We’re going digital! This year, our conference committee will bring our programming online, with keynote and breakout sessions spread out over the 2020-2021 academic year.
Digital Event Series
The conference will bring together industry leaders, investors, philanthropists, professionals, faculty, students, and alumni to share best practices and engender new ideas surrounding the intersection of capital and society. The Digital Event Series will be divided into breakout sessions that will highlight thought leadership in our two session tracks, “Sources of Capital” and “Uses of Capital.” Speaker presentations will catalyze conversations of change and embolden a generation to take risks in order to create a world in which everyone, regardless of where they were born, has the equal opportunity to succeed in creating a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities. Participants will have the opportunity to network with speakers, faculty, students, and professionals through programming and our online event app.
Schedule
October 9, 2020
10:00-10:15 | Welcome Remarks from Bruce Usher, Co-director of the Tamer Center and Elizabeth B. Strickler ‘86 and Mark T. Gallogly ‘86 Faculty Director and Professor of Professional Practice, CBS |
10:15-11:15 | Impact Investing: Leveraging Capital Markets for Social Change |
11:30-12:30 | Is the American Dream Still Attainable? |
12:45-1:45 | Income Equality in the U.S.: Pathways to Economic Mobility for Marginalized Communities |
October 30, 2020
9:45-10:00 | Welcome Remarks from Sandra Navalli ‘03BUS, OAM, Managing Director of the Tamer Center and Assistant Adjunct Professor, CBS |
10:00-10:50 | Capital for Justice: Using Impact Investing for Racial Equity |
10:50-11:00 | Coffee Break |
11:00-11:50 | The .06%: Founding and Fundraising as Women of Color |
11:50-12:00 | Coffee Break |
12:00-12:50 | Book Talk, Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope |
12:50-1:00 | Closing Remarks from Bruce Usher |
November 13, 2020
9:55-10:00 | Welcome Remarks from Sandra Navalli ‘03BUS, OAM |
10:00-10:50 | Solving Renewable Energy Intermittency: Can the U.S. Rely on 100% Renewables? |
10:50-11:00 | Coffee Break |
11:00-11:50 | Sustainability in the Fashion Industry: Is it Scalable? |
11:50-12:00 | Closing Remarks from Bruce Usher |
December 4, 2020
10:55-11:00 | Welcome Remarks |
11:00-11:50 | News + Money |
11:50-12:00 | Closing Remarks |
January 22, 2021
9:55-10:00 | Welcome Remarks |
10:00-11:00 | Institutional Investors Embracing Impact Investing |
11:00-11:30 | Coffee Break |
11:30-12:30 | Scaling Social Ventures |
12:30 | Closing Remarks, Networking Lounge Opens |
February 5, 2021
9:55-10:00 | Welcome Remarks |
10:00-11:00 | ESG Investing: A Viable Investment Strategy for the Long-term? |
11:00-11:30 | Coffee Break |
11:30-12:30 | Creating a More Ethical and Sustainable Agricultural System |
12:30 | Closing Remarks, Networking Lounge Opens |
February 19, 2021
9:55-10:00 | Welcome Remarks |
10:00-11:00 | Microfinance Done Right |
11:00-11:30 | Coffee Break |
11:30-12:30 | What We’ve Learned: The Best Solutions to Come out of COVID-19 |
12:30 | Closing Remarks, Networking Lounge Opens |
March 12, 2021
9:55-10:00 | Welcome Remarks |
10:00-12:00 | BlackRock Impact Investing Workshop |
12:00-12:10 | Closing Remarks |
March 26, 2021
9:25-9:30 | Welcome Remarks |
9:30-10:30 | Using Sustainable Investing to Transform the Status Quo at Scale and Create a Sustainable and Inclusive Economy |
10:30-11:00 | Coffee Break |
11:00-12:00 | Embedding Sustainability Into PepsiCo Beverages North America’s Value Chain |
12:00 | Closing Remarks |
Impact Investing: Leveraging Capital Markets for Social Change
Can you do financially well by doing good? Amy Domini, founder and chair of Domini Impact Investments, would argue yes. A pioneer for socially responsible investing, Amy will share key insights on the field of impact investing and its growth over the past few decades. Now, more than ever, investor demand for corporations to be socially responsible and equitable is driving asset managers to rethink how they are evaluating potential investments. Where will the field go from here?
Amy Domini, Founder and Chair, Domini Impact Investments
Bruce Usher, Professor of Professional Practice and the Elizabeth B. Strickler ‘86 and Mark T. Gallogly ‘86 Faculty Director of the Tamer Center, CBS
Bios
Amy Domini is founder and chair of Domini Impact Investments. She is widely recognized as the leading voice for 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 Ms. Domini with an honorary doctorate in 2007. In 2008, Ms. 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. Ms. 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. Ms. Domini holds a BA in international and comparative studies from Boston University, and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Bruce Usher is a Professor of Professional Practice and the Elizabeth B. Strickler ’86 and Mark T. Gallogly ’86 Faculty Director of the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School. Professor Usher teaches on the intersection of finance, social and environmental issues, and is a recipient of the Singhvi Prize for Scholarship in the Classroom, the Lear Award, and the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Professor Usher has written numerous cases for use in business school courses, with a primary focus on climate change and business. In 2019, Usher published Renewable Energy: A Primer for the Twenty-First Century (Columbia University Press), the first in the Earth Institute’s sustainability series of books. Prior to his work at Columbia, Professor Usher was CEO of EcoSecurities Group plc, which developed greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in developing countries. EcoSecurities was acquired by JP Morgan in 2009. Professor Usher was previously the co-founder and CEO of TreasuryConnect LLC, which provided electronic trading solutions to banks and was acquired in 2001. Prior to that, he worked in financial services for twelve years in New York and Tokyo. Professor Usher is an active investor and advisor to entrepreneurial ventures focused on climate change and clean energy (UsherWorks.com). He is a board member of Community Energy, OptiRTC, and CapShift, and is Chair of the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures. Usher earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Is the American Dream Still Attainable?
In this keynote discussion, Debbie Wright will share her outlook on the U.S. job market and how the current pandemic and movement for social justice may affect economic mobility. She will discuss her own career path from the NYC Department of Housing, Preservation, and Development to the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as how to work with local communities to be an effective leader for both business and the nonprofit sector.
Debbie Wright, Board Member, Citigroup and Sloan Kettering
Doug Bauer, Executive Director and Professor, The Clark Foundation and CBS
Bios
The Clark Foundation focuses on helping people out of poverty and assisting individuals to lead independent and productive lives and supports nonprofits and programs in New York City and Cooperstown, NY. Doug Bauer is also executive director of The Scriven and Fernleigh Foundations and senior vice president with The Clark Estates, Inc. Prior to Clark, Doug was a senior vice president with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) from 2002 to 2009. Prior to joining RPA, Doug held management positions at Goldman, Sachs and Co., SmithKlineBeecham (now GlaxoSmithKline), and The Pew Charitable Trusts. Doug’s opinions and ideas on philanthropy have been featured in the Associated Press, Bloomberg, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, City and State, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Wall Street Journal; and on CNBC, NPR, and PBS. Doug co-authored, with Steven Godeke, Philanthropy’s New Passing Gear: Mission Related Investing, A Policy and Implementation Guide for Foundation Trustees. Doug serves on boards for The Leatherstocking Corporation, The Melalucca Foundation, The National Council on Nonprofits, Partners for Health Foundation, and is a past chair of Philanthropy New York. He is also a member of the Leap of Reason Ambassadors Community and is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania and the Columbia Business School where he teaches about philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. Doug is a graduate of Michigan State University. He also has an MJ from Temple University and a MS from Penn.
Income Equality in the United States: Pathways to Economic Mobility for Marginalized Communities
A long-time philanthropist and social activist for women’s rights and poverty alleviation, Abigail will discuss the current economic climate, pay equity reform, and the pursuit for economic mobility. She will discuss her view on the power imbalance in the current economy and the responsibilities of business leaders to take bold actions to provide increased economic opportunity.
Abigail Disney ’94GSAS ’87GSAS, CEO and co-founder, Fork Films
Mona Sinha ’93BUS, Board Chair, Women Moving Millions and the ERA Coalition Fund for Women’s Equality
Bios
S. Mona Sinha is an advocate for gender equality in business and society. She has parlayed a career in finance (Morgan Stanley), marketing (Unilever), and restructuring (Elizabeth Arden/Unilever) to work at the intersection of social justice and women’s leadership. Mona uses business tools to build organizational capacities for sustainability that unlock the economic potential of women/girls across different sectors. She has been described as having a muscle for finance and a passion for justice. She is co-founder of Raising Change to address the funding gap in mission-driven organizations for social change. She also founded the Asian Women’s Leadership University, to bring liberal arts pedagogy to train future women leaders. She is currently the board chair of Women Moving Millions, a community of women who fund big and bold ($1 million+) to create a gender equal world. She is also the board chair of the ERA Coalition Fund for Women’s Equality, which seeks to codify the 28th constitutional amendment of equal rights on the basis of sex. She is an executive producer of Disclosure, a documentary film on the representation of trans peoples, which premiered at Sundance in January 2020 and was released on Netflix during Pride month in June 2020. Mona serves on several nonprofit boards including Breakthrough USA, which uses media and popular culture to shift prevalent norms of violence against women, and the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. She is on the advisory boards of Apne Aap International to end sex trafficking; the Museum of Natural History, which, among many educational efforts, sponsors science education for inner city girls; and Columbia Business School’s Tamer Center for Social Enterprise, which pioneered the concept of connecting business leaders to purpose beyond profits. She also works with Women Creating Change at Columbia University, supporting the dissemination of diverse voices in teaching and pedagogy; and the Columbia Global Mental Health program, which aims to destigmatize mental health through research and global collaboration. She is a trustee emerita of Smith College, where she was vice chair of the board of trustees and co-led the $486 million Women for the World capital campaign, the largest to-date for women’s education. Mona is a financial investor in women-led businesses and mentors several hundred young people. She has a BA in economics and art history (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Smith College and an MBA in finance and marketing (beta gamma sigma) from Columbia Business School. She is a published contributor to What I Told my Daughter – Lessons from Leaders on Raising the Next Generation of Empowered Women, edited by Nina Tassler and Cynthia Middleton. Her story is featured in She is Me, by Lori Sokol. In April 2021, Columbia Business School will recognize Mona with the Horton Award for Excellence in Social Enterprise. Women’s eNews is naming her one of 21 Leaders for the 21st Century. In 2019, Breakthrough honored Mona with a lifetime inspiration award. She received the 2018 Exemplary Leadership in Development award from Smith College. In 2017, Mona was awarded The Last Girl Champion award by Gloria Steinem on behalf of Apne Aap. In 2015, she received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which is presented annually to US citizens whose accomplishments in their field and service to the world are cause for celebration.
Capital for Justice: Using Impact Investing for Racial Equity
Only three percent of all venture funding goes to Black and Latinx founders as venture capital investments have quadrupled and the growth of diverse businesses has skyrocketed. The disparities of who is receiving and cutting the checks have long been known in the space. However, the murder of George Floyd and the impacts of a global pandemic on marginalized communities have brought to the forefront the persistent problems of racial and economic inequities that exist across America and many countries.
How can the flow of social impact capital from asset holders to Black and underrepresented founders and entrepreneurs be accelerated to generate systemic solutions to create diverse, equitable, and inclusive economies? Can impact investing be more effectively used as a tool to generate economic opportunity and mobility for Black and marginalized communities?
Melissa Bradley, Founder and Co-founder, 1863 Ventures and Ureeka
Kesha Cash ’10BUS, Founder and General Partner, Impact America Fund
Jenny Tolan ’14BUS, Co-founder, Level
Bios
Melissa L. Bradley is a co-founder of venture-backed Ureeka, a community where small businesses gain unprecedented access to the expertise needed to grow their business. The Ureeka mission is to democratize economic opportunity by enabling community and by reducing the cost and risk associated with growing a small to medium business (SMB). She is also founder and managing partner of 1863 Ventures, a business development program that accelerates New Majority entrepreneurs from high potential to high growth. In this role, she created a community of over 10,000 New Majority entrepreneurs in three years. Melissa is a venture partner at NextGen Ventures and serves as an advisor to the New Voices Foundation and New Voices Fund, as well as the Halcyon Fund. She is also a member of the Square & Forbes Small Business Advisory Team, as well as the Target Accelerators Entrepreneurs Advisory Council. Melissa is the former co-chair of the National Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and was recently named one of The Most Entrepreneurial Women Investors in 2018. Melissa is a professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, where she teaches impact investing, social entrepreneurship, P2P economies, and innovation. She recently received The Ideas Worth Teaching Award, which celebrates exceptional courses that are preparing future business leaders to tackle society’s largest challenges and create a more inclusive, just, and sustainable version of capitalism. She is also a co-founder and managing partner of Sidecar Social Finance, a social impact agency that provides impact investing advisory and capital services to individuals, institutions, and social enterprises. Melissa currently serves as board chair for My Way to Credit (MWTC) and board member for AEO. She is a founding advisor to the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs as well as a Senator with the Board of Governors at Georgetown University. Melissa’s educational background includes graduation from Georgetown University in 1989 with a bachelor of science degree in finance from the business school and a master’s degree in business administration in marketing from American University in 1993.
Kesha Cash is the general partner of Impact America Fund, a $65M venture capital firm investing in tech-enabled companies that create economic opportunities for low- to moderate-income communities of color in America. The firm puts a premium on founders who have personal experience in the systems their startups want to disrupt, from black hair care to small business loans. She has a decade of experience in impact investing, previously at Jalia Ventures, a fund that she co-founded with Josh Mailman to invest in mission-driven entrepreneurs of color, and as an investment associate at Bridges Ventures in the UK. Kesha has also worked as an operational consultant to small businesses in inner-city Los Angeles and as a mergers and acquisitions analyst at Merrill Lynch. Kesha currently serves on the board of directors of Eileen Fisher, Inc. and is an elected member of the SEC Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee. She received her MBA from Columbia Business School and her BA in applied mathematics from UC Berkeley.
The .06%: Founding and Fundraising as Women of Color
According to ProjectDiane 2018, less than .06 percent of the $424.7 billion in venture funding since 2009 went to Black women. In light of the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Black and brown communities and the renewed focus on the Movement for Black Lives, how has the founding and fundraising environment for Black, Indigenous, Women of Color (BIWOC) CEOs changed? What challenges do BIWOC founders face and how has this changed due to the pandemic and recent social unrest?
Kiara Butler, CEO and Founder, Diversity Talks
Amanda DoAmaral, CEO and Founder, Fiveable
Shani Dowell, CEO and Founder, Possip
Beverly Leon ’20BUS ’14CC, CEO and Founder, Local Civics
Aaron T. Walker, CEO and Founder, Camelback Ventures
Bios
Kiara Butler is the CEO and founder of Diversity Talks, a Rhode Island-based training company that specializes in providing student-led professional development grounded in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Butler is a strong advocate for student voice and in her current work, she focuses on bringing the voices of marginalized groups to the forefront. Because of her advocacy, she has been recognized for her work in various capacities such as Forbes 30 Under 30 and TEDxProvidence. Originally from Mississippi — a state known for biases, bigotry, and racism — Butler is a graduate of the state’s K12 public education system. When a K12 student in Mississippi, she did not believe educators were aware that the lack of inclusivity of all races, religions, and cultures had a connection between students feeling marginalized and low student performance. Today, her experiences as a student remain the driving force behind her commitment as a change agent transforming K12 public education. Butler has obtained a BA in interdisciplinary career-oriented humanities with an emphasis in African American studies from the prestigious Tougaloo College and became a member of the Gamma Psi Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. Butler also holds a master’s in public administration from Belhaven University. In 2021, Butler will have obtained a doctorate in educational leadership from Johnson & Wales University.
Beverly Leon is a recent graduate of Columbia Business School, where she focused on social entrepreneurship and worked to launch Local Civics, an edtech company transforming civics education. As the founder and CEO of Local Civics, she supports students and educators in building their civic engagement and community leadership skills through game-based learning. They have worked with 1,500+ middle and high school students in New York City and are working to expand this impact to reach more students. Beverly started her professional career in equity capital markets at Morgan Stanley in New York City and left to pursue professional soccer overseas in Europe. She signed her first professional contract in Iceland, for Champions League team, Stjarnan Kvk. From there, she went on to play for AC ChievoVerona in Italy and signed with Sunderland Ladies AFC in the English Premier League for her final season. Beverly has over 10 years of experience as a youth educator and coach, serving as a program coordinator for Level the Field NYC and a teaching fellow for Columbia University’s ‘Freedom and Citizenship’ Civics Education Program, two nonprofits working to provide equitable access to higher education for students from underserved communities. She serves as an advisor to Coaches Across Continents, a global nonprofit that uses sport for social impact, and is an instructor for Columbia University’s Entrepreneurial Design Thinking Program, serving the broader New York City community. She received her BA in history from Columbia University and an MSc in social policy from the University of Oxford.
Book Talk, Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope
Join this session for a live virtual conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sheryl WuDunn, who will discuss a new book and film, Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, which explores solutions for the systemic inequality facing America’s hometowns.
With stark poignancy and political dispassion, Tightrope addresses the crisis in working-class America while focusing on solutions to mend a half-century of governmental failure. Drawing us deep into an “other America,” the authors tell this story, in part, through the lives of some of the people with whom Kristof grew up, in rural Yamhill, Oregon. It’s an area that prospered for much of the 20th century but has been devastated in the last few decades as blue-collar jobs disappeared. About a quarter of the children on Kristof’s old school bus died in adulthood from drugs, alcohol, suicide, or reckless accidents. While these particular stories unfolded in one corner of the country, they are representative of many places the authors write about, ranging from the Dakotas and Oklahoma to New York and Virginia. With their superb, nuanced reportage, Kristof and WuDunn have given us a book that is both riveting and impossible to ignore.
Sheryl WuDunn, Author and Journalist
Bruce Usher, Professor of Professional Practice and the Elizabeth B. Strickler ‘86 and Mark T. Gallogly ‘86 Faculty Director of the Tamer Center, CBS
Bios
Sheryl WuDunn, the first Asian-American reporter to win a Pulitzer Prize, is a business executive and best-selling author. She co-founded FullSky Partners, a consulting firm focusing on double-bottom line ventures in technology and healthcare services. She is also a principal in Praesens Partners USA, a firm focused on diagnostics. Previously, WuDunn has been vice president in the investment management division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and a commercial loan officer at Bankers Trust. She also is one of a small handful of people who have worked at The New York Times both as an executive and journalist: in management roles in both the Strategic Planning and Circulation Sales departments at The Times; as editor for international markets, energy, and industry; as The Times’s first anchor of an evening news headlines program for a digital cable TV channel, the Discovery-Times; and as a foreign correspondent for The Times in Tokyo and Beijing, where she wrote about economic, financial, political, and social issues. She has been a Hauser Visiting Leader at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she has lectured and taught seminars to graduate students. She has also co-taught at Yale University and guest lectured at many universities. With her husband, Nicholas D. Kristof, she is co-author of five best-selling books. These include Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope (2020), which will air as a PBS documentary in October; A Path Appears, about how to bring about change in our society using evidence-based strategies; Half the Sky, a number one New York Times best-selling book about the challenges facing women around the globe; Thunder from the East about Asia, and China Wakes, about China’s challenges. Ms. WuDunn won a Pulitzer Prize with her husband for covering China, along with the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement. She has also won other journalism prizes, including the George Polk Award and Overseas Press Club award. WuDunn has also won a White House Project EPIC award, and she has been a judge for the State Department “Secretary’s Innovation Award for Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment.” She has won other awards, including the Asia Women in Business Corporate Leadership Award, the Pearl S. Buck Woman of the Year Award, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Prize, among numerous others. In 2011, Newsweek cited WuDunn as one of the “150 Women Who Shake the World.” In 2012, WuDunn was selected as one of 60 notable members of the League of Extraordinary Women by Fast Company magazine. In 2013, she was included as one of the “leading women who make America” in the PBS documentary, The Makers. She was also featured in a 2013 Harvard Business School film about prominent women who graduated from HBS. In August 2015, Business Insider named her one of the 31 most successful graduates of the Harvard Business School. She graduated from Cornell University, earned an MPA from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She has served on the board of trustees at Cornell University and Princeton University. Ms. WuDunn received honorary doctorates from the University of Pennsylvania and Middlebury College. Ms. WuDunn lectures on economic, political, and social topics related to women in the developing world, the global economy, China, and the emerging markets, and has been asked to address a wide range of audiences including former Vice President Al Gore, the IMF, and World Bank. Ms. WuDunn has discussed China, economic issues, and her books on television and radio programs, with hosts such as Oprah Winfrey and Stephen Colbert, and on other news programs such as Meet the Press, Fox Business News, Bloomberg TV, and NPR.
Bruce Usher is a Professor of Professional Practice and the Elizabeth B. Strickler ’86 and Mark T. Gallogly ’86 Faculty Director of the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School. Professor Usher teaches on the intersection of finance, social and environmental issues, and is a recipient of the Singhvi Prize for Scholarship in the Classroom, the Lear Award, and the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Professor Usher has written numerous cases for use in business school courses, with a primary focus on climate change and business. In 2019, Usher published Renewable Energy: A Primer for the Twenty-First Century (Columbia University Press), the first in the Earth Institute’s sustainability series of books. Prior to his work at Columbia, Professor Usher was CEO of EcoSecurities Group plc, which developed greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in developing countries. EcoSecurities was acquired by JP Morgan in 2009. Professor Usher was previously the co-founder and CEO of TreasuryConnect LLC, which provided electronic trading solutions to banks and was acquired in 2001. Prior to that, he worked in financial services for twelve years in New York and Tokyo. Professor Usher is an active investor and advisor to entrepreneurial ventures focused on climate change and clean energy (UsherWorks.com). He is a board member of Community Energy, OptiRTC, and CapShift, and is Chair of the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures. Usher earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Solving Renewable Energy Intermittency: Can the U.S. Rely on 100% Renewables?
While wind and solar have become cheaper forms of energy to build in most places, the intermittency of renewable energy remains a challenge to converting to 100% renewable energy usage. The intermittent nature of renewable energy causes challenges for the energy grid to meet supply and demand. What will the grid look like in the future? If we were to design the grid tomorrow, how would we build it to take advantage of renewable energy? This panel will discuss the challenges of converting our energy usage to 100% renewables, as well as possible solutions to the energy grid that can be implemented to convert to 100% renewable energy.
Steven Cohen, Professor in the Practice of Public Affairs at SIPA, Director of the Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management, Director of the MPA Program in Environmental Science and Policy, Columbia University, The Earth Institute
Chelle Izzi ’04BUS, Executive Director of Distributed Generation, NextEra Energy Resources
Donna Sanders ’17BUS, Founder and CEO, Virimodo
David Snydacker, CEO, Lilac Solutions
Bios
Steven Cohen is a 1970 graduate of James Madison High School in Brooklyn, New York. Cohen received his BA in political science from Franklin College of Indiana (1974), and his MA and PhD in political science from the State University of New York in Buffalo (1977; 1979). From 1976 to 1977, Cohen was a Ford Foundation Fellow in urban environmental policy; from 1978 1979, he was a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in public and environmental policy and implementation. Dr. Cohen is the former executive director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, and now serves as a senior advisor for the institute. He is a former policy analyst and consultant to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Cohen has served on numerous boards and committees, including the board of the Pew Faculty Fellowship in international affairs, the executive committee and Committee on Accreditation and Peer Review of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, and the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology. He currently serves on the board of directors of Homes for the Homeless, board of directors of the Willdan Group, Inc., advisory board of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, and steering committee for the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Cohen also serves on the judging committee for the Yidan Prize Foundation and is the chair of the Lotos Club’s science and technology committee. Dr. Cohen is the author of The Sustainable City (2017, 2020), Understanding Environmental Policy (2006, 2014), Sustainability Management (2011), The Effective Public Manager (1988, now co-authored in its fifth edition), and the co-author of Management Fundamentals (2020), Sustainability Policy: Hastening the Transition to a Cleaner Economy (2015), The Responsible Contact Manager (2008), Strategic Planning in Environmental Regulation (2005), Tools for Innovators: Creative Strategies for Managing Public Sector Organizations (1998), and Total Quality Management in Government (1993). He has written numerous articles on public management, sustainability management, and environmental policy. Dr. Cohen also writes a weekly blog for the Earth Institute’s State of the Planet website.
Chelle Izzi leads new business and product development for NextEra Energy Resources’s distributed energy business. Chelle and her team drive growth and innovation through product development, commercializing new technologies, designing integrated solutions, building strategic partnerships, and pursuing acquisitions. Specific focus areas include residential energy optimization, electric vehicle infrastructure, microgrids, monetizing distributed energy resources (DERs), and public-private partnerships for energy infrastructure. Chelle has more than 25 years of experience commercializing, launching, and managing new products and services across multiple industries in the United States., Europe, Africa, and Asia. She helped launch the storage business at NextEra, build CPower, one of the original demand response (DR) firms, commercialize a waste-to-energy solution, and manage a product that integrated energy efficiency and retail energy. Outside the energy industry, she has developed and distributed consumer products in Asia, helped convert a captive UN service bureau (UNOPS) into a competitive professional services firm, and co-founded the South African – American Business Association in Atlanta. Chelle holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She’s also a proud Ohioan who still roots for every Cleveland sports team.
Donna is a military veteran and a 2017 graduate of Columbia, Hong Kong, and London business schools. She is a certified energy auditor with the Association of Energy Engineers and a 2016 Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corp Fellow. Donna co-founded Virimodo, a NYC-based carbon reduction intelligence company committed to reducing greenhouse gases in cities globally. Virimodo partners with utilities, utilizing real-time data to measure and monitor customers’ carbon impact economically, socially, and environmentally. An avid outdoorswoman, rower, and master naturalist, she (and three friends) went off the grid for 20 straight days to sea kayak all 235 miles of Alaska’s Glacier Bay’s National Park.
Sustainability in the Fashion Industry: Is It Scalable?
Fast fashion is one of the biggest challenges to sustainable garments and an equitable supply chain within the fashion industry. With the demand for sustainable fashion rising, many fashion retailers are cleaning up their supply chain and improving their working conditions and hiring practices. But what does it mean to be truly sustainable in the fashion industry? How has the pandemic affected the industry and movement towards a more sustainable supply chain? Leveraging industry knowledge from financing through end-stage production, this panel will explore multi-layered approaches to mitigating the impacts of garment and footwear supply chains on people and the environment.
Rachel Cernasky ’08JRN, Sustainability Editor and Freelance Journalist, Vogue Business
Ashia Sheikh Dearwester, Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officer, Nest
Mallory McConnell, Senior Director of Supplier Sustainability and Partnerships, PVH Corp
Anushka Salinas ’10BUS, President and Chief Operating Officer, Rent The Runway
Jessica Schreiber ’11GSAS, Founder and CEO, FABSCRAP
Bios
Ashia Dearwester is the chief strategy and partnerships Officer for Nest, a nonprofit building human-centric value chains that connect handworkers, brands, and consumers through transparency and sector-wide solutions. Ashia leads Nest’s strategic partnerships and mobilizes industry efforts to advance sustainability initiatives impacting workers outside of traditional factories. Ashia played an integral role in the launch of Nest’s Seal of Ethical Handcraft, an industry-wide initiative to bring transparency to the informal sector. She serves as a trusted advisor to major brands and philanthropic foundations seeking guidance on improving supply chains. Ashia is deeply committed to equity, inclusion, and cultural/environmental preservation. Prior to Nest, Ashia spent nearly seven years working with the National Audubon Society, building and scaling its Women in Conservation Program. There she served on Audubon’s diversity committee, ensuring programs were reaching diverse communities and constituents.
Mallory is a senior director of supplier sustainability and partnerships at PVH Corp., one of the largest global apparel companies with a portfolio of iconic lifestyle brands including Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. Mallory is responsible for leading, managing, and driving progress against all forward fashion supply chain targets and programs. This work includes developing strategic plans and executing all human rights and environmental sustainability supply chain programs, global data roll-ups, and developing materials to communicate key developments to key stakeholders. Mallory develops and drives key corporate responsibility strategies and initiatives across PVH and helps ensure the global corporate responsibility team is building future capabilities to remain a best-in-class organization focused on flawless execution and forward-thinking. Mallory has lived and worked in Bangalore, India, and Hong Kong S.A.R, managing global and diverse teams. Outside of work, Mallory is interested in fine art and design, hiking, and baking.
Anushka serves as president and chief operating officer at Rent the Runway, where she leads a team of tech, product, and analytics in achieving the long-term vision of disrupting the $2.4 trillion fashion industry by pioneering dynamic ownership and powering women to feel their best every day. Prior to RTR, she joined Lawrence Lenihan, former founder of First Mark Capital, and Joseph Ferrara, as an early leader at Resonance, a venture operating company that invests in and operates early-stage fashion brands. Resonance aims to change the fashion industry through its just-in-time manufacturing process, efficient operating platform, and innovative technology products. Anushka previously managed the dual-country e-commerce merchandising and planning organizations at Hudson’s Bay Company. Prior to her role at HBC, she was a founding member of the Rent the Runway executive team. During her time at RTR from 2009 to 2013, she oversaw merchandising, planning, and customer service. This role was a natural fit after a career that started with buying dresses at Lord & Taylor. Anushka earned a BA in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
News + Money
The news and journalism industry has undergone massive changes to its business model over the last several decades. This panel will compare and contrast various approaches to funding news organizations (reader revenue/subscriptions, venture-backed, philanthropic giving, etc.) and provide insight into building sustainable news organizations. It will also consider questions such as the following: In a future more heavily reliant on reader revenue and philanthropic giving, how can we be sure news organizations do not just tell the stories that readers or donors want to hear? And how do we make sure that news is still available to those who cannot pay for it? This panel will seek to answer these questions from organization leaders from a variety of backgrounds, including nonprofit and VC-backed for-profit models, both nationally and at the local level.
Josh Benson, Partner, Old Town Media
Kaizar Campwala, Vice President of News, Disney
Nick Chen, Co-founder and CEO, Pico
Sherrell Dorsey ’18JRN, Founder and CEO, The Plug
Elizabeth Green, CEO and co-founder, Chalkbeat
Sibel Lowin, Global Partnerships Solutions Lead, Google
Bios
Josh Benson is a partner at Old Town Media, a group of journalist founders who help established publishers and news startups achieve sustainability and growth. He previously co-founded and co-edited Capital New York and, later, led Politico’s expansion into state and local news. At Old Town, he helped launch and continues to advise a number of award-winning, journalist-owned publications, including The Colorado Sun, Block Club Chicago, and Documented. Josh learned to report the news under the guidance of his brilliant editors and senior colleagues at the Peter Kaplan-era New York Observer and The New York Times, and subsequently got to edit lots of reporters who are much more talented than he ever was. He’s still proud to have won the New York Press Club’s cub reporter of the year award. He lives in Queens.
Kaizar Campwala serves as vice president of news, at Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer group. In this role, he oversees the streaming and digital businesses at Good Morning America, ABC News, and FiveThirtyEight. Over the course of his career, Kaizar has helped great journalism and media organizations thrive. He co-founded and served as president of CALmatters, a statehouse reporting organization in Sacramento, led Stitcher’s business development team during the podcast company’s formative years, and was entrepreneur-in-residence at Al Jazeera. Kaizar holds a bachelor’s from Brown University and MBA from UCLA. He is a father of two and normally resides in New York City.
Sherrell Dorsey is the founder and CEO of The Plug, a digital news and insights platform covering the Black innovation economy. Her work has been featured in VICE, The Washington Post, Seattle Times, The Information, and more. Sherrell has been a contributing writer for notable publications like Columbia Journalism Review, Fast Company, Black Enterprise, and others. In 2018, she was named an inspiring woman in tech by CNet. Prior to launching The Plug, Dorsey served as a marketing manager for companies like Uber and Google Fiber. She holds a master’s degree in data journalism from Columbia University.
Institutional Investors Embracing Impact Investing
This panel will explore the experience and performance of seasoned institutional investors in the growing field of impact investing. With impact investing going mainstream and many seasoned institutional investors deepening their presence in this space, this panel will offer a platform to discuss what their initial lessons have been both in terms of universe of investible opportunities and internal advocacy required to have a strong impact investing focus. We will also discuss trends that will further deepen the sustainability lens in investing, enablers required to further the presence of institutional capital in this growing field, and what are the pitfalls to avoid as one embarks on this journey of impact.
John Goldstein, Head of the Sustainable Finance Group, Goldman Sachs
Vikram Raju, Head of Impact Investing, Morgan Stanley
Megan Starr, Global Head of Impact, The Carlyle Group
Iain Ware, Managing Director, Bain Capital Double Impact
Bios
John Goldstein is head of the Sustainable Finance Group (SFG), which is responsible for working across Goldman Sachs to deepen the firm’s knowledge and grow its capabilities in relation to inclusive growth and climate transition. He serves as chair of the Sustainable Finance Group steering group. John joined Goldman Sachs Asset Management as a managing director in 2015 through the acquisition of Imprint Capital, which he co-founded in 2007, to help expand the firm’s ESG and impact investing capabilities. Previously, John served as senior managing director of Medley Global Advisors. During that time, he co-founded and served as the executive director of the Medley Institute. Prior to that, John was a management consultant at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). John has served as an advisor or board member to a diverse set of organizations in the impact space including groups such as the US National Advisory Board of the G8 Social Impact Investing Task Force, the Global Impact Investing Network’s ImpactBase initiative, the Global Social Venture Competition, McKinsey’s working group on social impact bonds, Global Giving, the Sustainable Food Lab, the UN Capital Development Fund, the International Interfaith Investment Group and a range of other organizations. John graduated from Yale University with honors. He was awarded the Richter Fellowship and the Townsend Prize.
Megan Starr is the global head of impact for The Carlyle Group. She is based in New York. In her role, Ms. Starr works to design and execute Carlyle’s cohesive, long-term impact strategy. She also oversees the dedicated ESG team, which leads the firm’s investment diligence and portfolio company engagement work on material ESG issues. Prior to joining Carlyle, Ms. Starr was within Goldman Sachs’ Investment Management Division, where she helped build the ESG and impact investing business. Previously, Ms. Starr served in roles at The JPB Foundation, a $3.8B private family foundation based in New York City. Ms. Starr received an MBA and a certificate in public management and social innovation from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where she was an Arbuckle Leadership Fellow, and an AB in environmental science and public policy from Harvard College, where she graduated magna cum laude with highest honors in the field of concentration.
Iain Ware joined Bain Capital Double Impact in 2018. He is a managing director. Previously, he was a member of the Bain Capital Private Equity European team in the technology, media, and telecommunications Vertical where he focused on investments in the software, financial technology, information services, and media sectors. He has also played a leading role in recruiting and training efforts. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Mr. Ware worked in private equity for 3i and started his career as a management consultant with McKinsey. Mr. Ware received an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar and was awarded a Siebel Scholarship for academic achievement and community leadership. He also earned a BA in Economics from Yale University.
Scaling Social Ventures
So, your company has been innovating and finally has significant traction with its customer base. Now you’re faced with a whole new set of challenges as you seek to scale and grow your venture and shift from innovating to scaling. From securing funding to balancing growing revenue with growing burn rate to hiring the right team, there are hundreds of problems for startups to balance in this exciting time. This is even more challenging for social ventures that face stigma around profitability and pressures around mission drift. This panel will discuss these challenges and more, as well as possible solutions to bring social ventures to scale.
Jeffrey Hollender, Co-founder and CEO and Board Chair, American Sustainable Business Council
Vikas Raj ’10BUS, Managing Director, Accion Venture Lab
Bios
Jeffrey Hollender is CEO, board chair, and co-founder of the American Sustainable Business Council, which through its national member network represents more than 250,000 businesses in a wide range of industries. He was co-founder and CEO of Seventh Generation, which he built into a leading natural product brand known for its authenticity, transparency, and progressive business practices. Jeffrey is also the founder of Sustain Natural, which develops and markets sustainable feminine care products for women; and a strategic advisor and former board chair of Greenpeace US. He is currently an adjunct professor of sustainability and social entrepreneurship at the Stern School of Business, New York University. He is also the author of his seven books, including most recently, The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win and Planet Home.
Vikas Raj is managing director of Accion Venture Lab, Accion’s seed-stage investment initiative in fintech for the underserved. Venture Lab invests capital in, and provides support to, innovative fintech startups that increase access to, improve the quality of, or reduce the cost of financial services for the underserved at scale. Vikas leads Venture Lab’s investment work, in addition to managing portfolio relationships and driving the strategy and growth of Venture Lab. As part of his role, Vikas is the host of VentureKast, Venture Lab’s podcast series featuring fintech for inclusion entrepreneurs from around the world, and is an adjunct professor of financial inclusion at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He currently serves as a board member or observer for AYE Finance, CreditMantri, Konfio, First Circle, Self Lender, SMECorner, StreetShares, and Tienda Pago. Prior to joining Accion, Vikas was an M&A investment banker at Evercore Partners, where he advised on multiple corporate transactions with aggregate value of over $45 billion across the technology, real estate, consumer products, and industrials sectors. Previously, he worked in the microfinance space, primarily in India, as an early employee at Ujjivan and ASA International, both of which are now publicly traded companies. At Ujjivan, Vikas co-led the establishment of the firm’s first lending branches in Delhi and helped lead the firm’s Series B financing round. At ASA, Vikas was responsible for establishing and investing in the fund’s greenfield MFIs in India, Nigeria, and the Philippines. Vikas started his career in the corporate strategy group at Deloitte Consulting. Vikas has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia University.
ESG Investing: A Viable Investment Strategy for the Long-term?
Can ESG investing be a market solution for society’s most pressing challenges? Global Sustainable Funds exceeded $1 trillion, for the first time, in Q2 and $1.2 trillion in Q3 in 2020. As European and American funds embed ESG into their portfolios, what are the consideration factors for investors beyond a company’s financial performance? Join us for a conversation on the risks and returns of ESG investing compared to the overall market. Panelists will provide valuable insights into ESG measurement tools, how investors are deploying capital to drive impact in environmental, social, and governance challenges, and the outperformance of ESG portfolios during extremely volatile markets.
Olivia Albercht ’10 BUS, Executive VP and Head of ESG Business Strategy, PIMCO
Navindu Katugampola, Head of Sustainable Investing, Fixed Income and Liquidity, Morgan Stanley
Sam Mindlin ’21 BUS, MBA Candidate, CBS
John Paluska ’21 BUS, VP ESG Securitized Products, Bank of America
Mark Zurack, Senior Lecturer in Discipline in Business, CBS
Bios
Creating a More Ethical and Sustainable Agricultural System
Agriculture is one of the oldest, and arguably the most important, industries. While our modern global agricultural system is capable of creating immense amounts of food to feed an ever-growing world population, in many ways it falls short. Poor distribution and misaligned incentives lead to both food waste and food insecurity. The shift in monoculture is destroying biodiversity of crops, making our system fragile to fungi and disease. And last, but not least, the agricultural system is accountable for roughly one-quarter of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. This panel will bring together entrepreneurs and experts to discuss how we are rising to meet these challenges to move towards a more ethical and sustainable agricultural system.
Kaushik Kappagantulu ’17 BUS, Co-founder and CEO, Kheyti
Sara Tjossem, Senior Lecturer, Columbia University
Scott T. Weathers, Senior Policy Specialist, The Good Food Institute
Bios
Kaushik has spent the last 11 years building scalable social enterprises serving India’s rural poor. He is the co-founder and CEO of Kheyti, an organization helping smallholder farmers battle climate change through its “Greenhouse-in-a-Box”, a low-cost greenhouse bundled with end-to-end services that protect crops from environmental risks and grows seven times more food using 90 percent less water. Kheyti works with partners to offer farmers financing, input linkage, training, and market linkage services, creating a seamless path towards steady incomes of $100/month. Before Kheyti, Kaushik spent five years as a leadership team member of B-ABLE, and as their first employee, he helped the company scale from its training center to 200 centers across 14 states training more than 70,000 school dropouts yearly. He is a graduate of ITT Kharagpur and has an MBA from Columbia Business School. Kaushik is an Acumen India Fellow 2014 and a DRK Foundation Entrepreneur.
Microfinance Done Right
How can we successfully expand financial access to the underserved communities in society? This panel will talk through the opportunities and challenges surrounding microfinance and discuss how certain organizations are approaching and solving these issues.
David del Ser ’08BUS, Chair and Chief Innovation Officer and Director, BFA Global and FinnSalud Project
Diane M. LuTran ’21 BUS, EMBA Global Candidate at CBS, London Business School, University of Hong Kong; Formerly Digital Finance Specialist at International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group
Jennifer Pryce ’00BUS, President and CEO, Calvert Impact Capital
Brad Swanson ’88 BUS, Partner, Developing World Markets
Bios
Jennifer Pryce is president and CEO of Calvert Impact Capital. For 25 years, Calvert has strived to make markets work for more people, more often, by investing in communities overlooked by traditional finance. Jenn began her career in the Peace Corps, worked at NeubergerBerman, on the investment banking team at Morgan Stanley’s London office and at a national Community development financial institution, Nonprofit Finance Fund, investing capital in communities. Jenn studied engineering at Union College and holds an MBA from Columbia University. She currently serves as a Forbes contributor, a lecturer at Oxford Saïd School of Business and as the advisory board chair of Quantified Ventures.
What We’ve Learned: The Best Solutions to Come out of COVID-19
COVID-19 has catalyzed an unprecedented wave of change and innovation. New policies, funding, and solutions are realizing impact — or falling short — faster than ever before. By taking stock of what the world has achieved against COVID-19, we can gain new insight into what it will take to address other collective threats to our planet, health, and prosperity. Join this session’s panelists for a riveting discussion highlighting the most important lessons and missteps from the pandemic response. The panel will be composed of three speakers spanning finance, policy, and innovation.
Shanthakumar Bannirchelvam ’22 BUS, Panel Organizer for the Social Enterprise Conference and MBA Candidate, Managing Director, CBS and Global Impact Partners
Rajesh Dash, Associate Professor of Medicine and co-founder, Stanford University Medical Center and HealthPals
Amelia Earnest ’22 BUS, AVP of the Social Enterprise Conference and MBA Candidate, CBS
Varun Jhaveri, Officer on Special Duty, National Health Authority of India
Bios
“We each have a role to play in forging a world with impact at its heart. Impact is grounded in the people and environment that we strive to serve.” Shanthakumar has advised companies in the Infrastructure, property, technology, and medical sectors on strategy and capital raising in Australia, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. He has also previously worked in corporate law in Sydney and London with Herbert Smith Freehills, the United Nations Economic and Social Council in New York, and served as an Infantry Officer in the Singapore Armed Forces. Shanthakumar is admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of NSW and holds a bachelor’s in economics and law from the University of Sydney.
BlackRock Impact Investing Workshop
What is impact investing? How do you track and measure impact? How do you create and manage an impact portfolio?
In this workshop, attendees will have a chance to sit in the seat of an impact investor. BlackRock will guide attendees through three exercises to uncover how to define impact, what the logical key performance indicators are when analyzing a business, and how to weigh different holdings within an impact portfolio.
The team will facilitate this workshop and provide an overview of the fundamentals of impact investing, outline career paths into the sector, and offer insights into what BlackRock is doing in the impact investing space.
Workshop Outline:
10:00 AM | What is Impact Investing?
10:25 AM | Defining Impact Workshop
10:45 AM | Measuring Impact Workshop
11:05 AM | Managing an Impact Portfolio
11:50 AM | Closing Remarks
Caroline Brady, VP and Product Strategist, BlackRock Active Equities Group
Daniel Concessi, Research Analyst, BlackRock
William McSweeney CFA, VP and Research Analyst and Member of the Global Impact Team within the Fundamental Equity Division, BlackRock Portfolio Management Group
Eric Rice, Managing Director and Head of Active Equities, Impact Investing at BlackRock
Quyen Tran, Director of Impact Investing, BlackRock
Flora Cameron Watt, Impact Analyst, BlackRock
Bios
Caroline Brady, vice president, is a product strategist within BlackRock’s Active Equities group. She is the lead product strategist for the Active Equity Impact Investing team. Her role encompasses product strategy, business development, client strategy, and communication globally. She was a founding member of the BlackRock Sustainable Investing team where she worked with the firm’s global investment teams across equity, fixed income, and alternatives to develop scalable, innovative investment solutions that address client’s sustainable objectives. She worked on research to develop ESG investable insights and proprietary signals, for use in security selection and company level analysis. As well as working in partnership with investment teams to enrich the ESG Integration practices. Prior to this, she was a member of BlackRock’s Securities Lending and Financing Group within Trading and Liquidity Strategies. Caroline’s service dates back to 2015. She worked in Hong Kong as an investments analyst Intern for a sustainability lead distressed debt and private equity fund — ADM Capital. Caroline earned a BSc, hons degree in biomedical sciences from Newcastle University in 2012, where she spent time as a researcher at the Northern Institute of Cancer Research. Her research was published: https://www.nature.com/articles/bjc2013325
Daniel Concessi is a research analyst for the impact investing strategy within BlackRock’s Fundamental Active Equity group. Danny covers multiple sectors within the impact strategy, including health care, software, telecommunications, and financial services. Prior to joining BlackRock, Danny was a research associate at Wellington Management, where he worked as an equity analyst on the firm’s flagship global impact equity strategy, and as a sector specialist covering financial services. Before Wellington, Danny began his career in New York City at Morgan Stanley conducting credit analysis to support the underwriting of leveraged loans. Danny graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting and a minor in economics. Outside of his career, Danny is active in community and philanthropic work, including running Boston Marathons to raise awareness and cancer research funding for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
William McSweeney, CFA is vice president, research analyst, and member of the Global Impact team within the Fundamental Equity division of BlackRock’s Portfolio Management Group. William joined the Global Impact fund in 2020 and covers multiple sectors, including financial and education technology. Prior to joining the Global Impact Fund, William was a research associate responsible for covering global energy for BlackRock’s Value and Income team. William graduated cum laude from Hofstra University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and minored in economics.
Eric Rice, managing director, is head of Active Equities Impact Investing. He works as a portfolio manager and is the architect of the world’s first diversified public-markets impact investing strategy, Global Impact. Global Impact is an alpha-oriented strategy that invests in companies whose goods and services help address the world’s great problems as defined by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Eric also collaborates with other investors at BlackRock to help germinate additional impact and sustainable investing strategies. Eric joined BlackRock from Wellington Management in 2019, where he had been an investor for over 20 years. Previously, he worked as a World Bank country economist and a diplomat in Rwanda with the US Department of State. Eric earned a PhD in economics from Harvard University and an AB degree in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. He lives in San Francisco, CA.
Quyen Tran is the director of impact investing for BlackRock. Her research creates BlackRock’s structural framework for advancing impact investing, including the case for impact in public equities, the case for alpha generation, and best practices in impact measurement. She has developed the measurement framework for BlackRock’s public equity impact strategy, authors publications, meets with clients, and speaks at conferences. Quyen partners with academia and industry practitioners to develop thought leadership in the impact ecosystem. She is a member of Harvard Business School’s Alumni for Impact Initiative, serves on the Global Impact Investing Network’s (GIIN) working group for impact in public equities, and is a board advisor for Bentley University’s Sustainable Investment Group. Prior to BlackRock, Quyen worked as the sustainable investment strategist for Wellington Management. She guided the development of the firm’s flagship impact strategy in public equities and the strategy to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Quyen worked as a senior investment consultant at Cambridge Associates, where she advised endowments and foundations on investment strategy. At Fidelity Investments, Quyen was a director of investment analytics covering global equities. She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA, cum laude, in philosophy from Mount Holyoke College. She studied abroad at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, India, and has taught English in Vietnam and worked for the advancement of grade-school children in the United States.
Flora Cameron Watt is an impact analyst for the impact investing strategy with Blackrock’s Fundamental Active Equity group. Flora focuses on impact analysis, the impact universe, and the Impact Team’s engagement strategy, working alongside the impact investment analysts, to engage with companies. Flora joined Blackrock through the Blackrock’s Graduate scheme in London, England. She worked on the European Equity Team and the Nutrition Team, covering multiple sectors including business services, food delivery, and infant milk formula. Flora also completed an industrial placement year in Blackrock’s Fundamental Equity Team during her third year of university. Flora graduated from the University of Bath, where she earned a BS (hons) in politics and international relations. Flora is a keen runner and coxswain, competing at Henley Royal Regatta for her university and coaching others in the sport. Her philanthropic work is mostly focused on the inclusivity of education and is currently training for her first marathon.
Using Sustainable Investing to Transform the Status Quo at Scale and Create a Sustainable and Inclusive Economy
Cyan Capital Partners works to connect new and talented sustainable investment firms with what they need to thrive, and to support institutional investor’s deployment into new sustainable investment strategies. What industry trends can accelerate pools of institutional capital into sustainable investments at scale? In this keynote session, speakers will share insights into the creation of their investment firm and investing thesis, their pathway into the field of sustainable investing, as well as advice for those exploring careers in the sector.
Geoffrey Heal, Donald C. Waite III Professor of Social Enterprise and Bernstein Faculty Leader, CBS
Peter S. Knight, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Cyan Capital Partners
Beth Richtman ’07 BUS, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Cyan Capital Partners
John-Austin Saviano, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Cyan Capital Partners
Bios
Geoffrey Heal, Donald C. Waite III Professor of Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School, is noted for contributions to economic theory and resource and environmental economics. He holds a bachelor’s (first class), master’s, and doctoral degree from Cambridge University, where he studied at Churchill College and taught at Christ’s College. He has also taught at Sussex, Essex, Yale, Stanford, École Polytechnique, Stockholm, and Princeton. He holds an honorary doctorate from the Universite de Paris Dauphine. Author of eighteen books and about two hundred articles, Professor Heal is a fellow of the Econometric Society, past managing editor of the Review of Economic Studies, past president of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, recipient of its prize for publications of enduring quality and a life fellow, recipient of the 2013 Best Publication Prize of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, a director of the Union of Concerned Scientists,and a founder and director and chairman of the board of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, developers of the REDD policy for reducing deforestation by awarding carbon credits for forest conservation. Recent books include Nature and the Marketplace, Valuing the Future, When Principles Pay, and Whole Earth Economics (forthcoming). Professor Heal chaired a committee of the National Academy of Sciences on valuing ecosystem services, was a commissioner of the Pew Oceans Commission, was a coordinating lead author of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, was a member of President Sarkozy’s Commission on the Meaurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, was a member of the advisory board for the World Bank’s 2010 World Development Report, and the United Nations Environment Program’s 2011 Human Development Report, and acts as an advisor to the World Bank on its Green Growth project. He is also a director of Public Business, a foundation that promotes in-depth public interest journalism, and a member of the advisory board of Green Seal. He has been a principal in two startup companies, a consulting firm and a software and telecommunications company, and until recently was a member of the investment committee of a green private equity group. He teaches the MBA courses Current Developments in Energy Markets, Business and Society: Doing Well by Doing Good?, and the Business of Sustainability, and he teaches a doctoral course on advanced microeconomic theory, and he also advises doctoral students interested in sustainability.
Beth has deep expertise in sustainability, ESG Integration, underwriting assets and asset managers, talent development, and portfolio management. She is a co-founder and managing partner of Cyan Capital Partners, whose mission is to bridge gaps for the Institutional Investor community and new firms pursuing sustainable investment strategies capable of generating financial returns and significant impact at scale. Directly before co-founding Cyan, Beth served as the first managing investment director of sustainable investments for CalPERS. In this role, Beth led a team providing centralized leadership for integration of ESG factors into investment decision-making across CalPERS’ approximately $400 billion total fund and served as part of the executive leadership team overseeing the CalPERS Investment Office. During her years at CalPERS, Beth also managed a $7 billion portfolio of infrastructure and real estate assets and served on the Real Assets Investment Committee. Prior to her time at CalPERS, Beth was director of business development for Enel Green Power North America, where she worked on various business and finance aspects of over 1600 MW of renewable power assets. She earned a BS in science, technology, and society from Stanford University and an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School.
serves as a strategic advisor to investment firms and the institutional pools of capital who back them. He draws on his 25 years of investment experience that includes two ten-figure endowment launches. Previously, John-Austin was the founding president and chief investment officer for UC Berkeley’s endowment management company. In this role he was responsible for investing its portfolio, creating its management company, and leading its investment team. Before joining Berkeley in 2009, he advised a wide range of institutions and institutional-sized families at Cambridge Associates and served on the founding investment team at the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. He began his career financing the growth and operations of public and private companies, as both a senior creditor at a commercial bank and as venture investor. John-Austin earned a BA in economics from UC San Diego, an MBA from Duke University, and is a CFA charterholder.
Embedding Sustainability Into PepsiCo Beverages North America’s Value Chain
PepsiCo Beverages North America recognizes the importance of prioritizing sustainability throughout its entire value chain. How does the company embed sustainability into the organization to ensure the company’s success and financial returns tie to its impact on agriculture and climate, packaging, and with its internal and external stakeholders? This keynote session will explore how PepsiCo Beverages North America is creating scalable solutions to produce and distribute its beverage portfolio, while minimizing waste. Jason Blake, ’05BUS, will also share insights on career paths into the sustainability sector.
Jason Blake ’05BUS, Senior VP and Chief Sustainability Officer, PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA)
Vanessa Burbano, Assistant Professor of Management, CBS
Bios
Jason Blake is senior vice president, chief sustainability officer for PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA). PBNA is PepsiCo’s $21 billion beverage business in North America as well as Global Foodservice with an iconic portfolio of beverages including, Pepsi, Gatorade, Tropicana, bubly, MTN DEW, Naked Juice, Starbucks ready-to-drink coffee, LIFEWTR, Rockstar Energy Drink, and KeVita. Jason is a 12-year PepsiCo veteran. In his current role, Jason leads PBNA’s efforts to deliver its long-term sustainability targets across the full beverage portfolio. Prior to returning to PepsiCo in August 2020, Jason served as vice president of commercial at Delta Airlines since June 2019 where he led the diversification and de-risking of the company’s revenue model and led key innovation and business development initiatives. Since joining PepsiCo in 2007, Jason held a variety of roles of increasing responsibility, including senior vice president of customer management and channel strategy for Frito-Lay North America (FLNA), in which he led PepsiCo’s Target and Costco teams and channel strategy for FLNA in traditional and emerging e-commerce; region vice president for the Southeast Region of FLNA; and senior director of customer management for the Great Lakes Region of Pepsi Beverages Company. Jason is a member of the board of directors of the American Beverage Association. Jason holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Morehouse College where he graduated cum laude. Jason is married with two children.
Vanessa Burbano is an assistant professor of management in the strategy area at Columbia Business School. She was named to Poets and Quants’ 2019 list of Best 40 Business School Professors Under 40. Burbano researches the strategic implications of socially responsible and irresponsible firm practices. Her research has been recognized with awards including those from the Strategic Management Society, the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability, the Responsible Research in Management Award, the Impact for Investment Research Prize, the Berkeley Sustainable Business and Investment Forum, the International Association of Business & Society, and the Industry Studies Association. Her work has been published in Organization Science, Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, California Management Review, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Organization & Environment, and has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, The Financial Times, and the New York Times. She holds a PhD from UCLA Anderson School of Management and an MPA from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Prior to academia, she worked as an associate at Goldman Sachs and as a strategy consultant at Monitor Group.