of the organization. In the fall of 2007, Murtie took a six week paid sabbatical from Federal Street Advisors to consult on a clean water project in Ghana. She was also the winner in the 2007 Silverman Business Plan Competition with her business proposal to create an ecotourism consulting company focused on sustainable economic development in Africa.
Murtie received her BA in sociology and international relations from Houghton College and obtained her MBA from the Simmons School of Management.
Deborah Nisson
is
is Director of Institutional Sales at Ullico Investment Advisors/Ullico Investment Company. Nisson is a responsible for client servicing and new business sales for the North Eastern Region for all investment products managed by The Union Labor Life Insurance Company and Ullico Investment Advisors and sold through Ullico Investment Company. Nisson joined Ullico in February 2010 as the Infrastructure Product Specialist. Nisson was with Amalgamated Bank until January 2010 and was a co-founder and Portfolio Manager of Amalgamated Bank’s LongView ULTRA Construction Loan Investment Fund. Nisson was a Co-Founder and 50% owner of ULTRA, LLC which acted as the exclusive adviser to the LongView ULTRA Construction Loan Investment Fund from its inception year, 1998, to 2004 when Debbie joined Amalgamated Bank. Nisson was previously employed from 1974 through 1998 by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and served as the Investment Manager for the IBEW Pension Benefit Fund and the IBEW General Fund. Nisson graduated with a B.S. in Business Management from the University of Maryland University College and received a Master of Science Degree in Real Estate from The Johns Hopkins University. Debbie was awarded the CRE (Counselor of Real Estate) credential in 2010, and holds a registered representative designation from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
J. Ashley Nixon
is
NGO & Stakeholder Relations Manager for Shell in the Americas, a role that revolves around the food-energy-water stress nexus, particularly the environmental and social challenges, as well as opportunities, of producing and using energy in the world. His
career has featured teaching, research, consulting and corporate management of sustainability issues in over thirty countries, including work with Shell in Canada, Brazil, Nigeria, Peru, and the USA.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, he was a senior lecturer in applied ecology and environmental assessment at Farnborough College and Sunderland University, England. He was also director of an international training program in environmental management and assessment at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
Nixon is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society and has a PhD in ecology from Coventry University, England, earned from studying native forest restoration in the Scottish Hebrides
Mark Nordstrom
serves as Senior Counsel (Labor and Employment Law) for the General Electric Company. Nordstrom graduated from Colgate University in 1973 and went to work for the Speaker of the New York State Assembly and the Governor's Office of Employee Relations. While working for New York State government, he obtained a Master's Degree in Public Administration from S.U.N.Y and graduated from Albany Law School, where he was a member of the Albany Law Review. His first legal job was with the New York State United Teachers, a labor union. He joined GE’s Legal Development Program after graduating Albany Law School and served as Labor Counsel for GE's Lighting Business in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1985 and 1986. After that, he left GE to work at McCarter & English in Newark, NJ. In 1989, Nordstrom joined GE’s Corporate Legal Staff where he worked in the areas of Healthcare, Employee Benefits, and Labor and Employment Law. Nordstrom presently serves as Sr. Counsel – Labor and Employment Law with global responsibility for the legal aspects of GE’s human resource policies and practices. In addition to assuring employment policy compliance, supervising litigation and counseling on union relations, Nordstrom is responsible for maintaining GE’s various ADR programs. Nordstrom also leads GE’s global practices pertaining to Human Rights. Nordstrom is Chairman of the Pro Bono Partnership, on the Board of the American Employment Law Council, and is a member of the UN Global Compact Human Rights Working Group.
Frank Partnoy
is the George E. Barrett Professor of Law and Finance and is the director of the Center on Corporate and Securities Law at the University of San Diego. He is one of the world’s leading experts on the complexities of modern finance and financial market regulation. He worked as a derivatives structurer at Morgan Stanley and CS First Boston during the mid-1990s and wrote
F.I.A.S.C.O.: Blood in the Water on Wall Street
, a best-selling book about his experiences there. Since 1997, he has been a law professor at the University of San Diego, and an expert writing and speaking about markets to Congress, regulators, academics, and investors. He has written numerous opinion pieces for The New York Times and the Financial Times, and more than two dozen scholarly articles published in academic journals including The Journal of Finance. His recent books include
Infectious Greed: How Deceit and Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets
, a leading corporate law casebook, and
The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals
, about the 1920s markets and Ivar Kreuger, who many consider the father of modern financial schemes, which was a finalist for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year in 2009. His most recent book is
WAIT: The Art and Science of Delay
, published in 2012. Partnoy also has been a consultant to many major corporations, banks, pension funds, and hedge funds regarding various aspects of financial markets and regulation.
Edwin Pinero
is the Chief Sustainability Officer for Veolia Water North America, and leads Veolia Water's sustainability efforts in the region. He works to support programs at company operations as well as develop and implement sustainable programs and services for Veolia Water's clients. The company's North American operations serve more than 14 million people in approximately 650 communities. Over his more than 30 year career, he has worked in the private sector, including as a consultant to many clients on sustainability, environment, and energy. He has also served in the public sector at the state and Federal level addressing sustainability issues; including serving as the White House Federal Environmental Executive where he focused on developing and implementing sustainability policy and practices within the Federal government; as well as at the state level in sustainability and energy. He has Bachelors and Masters of Science degrees in Geology.
Mark Regier
is director of stewardship investing for Praxis Mutual Funds and Everence Financial, a leading provider of faith-based financial products in the United States and a ministry of Mennonite Church USA. He oversees the company’s investment screening, proxy voting and corporate engagement activities and led the creation of the firm’s own community investing arm, Everence Community Investments. Regier has served as governing board chair for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and founding chair for the International SRI Working Group of US SIF. He currently sits on the boards of the Isaiah Funds(disaster recovery investments), Partners for the Common Good (faith-based community investments), and the Good Steward Fund (leading ESG hedge fund). In 2006, Regier received the SRI Service Award, the US social investment industry’s highest honor. With 20 years of service to the church and a background in ethics and theological studies, Regier is often a resource to national and international organizations on faith-based and community investing issues.
Debra Schwartz
is Director of Program-Related Investments at the MacArthur Foundation. She oversees the Foundation's $300-million PRI portfolio of below-market loans and investments which it uses principally to support economic development and affordable housing organizations in the U.S. Before joining MacArthur in 1995, she served as chief financial officer for a Chicago-based child welfare agency. Previously, Schwartz was an investment banker at John Nuveen & Co., where she originated more than $1 billion in tax-exempt bond financing for municipalities and nonprofit health care institutions.
Schwartz is a past presidential appointee to the United States Treasury Department Community Development Advisory Board and a founding member of the Mission Investors Exchange. She is an Adjunct Professor in the College of the University of Chicago, a Social Enterprise Fellow at the Yale School of Management, and also has lectured at Yale Law School, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Her main areas of expertise include impact investing, affordable housing finance, energy efficiency finance, and social sector financial innovation.
Schwartz graduated from Yale University summa cum laude and received a Master's degree in finance and nonprofit management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Timothy Smith
is Senior Vice President and Director of ESG Shareowner Engagement at Walden Asset Management. Smith joined Walden in October 2000. His primary responsibilities include overseeing shareholder advocacy and public policy and being a spokesperson for Walden on ESG issues. Walden has been a national leader in responsible investing for over 35 years, working on the environment, climate change, sweatshops, executive compensation, and corporate governance among other issues.
Previously, Smith served for more than two decades as Executive Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, where he helped translate statements of concern by the religious community about corporate conduct into action and assisted ICCR’s religious member organizations and responsible investment partners in their ethical investing and shareholder advocacy.
Smith received the Bavaria Impact Award in 2010. In 2011, the National Association of Corporate Directors named him one of the most influential people in corporate governance and the boardroom. He is a member of the Exxon Mobil Advisory Board.
Kate Starr
is the Vice President, Capital Deployment, at the F.B. Heron Foundation. She leads the management of $270 million in grants and investments. Starr is currently a member of the Foundation Financial Officers Group, the CFA Institute, the New York Society of Security Analysts, and the Mission Investors Exchange. Previous roles at the Foundation include Investment Officer and Senior Program Officer. Prior to joining Heron in 2001, Starr worked as a consultant at ATKearney’s Global Business Policy Council, a research associate at microfinance institution PRIDE Tanzania, and as an economics and equity analyst at First Asset Management. Starr earned a BA in English and Italian from Indiana University, a MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Brian Upbin
is the Global Head of Benchmark Index Research and Product Development with the Barclays Index, Portfolio and Risk Solutions team. A top Institutional Investor ranked analyst for Bond Market Indices, Mr. Upbin joined Barclays in September 2008 from Lehman Brothers, where he was the head of the U.S. Fixed Income Index Strategies team. In addition to various Barclays research publications, his research has also appeared in The Journal of Portfolio Management. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and his M.B.A. from Yale University. A Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, Upbin is also a member of the Fixed Income Analysts Society, Inc.
Barbara VanScoy
is Chief Impact Investment Officer and Co-Founder of Community Capital Management. In her role, VanScoy is responsible for fixed income and community development research and client portfolio management. She is a well-regarded author, speaker and expert on the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Through her work, VanScoy has created an extensive network of mortgage originators and municipal underwriters to encourage the production of affordable housing, job training programs and affordable healthcare facilities. Before joining Community Capital, VanScoy was Director of Mortgage Research at SunCoast Capital Group, Ltd. She began her investment career in 1991 and holds a BS in Finance from The University of Florida. VanScoy serves on the Board of Directors and is Secretary of the Southern Municipal Finance Society (SMFS), and is past Co-Chair of the Securities Taskforce of Women in Housing and Finance. She is also a member of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, volunteers her time as a judge for the InvestWrite Program of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), and is a Founding Chair of The Charlotte Lacrosse Foundation. In 2008, VanScoy was named one of the "20 Rising Stars of Fixed Income" by Institutional Investor.
Mijo Vodopic
is a program officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In this role, he works to communicate the importance of rental housing in the U.S. economy and to limit the influence cities have on climate.
He came to the Foundation from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, where he led evaluations on the Basel II Accord’s impact on global and domestic banking competition and the effects of eminent domain actions on property owners and communities. Previously, he was director of property and asset management at Heartland Housing Incorporated, where he managed a portfolio of properties that offered on-site social services and worked to help revitalize severely distressed public housing communities. Earlier, he advocated on behalf of homeless families during a period of welfare reform while at the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness.
Vodopic received his Masters degree in Public Policy Studies from the University of Chicago.
Karen Weigert
serves as Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Chicago. She was appointed in 2011. As Chief Sustainability Officer Weigert works to guide the City’s sustainability strategy and implementation, bringing innovative, practical solutions throughout the work of the City. Prior to her appointment Weigert served as Senior Vice President of ShoreBank (later Urban Partnership Bank) where she built a national consumer group that generated deposits to support environmental sustainability and community development in low to moderate income urban neighborhoods. Before her work in community banking Weigert was a strategy consultant at McKinsey where she served clients on topics including transportation, finance, energy and land use. She began her career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and later served as an appointee in the Clinton administration focused on global environmental issues and agriculture. She is a producer and writer for the documentary film Carbon Nation which is focused on solutions to climate change. She is also a former board member of CNT, Foresight Design Initiative and Earth School Educational Foundation. Weigert graduated from the University of Notre Dame (Phi Beta Kappa) and Harvard Business School.
Craig Wichner
is Managing Partner and directs the farmland investment program at Farmland LP, including overseeing property acquisitions, leases and sales, and oversees the financial and legal affairs for the Partnership.
Wichner is a seasoned executive with 20 years building companies which have, among other things, developed and currently produce an FDA-approved treatment for metastatic brain cancer, and developed and sold automated employee contribution programs for Fortune 500 Companies such as GM, EDS, and Charles Schwab. Wichner has helped raise over $125 million in 14 funding transactions (including a $33 million IPO) and has led three M&A transactions. Wichner served as CEO/President/CFO for three successful companies, two of which were venture-funded, and has served on boards and advisory boards including two venture funds. Mr. Wichner helps manage a multi-million dollar real estate investment property company.
Wichner received a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a minor in Economics from UCSD, earning Provost’s Honors and performing graduate-level research on HIV/AIDS as an undergraduate. His agricultural experience includes spending 10 summers growing up on a ranch and farm.
David Zellner
is the Chief Investment Officer for Wespath Investment Management, which is a division of the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church in Glenview, Illinois. Wespath currently manages $19 billion of participant and UMC-affiliated institutional assets and provides benefits to approximately 75,000 active and retired lay and clergy employees of The United Methodist Church and its affiliated agencies. Before assuming his current position in 1997, Zellner was a Senior Vice President and Director of Operations with Investment Research Company, then an investment management affiliate of United Asset Management. Previously, he was Director of Equities for the Shell Oil Company Retirement Funds where he managed two internal investment portfolios.Zellner helped co-author and was one of the original signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment in 2006. He serves on the board of directors for the Capital Guardian Emerging Markets Growth Fund. He received his B.S. in Finance from Louisiana State University and MBA from the University of Houston..
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