Investing for a Sustainable World

Plenary Speakers

Robert J. Jackson Jr.

Commissioner

US Securities and Exchange Commission

Robert J. Jackson Jr. was appointed by President Donald Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and was sworn in on January 11, 2018. Commissioner Jackson comes to the SEC from NYU School of Law, where he was a professor of law. He previously was professor of law and director of the Program on Corporate Law and Policy at Columbia Law School. He also has served as an adviser at the Treasury Department and in the Office of the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation. Commissioner Jackson earned his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, a BS and MBA in Finance from Wharton, an MPP from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and his JD from Harvard Law School.

Flavia Micilotta

Executive Director

EUROSIF: European Sustainable Investment Forum

Flavia Micilotta is Executive Director at Eurosif, the pan-European sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) membership organization whose mission is to promote sustainability through European financial markets with a membership network reaching €8 trillion in total assets. As a member of the High-Level Group on Sustainable Finance set up by the European Commission, Micilotta helped craft a blueprint for sustainable finance as part of the Capital Markets Union. Micilotta has over 17 years of experience in responsible business management and responsible investments. As a sustainability consultant and qualified environmental auditor at EY and Deloitte, she assisted companies embed sustainability in their business models and go beyond the remits of social and environmental compliance. Focused on issues ranging from climate change and adaptation, to supply chain management and responsible investments, Micilotta worked with several European banks and asset managers to help them streamline their responsible investment approach.

Anna Pot

Manager, Responsible Investments

APG Asset Management N.V.

Anna Pot works at APG Asset Management N.V., which manages €474 billion (December 2017) in Dutch pension assets. Pot started at APG in 2008 and currently works in the New York office with the capital markets teams on engaging U.S. companies and further integrating ESG considerations in the investment process. She is responsible for sustainability dialogues with companies and for APG’s inclusion/exclusion policy. Before joining APG, Pot coordinated the human rights and business sector program of Amnesty International Netherlands, and managed a sustainable investment fund at ING.

Lenora Suki

Head, Product Strategy, Sustainable Finance

Bloomberg LP

Lenora Suki works across Bloomberg's businesses and across asset classes to enable investors, corporates and other users to comprehensively understand investment risks and opportunities driven by sustainability and impact using Bloomberg products. Suki also serves as a board member of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation as the Chair of the Finance Committee.

Before joining Bloomberg, Suki founded Smart Cities Advisors, an international housing advisory firm, and was an Associate Director at the Earth Institute at Columbia University working on the Millennium Development Goals and remittances and development. Prior to that, Suki worked in banking as regional fixed income strategist for Banco Santander and in investment management as emerging markets debt and equity analyst at OFFITBANK. As program staff at the World Bank, Suki supported the Treasury's borrowing programs, as well as lending and research in the Europe and Central Asia and private sector development departments.

Kurt Summers

Treasurer

City of Chicago, Illinois

Kurt Summers is Chicago’s 70th Treasurer, responsible for managing the city’s $8 billion investment portfolio and maintaining records and accounts of the city’s finances. He also sits on four local pension boards with nearly $25 billion under management.

Since taking office in 2014, Treasurer Summers has sought to maximize his office's value for Chicago's residents. As such, he has announced the most comprehensive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing initiative of any major city in the country; developed an investment vehicle that will drive economic growth in all 77 Chicago neighborhoods; and increased investment returns while also prioritizing liquidity and safety of principal.

Previously, Summers was a Senior Vice President at Grosvenor Capital Management, Chief of Staff to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and Chief of Staff for Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid.

Mark Tercek

President and CEO

The Nature Conservancy

Mark Tercek is President and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, the world’s largest conservation organization. He is the co-author of the bestselling book Nature’s Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature. Before joining The Nature Conservancy in 2008, Tercek was a Partner and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs where he worked for 24 years. Starting in 2005, he led the firm’s environmental strategy and Environmental Markets Group. Inspired by the opportunity to help businesses, governments and environmental organizations work together in new, innovative ways, Tercek left Goldman Sachs in 2008 to head up The Nature Conservancy.

Richard Vevers

Founder and CEO

The Ocean Agency

Richard Vevers is the Founder and CEO of The Ocean Agency, an unconventional not-for-profit that uses the powerful combination of new technology, media, partnerships, and creativity to work at a meaningful speed and scale. Prior to joining the field of ocean conservation, Vevers worked for over ten years at some of the top London advertising agencies, and it is this background that allows him to bring a new approach to ocean conservation. He believes that the combination of creative thinking, effective communication, and strong global partnerships in business, science, and conservation are key to solving the threats facing the ocean. This thinking has manifested in groundbreaking ocean science and conservation projects, such as the XL Catlin Seaview Survey, the most comprehensive survey of the world’s coral reefs ever conducted. Together with The Ocean Agency, Vevers pioneered underwater 360-degree photography technology, leading to the most viewed underwater photography in history as he brought Google Street View underwater. For the last few years, he has lead the only team recording and revealing the Third Global Coral Bleaching event to the world - a mission that resulted in Vevers being the main subject in a Netflix Original Documentary, Chasing Coral.

Lisa Woll

CEO

US SIF - The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment

Lisa Woll is responsible for strategic planning, developing a robust policy presence, expansion and diversification of funding, launching the US SIF national conference and creating the Center for Sustainable Investment Education. Before 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. 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. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, the founder of Suited for Change, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization serving low income women, and was Board President of Women’s Voices for the Earth, a national environmental health organization based in Montana.

Breakout Speakers

Frank Altman

CEO

Community Reinvestment Fund, USA

Frank Altman, as CRF’s founder, pioneered the development of a secondary market for community and economic development. Under Altman's leadership and in partnership with a network of local community partners, CRF has funded $2.2 billion in loans to job-creating small businesses, nonprofits, charter schools and affordable housing projects in 49 states plus DC and in 932 communities across the United States.
Altman helped design the creation of a federal tax credit to encourage private investment in low-income communities and is a founding member and first President of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition. He is also a member of the Center for Community Development Investors at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and an advisor to the Social Innovation Initiative at Brown University. Recently Altman has been awarded the Economic Development Innovation Award from GIS Planning Inc. and fDi Intelligence for his contribution to the field of economic development. Altman is a Senior Fellow at Ashoka, the world-wide network of social entrepreneurs.

Kwame Anochie

Executive Vice President

PIMCO

Kwame Anochie is an executive vice president and a member of PIMCO's global wealth management group in the Newport Beach office, where he oversees the team’s separate account servicing, including sub-advised funds and HNW family office relationships. Anochie is also a member of PIMCO's Global Sustainability leadership, helping to oversee the firm's environmental, social and governance efforts. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2003, he was with Wells Fargo Bank's commercial lending group. He has 15 years of investment experience.

Beth Bafford

Vice President of Syndications and Strategy

Calvert Impact Capital

Beth Bafford leads the organization’s services to accelerate capital flows into communities through loan structuring and syndications. She also oversees Calvert Impact Capital’s strategy, communications, and impact measurement functions. Prior to joining Calvert Impact Capital, Bafford was a consultant in McKinsey & Company's D.C. office. She has also worked as a Special Assistant at the White House Office of Management and Budget, as a Regional Field Director for the 2008 Obama for America campaign, and as a Senior Associate at UBS Financial Services.

Elise Bean

Formerly Staff to U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

Elise Bean worked for U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), including 15 years at the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI). Appointed his PSI staff director and chief counsel in 2003, Bean handled investigations, hearings, and legislation on such matters as tax abuse, corporate misconduct, abuses involving derivatives and structured finance, money laundering, and shell companies with hidden owners. Investigations headed by Bean included inquiries into the 2008 financial crisis, HSBC money laundering problems, London whale trades at JPMorgan Chase, the collapse of Enron, and offshore tax avoidance by Apple, Microsoft, and Caterpillar. In 2015, after Senator Levin retired and the Levin Center at Wayne Law was established in his honor, Ms. Bean joined the Center to work on strengthening legislative capabilities at the federal, state, local, and international levels to conduct investigations and oversight. In 2018, Bean was recognized as a leader on tax justice issues by Global Witness. In 2016 and 2015, Ms. Bean was included in the Global Tax 50. In 2013 and 2011, the Washingtonian magazine named her one of Washington’s 100 most powerful women. In 2010, the National Law Journal selected her as one of Washington’s most influential women lawyers.

Andrew Behar

CEO

As You Sow

Andrew Behar is the CEO of As You Sow, founded in 1992 and is the nation’s leading non-profit practitioner of shareholder advocacy and engagement. Behar works with shareholders to help change corporations for good by engaging corporations, educating individual and institutional investors about proxy power and promoting alignment of investments with values. Behar previously founded a clean-tech start-up developing innovative fuel cell technologies for grid-scale energy storage. Behar is on the board of US SIF: Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investing, the advisory boards of Real Impact Tracker and 1-Earth Institute, the steering committee of Institutional Investor Educational Foundation and is a member of the UN Green Finance Advisory Group. His book, The Shareholders Action Guide: Unleash Your Hidden Powers to Hold Corporations Accountable was published in November 2016 by Berrett-Koehler.

David Bennell

North American Manager

Food, Land and Water, World Business Council for Sustainable Development

David Bennell focuses on climate smart agriculture and global food systems reform (FReSH). Previously, he was Director of Food and Capital Markets for the investor-led organization Ceres. Bennell has worked for Microsoft, REI and LL Bean in leadership development, product development and sourcing positions. His career also includes working as a funder focused on sustainable forestry, the co-creation of the for-profit social enterprise company CottonConnect, co-creation of a $10 million impact investing fund focused on food and agriculture investments and leading the apparel industry NGO Textile Exchange focused on standards development for responsible sourcing. Bennell also created a seventeen-part video series on Linked In’s learning channel, Lynda.com, called Sustainability Strategies, as well as held a five-year adjunct faculty positon at MIT in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Hugh Brown

Senior Manager, Investment Engagement on Water

Ceres

Hugh Brown helps lead the Investor Water Hub, a Ceres Investor Network working group with more than 90 institutional investors and $19 trillion in AUM. The Hub published a guide on water integration in 2017—Investor Water Toolkit. Brown drives research to deepen investors' knowledge of sustainability, water risks, and portfolio integration considerations. He previously worked at SBA Florida, which manages over $180bn in assets where he focused on ESG, across asset class analysis and risk management research. Brown is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a board member for a local non-profit medical center.

Tony Calandro

President

Purposeful Strategies

Tony Calandro is a sustainability leader with more than 20 years of experience in strategic communications and change management. He counsels C-suite executives across a variety of industry sectors to successfully address their most complex business and societal challenges. Calandro has a proven track record of driving transformative change inside companies: helping them to make the business case for action; aligning internal operations; embedding societal issues that intersect with companies; and, filling the role of translator to both inside audiences and outside stakeholder groups.

Mike Chen

Portfolio Manager, Equity

PanAgora

Dr. Mike Chen is responsible for novel alpha research and model development in the Equity group, and daily management of PanAgora’s ESG portfolios. Prior to joining PanAgora, Chen was a Portfolio Manager at BlackRock’s Scientific Active Equity (SAE) team, where his responsibilities include portfolio management and research into alpha insights for use across the entire SAE platform. While at SAE, Chen won “Signal of the Year” award for a signal he researched and developed. Prior to BlackRock, Chen worked at Google where he was a member of the team that managed Google’s fixed income investment portfolio and FX exposures. Chen started his career at Morgan Stanley in New York where he traded and managed a portfolio of exotic US rates derivatives. While at Morgan Stanley, Chen researched, developed and patented a framework that allowed for pricing of derivatives based on two rate curves with dynamic multiplicative spread, one of the first such models on the street.

http://www.panagora.com

Michelle Clayman

Partner and Chief Investment Officer

New Amsterdam Partners

Michelle Clayman, CFA, is the Founder, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer of New Amsterdam Partners LLC, an institutional money management firm in New York. Clayman has been published in the Financial Analysts Journal, the Journal of Investing and NYSSA Financial Professionals' Post, and is a frequent commentator on Bloomberg and other financial media. In addition, she sits on the Boards of the Society of Quantitative Analysts (of which she is a past President) and The Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance, and is a volunteer for the CFA Institute. Clayman is also Chair of the Advisory Council of Stanford University’s Institute for Gender Research and a member of Stanford University’s Board of Trustees.

Aubre Clemens

Vice President

J.P. Morgan Private Bank

Aubre Clemens is an Executive Director on the J.P. Morgan Manager Selection Due Diligence team located in Denver, Colorado. Clemens is responsible for the global selection and coverage of Sustainable Investments. As part of this role, she is responsible for the identification and evaluation of Sustainable Investment strategies for the J.P. Morgan Private Bank, and sits on the Sustainable Investing taskforce; a global taskforce that is focused on providing resources, strategies and strategic advice on the topic of Sustainable Investing. Clemens supports the educational efforts by conducting discussions on Sustainable Investing concepts and trends.

Michael Connor

Executive Director

Open MIC

Michael Connor is the founding Executive Director of Open MIC, a non-profit that works to foster greater corporate accountability at media and technology companies, principally through shareholder engagement. Working with impact investors, Open MIC identifies, develops and supports campaigns that promote values of openness, equity, privacy, and diversity. Prior to Open MIC, Connor worked as an award-winning media executive, entrepreneur and journalist with experience in television, print and the Internet. A former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and correspondent for ABC News, Conner’s journalism has received numerous honors, including two national Emmys, a Columbia-duPont Award, a Writers Guild Award and a nomination for an Academy Award.

Rick Davis

Partner and Chief Operating Officer

Pegasus Capital Advisors

Rick Davis joined Pegasus as an Operating Partner in 2005 and became partner and COO in 2011 and is a member of the Executive, Investment, Compliance and Sustainability Committees. Davis served on President Reagan’s political team and in three Reagan Administration Cabinet Agencies including as White House Special Assistant to the President for the Domestic Policy Council. President George H.W. Bush appointed him as Deputy Executive Director for the White House Conference on Science and Economic Research Related to Global Climate Change. While in the private sector Davis built one of the most influential and successful public affairs companies in the United States. In 2000 and 2008 Davis served as Senator John McCain’s national campaign manager leading all aspects of the campaign activity. Davis currently serves on the Boards of The McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University, and Allied Minds. Davis also serves on the Board of The Environmental Defense Action Fund developing initiatives and ties to the corporate community that promotes better stewardship of the environment.

Rachel Goldstein

Global Sustainability Reporting Senior Manager

Mars, Inc.

Rachel Goldstein leads Mars’ external sustainability reporting work across a range of platforms and disclosures such as CDP and customer scorecards. Her responsibilities also include packaging sustainability, implementing programs on sustainability related claims, and leading sustainability for Mars’ Global Horizon Scanning capability. Goldstein also engages externally representing Mars as the co-chair of the Food Beverage and Agriculture working group of the Sustainability Consortium; co-chairing the Forest Products working group of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition; and leading Mars’s engagement in the New Plastics Economy. She has recently joined the Board of Directors for GreenBlue.

Prior to Mars, Goldstein was the Team Leader of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP), a voluntary program that encourages methane emissions reductions through the capture and beneficial use of landfill gas. She was also the lead for this work in India, China and Southeast Asia under the Global Methane Initiative. Goldstein was in the health, safety and environmental field before joining EPA.

Carly Greenberg

ESG Analyst

Boston Trust/Walden Asset Management

Carly Greenberg, CFA, is a Senior ESG Analyst at Boston Trust/Walden Asset Management, a Boston based investment management firm serving individual and institutional clients. She is responsible for assessing the ESG performance of current and potential portfolio companies and works on shareholder engagement initiatives related to a range of sustainability issues. Greenberg also oversees Walden’s community investing service and contributes to traditional securities research. She leads Walden’s efforts to apply the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework to the firm’s investment decision-making and active ownership processes and is a member of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment SDGs Advisory Committee.

Haley Griffin

Principal

The Raben Group

Haley Griffin has worked with a wide range of non-profit, foundation, and corporate clients at both the state and federal level. However her passion, and much of her client work, is focused on social justice. Over her ten year tenure at The Raben Group, she has worked to improve services to traditionally underserved communities including inmates, returning citizens, homeless children and youth, court-involved youth, and survivors of rape, sexual assault, and sex trafficking.
In addition to her policy work, Griffin manages the firm’s strategic planning division. Working with clients to help them align their service and business delivery models and distinguish between an organizational strategy and its accompanying tactics.

Keir Gumbs

Partner

Covington & Burling LLP

Keir Gumbs is a partner in Washington, DC and vice chair of the Securities and Capital Markets Practice Group. Before Covington, Gumbs spent six years at the SEC where he held numerous positions, including as counsel to an SEC Commissioner. Gumbs is recognized as a leading authority on securities regulation and corporate governance and represents a cross-section of constituencies, including Fortune 500 companies, venture-backed firms, public pension funds, hedge funds, faith-based investors and trade associations. At Covington, Gumbs' practice is equally distributed into the following three categories: 1. Advising companies, investors and regulated entities with respect to ongoing securities regulatory compliance. 2. Advising boards and investors with respect to corporate governance and 3. Advising companies and investors on a variety of transactional matters.

Tony Hay

Publisher and Co-Founder

Response Global Media Limited

Tony Hay Co-Founded Response Global Media with Hugh Wheelan in 2007, and built a successful and highly respected publishing and events company specializing in business-critical information for the institutional investment and capital markets, including: Responsible Investor (2007), ESG Magazine (2015) and organizing a series of well-established responsible investment conferences - RI Asia (Tokyo), RI Americas (New York), RI Europe (London) and ESG in Manager Selection (London). Prior to founding Response Global Media Limited, Hay was a member of the board and Sales Director at IPE International Publishers for 10 years where he was instrumental in developing a range of new products such as IPE-Quest, the IPE Awards and the company’s widely acclaimed web site, IPE.com.

Aruna Jain

Senior Investment Consultant

Mercer

Aruna Jain’s primary role consists of assisting large institutional DC and DB clients with the development of investment policies and objectives, enhancing and evaluating DC investment programs, implementing custom investment solutions and researching investment strategies. Jain is a founding member of Mercer’s Target Date Research Team, responsible for conducting manager research and developing intellectual capital specific to the asset class and is a member of Mercer’s Defined Contribution Investment Committee.

Amy Jensen

Investment Director

Northwest Area Foundation

Amy Jensen guides the investment of the organization’s assets so they align with and fund the priorities of the mission priorities and continue to be available for grant-making opportunities in the future. Jensen has worked for organizations spanning the U.S., from San Diego to Maine, gaining diverse investment management experience. She worked for a financial services analytics developer, an asset management and trust company, and a private liberal arts college before transitioning into the philanthropic arena. Most recently, Jensen was portfolio manager for Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies in Eden Prairie, Minn. Prior to the Philanthropies; Jensen worked for the Investments Office of Bowdoin College, which is responsible for the management of the school’s endowment.

Adam Kanzer

Managing Director and General Counsel

Domini Social Investments

Adam Kanzer’s responsibilities include directing Domini’s shareholder advocacy department. Kanzer is a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee and served on the SEC’s inaugural Investor Advisory Committee (June 2009-November 2010). 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, and serves on the board of Tax Justice Network-USA, the public policy committee of US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, and the advisory council of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

Daniel Kern

Chief Investment Officer

TFC Financial Management

Daniel Kern is responsible for overseeing TFC's investment process, research activities and portfolio strategy. Prior to joining TFC, Kern was the President and CIO at Advisor Partners and served as Managing Director/Portfolio Manager of asset allocation for Charles Schwab Investment Management, where he managed $3.5 billion of mutual fund assets. Additionally, Kern is an Independent Trustee for Green Century Funds and is a regular panelist and speaker at various investment forums and a regular contributor to US News and World Report.

Sonia Kowal

President

Zevin Asset Management

Sonia Kowal as President and a member of the firm's investment committee incorporates sustainability issues into investment decision making. Previously, Kowal headed EIRIS’ U.S. office and was a portfolio manager and investment research analyst at Baillie Gifford in Scotland, where she had responsibility for investments in Emerging Markets. Kowal is currently on the board of ICCR – the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of faith and values-driven organizations who view the management of their investments as a powerful catalyst for social change.

Jonas Kron

Senior Vice President, Director of Shareholder Advocacy

Trillium

Jonas Kron is Trillium’s Director of Shareholder Advocacy. With almost 20 years of experience in shareholder advocacy, Jonas is responsible for leading and coordinating Trillium’s extensive advocacy program, which works to engage companies on their environmental and social performance. His advocacy work includes direct communications with company leadership, investor education and awareness, filing shareholder proposals, and public policy advocacy at the municipal, state and federal levels. As a recognized legal expert in the field and a leader in shareholder advocacy, Jonas regularly represents Trillium in the media, at public events, and with clients.

Charlotte Laurent-Ottomane

Co-founder and Executive Director

Thirty Percent Coalition

Charlotte Laurent-Ottomane in 2011 co-founded the Thirty Percent Coalition, an influential national organization and serves as its Executive Director. Prior to working at the Thirty Percent Coalition Laurent-Ottomane lived in France and led Investor Relations and Capital Market strategies for Alcatel Lucent until 2007. She has successfully directed two IPOs, several high profile mergers and North American operations for an Alcatel subsidiary. Laurent-Ottoman founded Nvestcom in 2007, a capital markets consulting firm, working with public companies on investor relations and corporate governance. Laurent-Ottomane is often quoted in the media as a thought leader in gender diversity and corporate governance. She was recently recognized as a 2017 Star by Global Proxy Watch for her work leading the Thirty Percent Coalition.

Rebecca MacKinnon

Director of the Ranking Digital Rights Project

New America

Rebecca MacKinnon directs the Ranking Digital Rights project at New America, evaluating internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies on their respect for users’ privacy, security and freedom of expression. She is on the Board of Directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists and was a founding board member of the Global Network Initiative. MacKinnon was CNN’s Bureau Chief and correspondent in China and Japan between 1998-2004. She taught at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Pennsylvania Law School and held fellowships at Harvard’s Shorenstein and Berkman Centers, the Open Society Foundations, and Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy.

Emily Martin

General Counsel and Vice President for Education & Workplace Justice

National Women’s Law Center

Emily Martin oversees the Center’s advocacy, policy, and education efforts to ensure fair treatment and equal opportunity for women and girls at work and at school and to forward policy frameworks that allow them to achieve and succeed, with a particular focus on the obstacles that confront women and girls of color and women in low-wage jobs. Martin also provides in-house legal advice and representation to the Center. Prior to joining the Center, Martin served as Deputy Director of the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. She has also served as Vice President and President of the Fair Housing Justice Center, a non-profit organization in New York City.

Maria Martinez

Senior Advisor on Tax and Accountability in the Private Sector Department

Oxfam America

Maria Martinez is focused on engaging with stakeholders on responsible tax policies and practices in an effort to achieve a fair tax system that will combat poverty and inequality while sustain growth. Martinez joined Oxfam from the private sector where she has more than 10 years of experience advising multinational companies on international tax issues at Ernst & Young LLP, and also worked at the Inter-American Development Bank.

Aeisha Mastagni

Portfolio Manager within the Corporate Governance Unit

California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS)

Aeisha Mastagni is a portfolio manager for CalSTRS, the nation’s largest teacher retirement fund. Mastagni’s main areas of focus are the corporate engagement program, executive compensation, selecting and monitoring managers in the activist manager portfolio, and working with regulatory authorities on market-wide issues. In 2012, Aeisha joined the Board of Directors at the Golden 1 Credit Union. In 2015, she joined the Board of Directors for the Council of Institutional Investors. Mastagni was named one of the “40 Under 40, Freshest Talent at the World’s Largest Asset Owners” by aiCIO Magazine, for two years in a row.

Jessica Milano

Vice President and Director of ESG Research

Calvert Research and Management

Jessica Milano is responsible for overseeing the Calvert Research and Management’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) research on global securities, which focuses on identifying and analyzing ESG factors most critical to company performance and whose societal impact is most significant. Milano leads a team of ESG research analysts conducting deep, proprietary research focused on material ESG issues. She joined Calvert Research and Management in 2018. Before joining Calvert Research and Management, Milano was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Small Business, Community Development and Housing Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department. Prior to her government service, she held positions as director of research at Compass Lexecon, an economic consulting firm, and with Promontory Interfinancial Network. She is also the author of several policy reports a member of the board of directors of Small Business Majority, a national small business advocacy organization.

Raina Oberoi

Executive Director, Equity Applied Research Team

MSCI

Raina Oberoi is an Executive Director in the Equity Applied Research team. She conducts research and assists institutional clients on their investment decisions with respect to MSCI products. Oberoi has been in the investment industry for over 10 years and held several roles including, serving as an index trading strategist at Morgan Stanley. Oberoi currently is a Trustee for the Oliver Scholars Program.

Lukasz Pomorski

Managing Director, Global Stock Selection group

AQR

Lukasz Pomorski conducts research on equity markets and engages clients on equity-related issues. He is also a member of AQR’s ESG Working Group and provides direct research and portfolio management perspectives with respect to AQR’s Global Stock Selection team. Prior to AQR, he was an Assistant Director for Research in the Funds Management and Banking Department of the Bank of Canada and an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Toronto. Pomorski’s research has been published in top academic and practitioner journals and won several awards, including the first prize award at 2010 Chicago Quantitative Alliance Academic Paper Competition, 2011 Toronto CFA Society and Hillsdale Canadian Investment Research Award, the 2013 Best Paper Award from the Review of Asset Pricing Studies, and the Spangler IQAM Prize for the Best Paper in Investments in 2017.

Gretchen Postula

Chief Compliance Officer and Head of Investor Relations

North Sky Capital

Gretchen Postula is part of North Sky Capital’s senior management team and is actively involved in strategic planning, fund development and staffing decisions. Previously, Gretchen was a marketing and planning coordinator with the PGA Tour and an original employee of Softspikes, Inc.

Brandon Rees

Deputy Director of Corporations and Capital Markets

American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)

Brandon Rees works at the AFL-CIO which is a federation of 55 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working men and women. Union sponsored and Taft-Hartley pension and employee benefit plans hold approximately $667 billion in assets. Rees also serves as the Shareholder Advocacy Committee Co-Chair of the Council of Institutional Investors, the Supervisory Committee Chair of the AFL-CIO Employees Federal Credit Union, and is a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s standing advisory group.

Duane Roberts

Director of Equities and Portfolio Manager

Dana Investment Advisors

Duane Roberts joined Dana Investment Advisors in June 1999 and is currently Director of Equities and an Equity Portfolio Manager. Roberts graduated from Rice University with a BS in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics in 1980. He earned an MS in Statistics from Stanford University in 1981 and an MBA in Finance from Southern Methodist University in 1999. Duane is a CFA® charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Jonathan F.P. Rose

President

Jonathan Rose Companies

Jonathan F.P. Rose has focused his career on creating more environmentally, socially and economically resilient cities. In 1989, Rose founded Jonathan Rose Companies LLC, a multidisciplinary real estate development, planning, and investment firm, which creates real estate and planning models to address the challenges of the 21st century. The company’s mission is to develop communities that enhance opportunity for all. Rose frequently lectures on affordable housing, community development, smart growth and the environment. Rose’s book on how to create resilient cities, The Well-Tempered City: What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations and Human Nature Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life, was published by Harper Wave in 2016, and won the 2017 PROSE Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work by a Trade Publisher. In 2015, Rose held the Yale School of Architecture’s Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Architectural Fellowship. He has testified before U.S. Senate and House Committees on housing, infrastructure and environmental issues, and served as an Advisor to the White House Office of Urban Affairs.

Leslie Samuelrich

President

Green Century Capital Management

Leslie Samuelrich is President of Green Century Capital Management, focusing on the firm’s current and emerging investment strategies, business development, and impact investing program. Green Century has helped companies and firms add responsible and fossil fuel free options to their retirement plans. She is a frequent speaker and has been quoted in Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times, and The Guardian among other outlets on environmentally sustainable investing topics. Samuelrich currently serves on the Board of Directors for US SIF and the Advisory Board of the Intentional Endowments Network.

Aniket Shah

Head of Sustainable Investing

Oppenheimer Funds

Aniket Shah is Head of Sustainable Investing at Oppenheimer Funds. He is responsible for building and integrating sustainable investment principles throughout the firm’s operations. Shah has extensive experience in the sustainable finance and investing space. Prior to this role, Shah was the Program Leader of the Financing for Sustainable Development Initiative at the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, where he was responsible for working with governments, investors, corporations and non-governmental organizations on ESG integration and sustainable development financing issues. Shah currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Amnesty International USA.

Heather Smith

Vice President, Sustainable Investing

Impax Asset Management LLC/Pax World Funds

Heather Smith is Lead Sustainability Research Analyst at Impax Asset Management LLC and Vice President, Sustainable Investing at Pax World Funds. As such, she researches and evaluates the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of companies for inclusion in the firm’s portfolios. She is also a member of the Pax World Gender Analytics team and the portfolio management team of the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Leadership Fund. Heather is involved in overseeing the firm’s proxy voting and coordinating its gender related shareholder engagements. She previously served as a member of the Sustainable Investment Research Analyst Network’s (SIRAN) steering committee.
Prior to joining the firm Heather was a Legislative Aide for the New Hampshire State Senate. She received a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and an MBA from the University of New Hampshire.

Dave Stangis

Vice President Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Affairs

Campbell Soup Company

Dave Stangis was named Vice President-Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability in September 2008. In 2011, his role was expanded to include oversight of Community Affairs and the Campbell Soup Foundation. Stangis designs and leads Campbell’s overarching CSR, sustainability and community affairs strategy, including its efforts to drive environmental sustainability and make a measureable impact on the health of young people in Campbell communities. Stangis has helped the company achieve its place on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, the 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, The Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations and recognition as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. Prior to joining Campbell, Stangis worked for 12 years at Intel, where he created and led the corporate responsibility function.He serves on the boards of the Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan, Net Impact, and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.

Kate Starr

Chief Investment Officer

Flat World Partners

Kate Starr is the Chief Investment Officer of Flat World Partners, where she drives the investment philosophy, product development, and portfolio management for the firm. Previously, Starr led the capital deployment team at the Heron Foundation that invests Heron’s approximately $300 million portfolio for impact. Starr started her career as an economics and equities analyst at First Asset Management and moved into research on microfinance in Tanzania. She is a CFA and active member of NYSSA’s Sustainability Committee and advisor to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. Starr also advises OpenInvest, an emerging technology to help individual investors customize their portfolios and to Humanity United’s Worker Innovation Fund.

Diederik Timmer

Executive Vice President, Institutional Relations

Sustainalytics

Diederik Timmer has helped build Sustainalytics into the largest independent provider of ESG research and analysis for the global investment community. He is an advisor to senior executives, portfolio managers and risk professionals on developing and implementing ESG, SRI and impact strategies. Timmer directly manages the Institutional Relations team whose members earned the top three positions in the Independent Research in Responsible Investment (IRRI) survey for Best SRI Client Services representatives in 2012. Prior to joining Sustainlytics, Timmer management research projects at Nyenrode University in The Netherlands.

David Tulauskas

Sustainability Director

General Motors

David Tulauskas, General Motors Sustainability Director, develops GM’s sustainability strategy and ensures alignment with its business model. He collaborates with various functions within GM to embed sustainability into processes, sustainability reporting, and identifying KPIs for business planning. Tulauskas joined GM in 1991 and has worked in areas such as environmental and facilities engineering, government relations, and product development. He spent nearly half his career in Asia and led the launch of Cadillac vehicles in China.

Jessica Urdangarin

Senior Consultant

BrownFlynn

Jessica Urdangarin leads materiality assessments to determine the ESG topics that matter most to companies and their stakeholders. She helps clients develop meaningful goals to advance in those areas and develops sustainability reports to publicly disclose progress to stakeholders. Additionally, Urdangarin works with clients to improve their transparency and performance in key ESG ratings and rankings.

Chris Walker

Director

World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Chris Walker is the Director, North America for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Duties include managing relationships with approximately 47 Fortune 500 companies in North America and leading the WBCSD’s Engaging Capital Markets program. Walker previously worked in a variety of roles on climate and sustainability, including working at Ernst & Young LLP’s Americas Climate Change and Sustainability Services and was the Executive Officer of the Carbon Trust, LLC. Walker served on the National Academy of Science’s, congressionally mandated study, “America’s Climate Choices” and as the North America Executive Director for The Climate Group and as Head of Swiss Re's Sustainability Business Development.

Wendy Walker

Managing Director and a Chief Investment Officer

Cambridge Associates Capital Management

Wendy Walker, CFA, is a Managing Director and a Chief Investment Officer in CA Capital Management, Cambridge Associates’ outsourced investment office business. Walker works with endowment & foundation clients and is a member of the firm’s Mission-Related Investing Practice. Prior to joining Cambridge Associates, Walker worked on the investment teams at Imprint Capital Advisors, focusing on socially responsible and environmental themed fund managers, and at Parnassus Investments, integrating environmental, social and governance factors into industry and company-specific research. Walker is a former vice chair of the Sustainable Investing Committee of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

Geraldine Watson

Vice President for Finance and Operations

Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Geraldine F. Watson oversees the finance, accounting, information technology, human resources, and operations functions for the RBF, as well as the Rockefeller Family Fund, the David Rockefeller Fund, and several of its affiliates. Watson joined the RBF in 1994 as comptroller, directing the financial reporting responsibilities for the RBF, the RFF, the DRF, along with the Asian Cultural Council and the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. From 1989 through 1994, Watson was engaged as an independent consultant, providing financial and tax services to individuals, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations. Prior to 1989, she served as an audit manager with Price Waterhouse. She currently chairs the board of Confluence Philanthropy, and serves on the board of Philanthropy New York as treasurer and chair of the finance committee. Watson also serves on the board of The Interchurch Center, chairs its finance committee, and is a member of its compensation and personnel committee.

George Wong

Head of ESG Integration

NY State Common Retirement Fund

George Wong drives both (1) integration of sustainability considerations into the Fund’s investment decision making and ownership practices and (2) ESG training and education. He has been working with the Fund’s investment consultants, investment managers and investment team to conduct due diligence and grade prospective managers’ ESG policies and performance and build the Fund’s internal perspective on what policies drive ESG performance. Wong had also been previously charged as a North America consultant providing local guidance and expertise for the next phase of the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment’s (PRI) work in United States of America. He has continued to serve on PRI working groups – including supporting the PRI Private Equity Reporting and Monitoring Working Group.

Diane Yentel

President and CEO

National Low Income Housing Coalition

DianeYentel is the President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a membership organization dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes. Yentel is a veteran affordable housing policy expert and advocate with nearly two decades of work on affordable housing and community development issues. Before rejoining NLIHC (where she previously worked as a policy analyst), Yentel was Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs at Enterprise Community Partners, where she led federal, state and local policy, research and advocacy programs. Prior to Enterprise, she was the director of the Public Housing Management and Occupancy Division at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where she managed a team overseeing the development and implementation of nationwide public housing policies, procedures and guidelines. She also worked to advance affordable housing policies with Oxfam America and the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless.

Beth Young

Lawyer and Consultant

ESG Issues

Beth Young focuses her work on shareholder initiatives, regulatory matters and proxy voting. Her clients include pension funds, religious organizations, employee-owners, policy groups and foundations. Young has designed approaches to executive pay, drug pricing disclosure, human rights due diligence and director elections.
She previously served as the Shareholder Initiatives Coordinator in the AFL-CIO Office of Investment and as a Senior Research Associate for The Corporate Library/GMI. Beth also co-taught a Harvard Law School seminar on Shareholder Activism for several years and has taught Corporations at Fordham Law School.

Course Speakers

Frank Coleman

Executive Vice President

Christian Brothers Investment Services

Francis G. Coleman, is responsible for corporate strategy and planning, strategic planning and board member and trustee relations and development, as well as overseeing the Catholic Responsible Investing (CRI) and Information Technology departments at Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS). 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. Coleman 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 Committee of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR).

Mary Gregory

Relationship Manager - US Institutions

Brown Advisory

Mary Gregory is a senior member of the Institutional Relationship Management Team at Brown Advisory, having served in this capacity since 2010. Her primary responsibilities include managing and expanding Brown Advisory’s institutional client relationships to help them achieve long-term success. Mary is a founding member of Brown Advisory’s Sustainable Investing Development Team, tasked with growing the firm's sustainable investing business. Previously Mary worked for T. Rowe Price as part of Global Investment Services. Mary is a graduate of Duke University, and received her Master’s in Economics from University College Dublin. She is Secretary of the board of Preservation Maryland, Trustee for the University of Maryland Baltimore Foundation, and the founder of the Duke Baltimore Women’s Forum. Mary lives in Baltimore County with her husband and two teenage children.

Paul Hilton

Partner, Portfolio Manager & Research Analyst

Trillium

Paul Hilton is a Partner, Portfolio Manager, and Research Analyst covering the Consumer Discretionary sector. Prior to joining Trillium in 2011, he was Vice President of Sustainable Investment Business Strategy at Calvert Investments and also previously held senior positions within Calvert’s Equities and Marketing Departments. Paul also served as Portfolio Manager for Socially Responsible Investing at The Dreyfus Corporation, then a division of Mellon Bank, and as a Research Analyst in the Social Awareness Investment (SAI) program at Smith Barney Asset Management, then a division of Citigroup. Paul started his career as an Analyst with the Council on Economic Priorities, a non-profit known for an influential consumer guidebook called “Shopping for a Better World.”

Kathy Leonard

Senior Vice President – Investments

UBS

Kathy Leonard has been specializing in Socially Responsible Investing since 1983. Prior to working at UBS, she founded and managed The Center for Responsible Investing. Before that she worked at EF Hutton and Shearson. Leonard was the only advisor invited to join the Sustainability Council at UBS. This international group reports to UBS Board of Directors and is dedicated to assisting UBS in its commitment to corporate responsibility Leonard is currently a trustee at The Boulder Community Foundation. She is also a past US SIF Board member. Leonard was also a founding member of the Colorado chapter of Business for Social Responsibility and served as the chair.

Tim Smith

Director of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Shareowner Engagement

Walden Asset Management

Tim Smith is the Director of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Shareowner Engagement, and leads Walden’s ongoing shareholder engagement program to promote greater corporate leadership on ESG issues. This includes company dialogues, shareholder proposals, proxy voting, and public policy advocacy. He is actively involved in representing Walden at public events and in fostering long-term client relationships. Prior to joining the firm in 2000, Tim served as Executive Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) for 24 years. In 2007, 2012 and 2013, Tim was named as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics” by Ethisphere Institute. In 2011 and 2012, he was named one of the most influential people in corporate governance by the National Association of Corporate Directors. He serves on a number of sustainability stakeholder dialogue teams with companies as well.

Member Day Speakers

Stu Dalheim

Vice President, Shareholder Advocacy

Calvert Research and Management

Stu Dalheim leads Calvert's shareholder advocacy program, which seeks to improve corporate environmental, social and governance performance through direct dialogue, standard-setting exercises and partnerships, and public policy. Dalheim has focused on corporate governance, transparency and environmental issues and works with policy makers and regulators to advance the interests of sustainable and responsible investors. He serves on the board of Bethesda Green, the UNEP FI Investment Commission Board and is a member of the Corporate Governance Advisory Council of the Council of Institutional Investors.

Patsy Doerr

Global Head of Corporate Responsibility and Inclusion

Thomson Reuters

Patsy Doerr is responsible for overseeing the company’s corporate social responsibility, diversity & inclusion and sustainability functions. Doerr has over 20 years of experience in talent, learning, organizational development, diversity and inclusion, employee recognition and customer engagement mainly in investment banking. She has held a number of global leadership roles at JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse, in New York, London and most recently, Hong Kong. Doerr was recently awarded with the Tri-State Diversity Council – Most Powerful & Influential Woman award and the Promoting Workforce Diversity & Gender Equality award for the Banking, Financial and Insurance industry sector by City State Reports. She also sits on the Board of Trustees for Marymount School for Girls, the Board of Directors for the Samburu Girls Foundation and the Board of Directors for the Responsible Investment Association (Canada). On the Board of Directors for the 30% Coalition Patsy is Vice President and on the Board of Directors for All In Together she is Secretary.

Amy Domini

Founder and Chair

Domini Impact Investments

Amy Domini is widely recognized as a leader in socially responsible investing. In 2005, Time magazine named her to the Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people. In 2006, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree from Northeastern University College of Law. Yale University’s Berkeley Divinity School presented Domini with an honorary doctorate in 2007. In 2008, Domini was named to Directorship magazine’s Directorship 100, the magazine’s listing of the most influential people on corporate governance and in the boardroom. Domini is a past board member of the Church Pension Fund of the Episcopal Church in America; the National Association of Community Development Loan Funds, an organization whose members work to create funds for grassroots economic development loans; and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, the major sponsor of shareholder actions. She is a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society. She has been a frequent guest commentator on CNBC’s Talking Stocks and various other radio and television shows.

Ellen Dorsey

Executive Director

Wallace Global Fund

Ellen Dorsey works at Wallace Global Fund, a private foundation focused on progressive social change in the fields of environment, democracy, human rights and corporate accountability. Dorsey was awarded the 2016 inaugural Nelson Mandela - Graca Machel Brave Philanthropy Award for launching Divest-Invest Philanthropy. She is also a founder of Shine, a global campaign committed to ending energy poverty. Dorsey came to Wallace Global Fund from a series of academic, philanthropic and non-profit leadership positions in the human rights and environmental fields, including serving as Executive Director at the Rachel Carson Institute, Director of the Human Rights and Environment program at Amnesty International, and Senior Program Officer in the Heinz Endowment’s Environment Program. Additionally, she has served on the board of numerous non-profit organizations promoting human rights and sustainable development, including Greenpeace USA, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the United States Human Rights Network, and Amnesty International USA, where she served as board chair.

Reshma Kapadia

Senior Writer

Barron’s Magazine

Reshma Kapadia is an award-winning financial journalist with more than 20 years of experience, covering everything from currency markets to the dot-com boom and bust. Currently, Kapadia writes about a range of subjects, including retirement, investing trends and the mutual fund industry. Prior to Barron’s, she covered investing and personal finance as a senior writer at SmartMoney, the Wall Street Journal's monthly magazine. Before joining the magazine, Kapadia spent a decade as a correspondent at wire services, including seven years at Reuters News in New York. In 2003, she was awarded the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism at Columbia University and won a Best in Business magazine award in 2011 from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. She is a mentor-editor for the OpEd Project, which tries to increase the diversity among thought leadership ranks contributing to commentary across media.

Robin Lloyd

Director of Government Relations

Giffords

Robin Lloyd is the Director of Government Affairs at Giffords, the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Captain Mark Kelly. Prior to joining Giffords, Robin served as the Director of Federal Affairs for the City of New York under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Previously, Robin served as a legislative aide to Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and Congressman Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX).

Renee Morgan

Co-Founder, Sustainable World Financial Advisors and Investment Advisor, First Affirmative Financial

Sustainable World Financial Advisors, LLC

Renee Morgan has been helping clients invest in sustainable and impact investing since entering the business in 2000. Morgan began at Trilogy Financial Services in Denver, CO. In 2004, she left to create an independent RIA firm, Better World Investments, which she grew and established herself as an expert in the field regarding issues related to mass incarceration and racial justice, including divestment from the supply chain of private prisons. Morgan currently is working on an initiative in Colorado to reform cash bail and develop a comprehensive anti-racist curriculum with many local organizations. Professionally, she in the middle of a research project accessing racial equity within the SRI industry.

Zachary Norris

Executive Director

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

Zachary Norris, prior to rejoining the organization, co-founded and co-directed Justice for Families, a national alliance of family-driven organizations working to end our nation’s youth incarceration epidemic.
During the seven years he led the campaign, Books Not Bars built California’s first statewide network for families of incarcerated youth, led the effort to close five youth prisons in the state, passed legislation to enable families to stay in contact with their loved ones, and defeated Prop 6—a destructive and ineffective criminal justice ballot measure. In addition to being a Harvard graduate and NYU-educated attorney, Zachary is also a graduate of the Labor Community Strategy Center’s National School for Strategic Organizing in Los Angeles, California and was a 2011 Soros Justice Fellow. He is a former board member at Witness for Peace and Just Cause Oakland and is currently serving on the Justice for Families board. Zachary was a recipient of the American Constitution Society's David Carliner Public Interest Award in 2015, and is a member of the 2016 class of the Levi Strauss Foundation's Pioneers of Justice.

Joe Rinzel

Partner

Align Public Strategies

Joe Rinzel has more than 15 years’ experience in government affairs, trade association management, and issue management campaigns. He is an expert in state government relations and has a wide ranging network of contacts across the country. Prior to joining Align Public Strategies, Rinzel was Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for the Retail Industry Leaders Association which represents America’s largest and fastest growing retailers. Rinzel led the association’s lobbying efforts on priority issues at the federal, state and local levels in addition to managing multi-million dollar issue campaigns in all 50 states on behalf of the industry. Prior to that, Rinzel was Senior Director of Public Affairs and lead spokesperson for the American Legislative Exchange Council organization of state legislators.

Mari Schwartzer

Director of Shareholder Activism and Engagement

NorthStar Asset Management, Inc.

Mari Schwartzer leads the shareholder advocacy arm of the firm, including conducting in-depth research on social and environmental issues and using shareholder activism to improve corporate policies and actions related to human rights, economic inequality, race and gender issues, environmental sustainability, and corporate governance. Mari was a lead author on her firm’s recent research paper, “Prison Labor in the United States: An Investor Perspective,” which connects the racially-skewed nature of mass incarceration in the U.S. with the incidences of prison labor in corporate supply chains. NorthStar’s paper argues that companies have the responsibility to identify and improve all instances of prison labor throughout the company supply chain.

Cheryl Smith

Managing Partner, Economist, Strategist, Portfolio Manager and Head of Fixed Income Strategy

Trillium Asset Management

Cheryl Smith works at Trillium Asset Management, an employee-owned investment management firm devoted exclusively to sustainable and responsible investment. After an early career as Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Denver, in 1987, Smith joined Joan Bavaria at what is now Trillium Asset Management. Smith was a member of the USSIF board from 2005 - 2010, serving as Chair from 2008 - 2010. She has also served on the Boards of the community and social investment lender Oikocredit USA; Cornerstone Capital Inc.; the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge MA; and Resist! Smith speaks frequently on economics, community investments, Green bonds, and on integrating environmental, social, and governance criteria into the management of investment portfolios.

Danyelle Solomon

Senior Director of Progress 2050

American Progress

Danyelle Solomon served as policy counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Washington, D.C., office, where she focused primarily on criminal justice issues, including sentencing reform, corrections reform, policing reform, commutations and pardons, and racial disparities in the justice system. Prior to joining the Brennan Center, Solomon served as legislative counsel at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy within the Office of Legislative Affairs, where she focused on federal drug policy. Solomon also served as counsel to Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), then the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee. Solomon was responsible for a wide array of policy issues, including sentencing reform, juvenile justice reform, civil rights, and executive branch nominations; she also served as the principal counsel to Sen. Cardin during the U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.Solomon has been published in The Hill, written congressional testimony, and is the co-author of “Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Jails: Recommendations for Local Practice,” published by the Brennan Center in 2015.

Already Registered?