In 2007 UNEP FI released its seminal report ‘Demystifying Responsible Investment Performance’ which was an important driver in the ESG integration debate. Five years down the line much has changed. This webinar discussed how the RI performance story has unfolded, how industry leaders are using new strategies and academics new methods to add to this debate.

Duration: 60min.

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Speakers

  Jane Ambachtsheer, National Partner, Mercer

Jane Ambachtsheer is a Partner of Mercer’s investment consulting business, based in Toronto. She leads Mercer’s global responsible investment business, and consults to investors in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Jane was consultant to the United Nations through the development of the Principles for Responsible Investment. She is a global advisor to the Carbon Disclosure Project and sits on the finance committee of the Toronto Atmospheric Fund. In 2005, Jane was recognised by Global Proxy Watch as one of the top 10 ‘Architects of Governance’. Jane holds a Bachelor of Economics and English literature with honours from York University, and a Master of Social Science from the University of Amsterdam. Prior to joining Mercer, Jane worked for the pension benchmarking firm CEM, in Amsterdam and Toronto. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, where she co-teaches a graduate course on responsible investment.

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  Andrew Gray, Manager, Investments Governance, AustralianSuper

Andrew joined AustralianSuper in July 2011 as Manager, Investments Governance. This role involves Andrew implementing an ESG integration strategy for AustralianSuper’s investment portfolio. Prior to joining AustralianSuper, Andrew was Executive Director, Head of Environmental, Social & Governance Research at Goldman Sachs and Partners Australia. He joined JB Were (which later became Goldman Sachs) in 1991 and over his 20 years with the firm performed roles including Head of Quantitative Research. Andrew’s work evolved to include consideration of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) factors in investing with an emphasis on the role they play as part of the mainstream investment process. Andrew published various research pieces and worked closely with the investment community to contribute to the evolution of the consideration of ESG issues in investing.

 Robert Eccles, Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School

Robert G. Eccles first joined the faculty in 1979 and received tenure in 1989. He left in 1993 to work in the private sector and rejoined the faculty in 2007. Right after receiving tenure, Professor Eccles started doing research on corporate reporting, a topic which remains of great interest to him from a research, managerial practice and public policy perspective. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the International Integrated Reporting Committee (www.integratedreporting.org) and is working with groups all over the world to accelerate the integrated reporting movement.

  Georgios Serafeim, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

George Serafeim is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Accounting and Management Unit. He teaches the course “Innovating for Sustainability” in the MBA elective curriculum, the Executive Education program “Innovating for Sustainability”, and the doctoral seminar “The Role of the Corporation in Society”. Professor Serafeim’s research interests are international, focusing on understanding the relation between environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and financial performance, how innovations in processes, products and business models are developed to forge a sustainable strategy, and the role of disclosure, information and financial intermediation in efficient capital allocation and management practices. His work has been published in prestigious academic and practitioner journals such as the Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Finance, Contemporary Accounting Research, Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Director Notes and has also appeared in media outlets including Bloomberg, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian.

Impact investing is now being defined by mainstream investors as an asset class. The aim of the webinar was to develop a better understanding of impact investing, its potential application and its prospects for growth.
The webinar aimed at generating a lively debate between academics, experts and practitioners around some of the key questions raised by the growing popularity of this investment strategy. These questions were:

1. What is impact investing, where does it come from? Why has it become popular so rapidly?
2. Who ‘does’ impact investing? What are the differences between these institutions? Are there common goals and/or possible conflicts between them?
3. Is mainstream interest in impact investing reflected in actual growth in investments? What are the barriers of impact investing becoming mainstream?
4. What roles should the organisations involved with impact investing play to manage growth-related risks and maximise ‘impact’?

This webinar took the format of a roundtable discussion. All participants were invited to consider the above questions before the webinar and participate in an open discussion with several experienced academics, investors and experts (speaker details see below) moderated by David Wood, Director, Initiative for Responsible Investment, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University.

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Speakers

 David Wood, Director of the Institute for Responsible Investment (IRI), Boston College

David Wood is Director of the Institute for Responsible Investment (IRI), where he conducts research on responsible investment and its applications. He is co-director, with Gary Pivo of the University of Arizona, of the Responsible Property Investing Center, and also works on the More for Mission Campaign, a project dedicated to growing the field of foundations engaged in using their endowment investments to further their mission. Recent projects at the IRI include the production of a Handbook on Responsible Investment across Asset Classes and a follow-up Climate-Related Investment across Asset Classes; the development of the field of Responsible Property Investing; research on the role of banking in mission investment; field building in the emerging field of responsible investment consulting; research on the production and dissemination of corporate social reports; and research into investor use of corporate reporting on non financial information. Prior to his work at Boston College, Wood taught the history of ethics, ethical and economic thought, and human rights theory at Boston University. He holds a Ph.D in History from the Johns Hopkins University. In 2008 he was elected to the Board of the Social Investment Forum.

 Euan Marshall, Program Manager, IFC

Euan Marshall is the Program Manager for IFC’s Sustainable Investment Advisory work base in DC and leads the global program in this area. Prior to joining this team he established and managed IFC’s Advisory program in the Philippines and its Sustainability program in Indonesia. Before joining IFC he worked in the Asian capital markets firstly on the sell side and then as Business Development Director in the early days of ASrIA. He has an MBA from Oxford and a BA from Bristol University.

 Dr. Tessa Hebb, Director, Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, Carleton University

Dr Tessa Hebb is the Director of the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, Carleton University, Canada. Her research focuses on the financial and extra-financial impact of pension fund investment in Canada and internationally with particular emphasis on Responsible Investment and Corporate Engagement and is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Government of Canada. The Carleton Centre for Community Innovation is a leading knowledge producer on social finance tools and instruments. Dr. Hebb is also a senior research associate with the Oxford University Centre for the Environment and the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. In 2008 she completed a multi-year research project revitalization funded by Rockefeller and Ford Foundations on the role of US public sector pension funds and urban revitalization, based at the Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School. Dr. Hebb has published many articles on pension fund investing policies and is the co-editor of the volume Working Capital the Power of Labor’s Pensions. Her book No Small Change: Pension Fund Corporate Engagement is available from Cornell University Press. Dr. Hebb also co-chairs the PRI Academic Network Steering Committee which develops the network’s research and outreach strategies.

 Prof. Harry Hummels, Managing Director, Impact Investing, SNS Asset Management

 Jonathan Hera, Director of Investor Relations, Sarona Asset Management

Jonathan Hera, Associate and Investor Relations Director, oversees Sarona’s social and environmental monitoring and evaluation systems as an integral part of the overall fund management and investor relations processes. He is also an investment officer involved in Sarona’s transactions. Prior to joining Sarona, Jonathan worked with CGAP on several initiatives including strategic SME financing opportunities, third party certification demand and multiple internal knowledge management projects. Jonathan is an Adjunct Professor at the Schulich School of Business and teaches an MBA course dedicated to microfinance and impact investing. He is also a CFA Candidate. Previously, Jonathan worked with MEDA in developing a Paraguayan MFI’s financial model and internal control systems. He also sat on the Board of Directors of CEPAL, the Canadian-Palestinian Educational Exchange, an awareness-raising and education-focused INGO. Jonathan holds an International MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University, received a BA in Political Science with a minor in Italian from McGill University and earned a Nonprofit Leadership Diploma from the University for Peace, Costa Rica.

 Georgette Wong, Creator & Curator, Take Action! Impact Investing Conference Series

Georgette Wong is the Creator & Curator of the Take Action! Impact Investing Conference Series and President, Correlation Consulting. Now in its fourth year, Take Action! is the premier gathering of impact investors focused on premium returns. The 2010 Take Action! Boston event brought together investors representing over $4.1 trillion. Over the last eighteen years, Georgette has: advised families, foundations and Fortune 100 businesses on public and private investments; developed and funded early stage companies; and created organizations focused on strategic philanthropy and partnerships between the business and social sectors. Before starting Correlation Consulting, she was a Director of Client Relationships for Sterling Stamos, a multi-billion dollar private investment firm. She is currently an advisor to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Center for Community Development Investments on an initiative to integrate social performance and financial metrics between the government and the impact investment field. She is a leading speaker and advisor on trends in impact investing. Her most recent work has been published in Solutions for Impact Investors: From Strategy to Implementation, produced by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and Financial Planning Magazine. Georgette received an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles and BA magna cum laude from Amherst College.

 Jed Emerson, Founder, Blended Value

Jed Emerson is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Social Investing at Heidelberg University (Germany); a Senior Advisor to The Sterling Group (a multi-family office based in Hong Kong pursuing a sustainable/impact investing strategy for its clients); and is Executive Vice-President of ImpactAssets, a nonprofit financial services firm creating impact investing products to bridge the asset owner/impact fund market. He has held faculty appointments at Harvard, Stanford and Oxford Business schools. He is internationally recognized as a thought leader, originated the concept of Blended Value and has presented his work at the World Economic Forum, CGI and other events around the world.

While there are a number of mechanisms and institutions which exist that measure and monitor environmental and governance risks, international coordination for monitoring social risks is comparatively less advanced. In this webinar we asked why social risk is harder to measure and monitor vis a vis other types of extra-financial risks.

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Speakers

 Anna Young, Discipline of accounting, University of Sydney Business School

Anna is an industry specialist in the field of sustainability and carbon accounting and has joined academia to complete her PhD that examines the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) information in capital markets. In 2011, Anna was invited to attend the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and oikos International Young Scholars Finance Academy. She is a founding committee member of the Australian Business Leaders Reporting Forum that represents key Australian stakeholders in response to the International Integrated Reporting Committee. Anna’s academic teaching areas include corporate sustainability and integrated reporting; carbon accounting; and responsible investment for Masters and undergraduate programs.

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 Nick Edgerton, Manager of ESG Research and Engagement, In the role of Manager ESG Research and Engagement.

Nick works closely with investment teams across equities, fixed interest and credit to build in a consideration of ESG issues and identify new investment opportunities. Nick also engages the investment community more broadly to increase the awareness of the risks and opportunities for long term investors. In doing this Nick has roles with the Investor Group on Climate Change, ESG Research Australia, and Australia’s Financial Services Council ESG Working Group, as well as participating in PRI engagement groups.  Nick advises the academic network on research relevance and helps to remind it’s northern members that the world is made up of two hemispheres.

Previously Nick was at AMP Capital Investors as an ESG analyst for Australia’s largest Sustainable Investment Fund, covering half of the ASX listed sectors and more than 200 stocks. Prior to that Nick was a sustainability consultant at a non-profit and a policy officer in the Australian Government.

Nick has a Bachelor of Economics, Macquarie University, and a Master of Science with Distinction (ecological economics), The University of Edinburgh.

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Dr Ralf Barkemeyer, Lecturer in Corporate Social Responsibility at the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds, UK.

He mainly focuses on the interface of business, environment and society. In particular, he is interested in the impact of contemporary corporate social responsibility related policies and practices in a developing country context. Furthermore, Ralf is interested in the area of value-oriented approaches to measuring and managing corporate sustainability.

Prior to joining SRI, Ralf has been working at the University of St Andrews and Queen’s University Management School, Belfast, from where he received his PhD on CSR practices and priorities in developed and developing countries.

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Diana McEwan, Manager, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, Stockland

Diana McEwan is the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CR&S) Manager at Stockland, one of Australia’s largest diversified property companies. As part of this role, Diana project manages Stockland’s annual CR&S Report and the company’s numerous sustainability reporting commitments. For the last two years Stockland has been awarded the ACCA Australia Sustainability Reporting Award for property and in 2009 was awarded ‘Sustainable Company of the Year’ by Ethical Investor. Diana has also worked for the Property Council of Australia as the National Policy Adviser, advocating on behalf of Australia’s $600 billion property industry.

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The International Labour Organization estimates that 4% of global GDP is lost due to work-related accidents and diseases, and there are 2.2 million work-related deaths annually. Such figures show that costs associated with poor occupational health and safety (OHS) are staggering in human and financial terms, but what do these statistics mean for investors?

The CWC’s Investing in Decent Work Program draws attention to the relevance of labour rights for investment decision-making. During this webinar, Priya Bala-Miller – Program Manager of the CWC will present highlights from the latest Investing in Decent Work briefing paper, which focuses on OSH. Based on qualitative research and a systematic literature review, the paper discusses the diverse forms of risk investors are exposed to when they are invested in companies with poor OHS performance, the opportunities for shareholder activism to improve employee health and safety, as well as barriers that will need to overcome for such activism to be effective.

Bridging research with practice, PRI signatories whose work will be featured as best-practice case studies in the Investing in Decent Work Program, will share lessons learned from their experiences of engaging companies on OHS issues.

This webinar was part of a broader and urgent discussion on how labour and human rights issues (under the pillar of “social” issues) can be effectively addressed within a systematic approach to responsible investing.

Speakers

  Priya Bala-Miller, Programme Officer, Global Unions Committee on Workers’ Capital (CWC)

Priya Bala Miller executes strategic planning, coordination and program development for the Global Unions Committee on Workers’ Capital (CWC), whose secretariat is based at SHARE. The CWC’s primary remit is to promote the responsible investment of worker’s capital (such as pension funds) through information sharing, campaigns and advocacy. Priya has over seven years of experience working in the areas of sustainability, ethical consumerism and corporate social responsibility at the international level. She has previously worked with the United Nations Environment Programme’s Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, and was actively involved in high-level policy work and campaigning on behalf of the global consumer movement through her role as Senior Policy Officer at Consumers International. Priya holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Political Science from the University of British Columbia, as well as a Master of Arts degree in Conflict Analysis and Management (Political, Ethnic and Security Issues) from Royal Roads University. Having lived in India, the United Arab Emirates, Canada and the United Kingdom, Priya also has a strong personal commitment to internationalism and solidarity.

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  Carin Zelenko, Director of Capital Strategies, Teamsters

Carin Zelenko is the Director of the Capital Strategies Department for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. She is responsible for coordinating corporate accountability initiatives for the Teamsters Union and Teamster-affiliated benefit funds which together have more than $100 billion invested in the capital markets. Under her leadership, Teamster shareholder initiatives have led to significant reforms that have enhanced shareholder rights, improved corporate governance, reigned in executive excess; and secured greater financial transparency and board accountability. In coalition with other institutional investors, Teamsters continue to fight for meaningful political spending disclosures; human rights protections and sustainable, environmentally sound business practices. Carin Zelenko also serves on the Board of the Council of Institutional Investors (CII), an association of public, union and corporate pension funds with combined assets of more than $3 trillion and is a member of Teamsters Local 922 in Washington, DC.

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Robert Avellino, Employee, Loomis

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  Steven Heim,Managing Director and Director of ESG Research and Shareholder Engagement, Boston Common Asset Management

Steven Heim is Managing Director and Director of ESG Research and Shareholder Engagement at Boston Common Asset Management. Boston Common is an investment manager and a leader in global sustainability initiatives, specializing in long-only International and US equity strategies. It employs an integrated investment process of analyzing financial, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors together with innovative engagement strategies. As shareowners, Boston Common urges portfolio companies to improve transparency, accountability, and attention to ESG issues. Steven is primarily responsible for ESG research on global companies and shareholder engagement. He has over 20 years of experience in the field. Steven has engaged companies and industries on various issue areas such as global climate change, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, workplace human rights, genetically engineered foods, global supply chain labor standards and environmental risk management. Steven is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Fiduciary law, which governs the relationship between trustees and beneficiaries, is complex, however it is accepted that the integration of ESG issues into investment analysis in order to better predict financial performance is permissible and even required in most legal settings.

In this webinar, we discussed definitions of fiduciary duties, the types of financial institutions that are subject to fiduciary duty, the extent to which fiduciary duties can help or hinder responsible investment and the possibility to reform existing fiduciary rules.

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Speakers

Paul Watchman, Special Advisor Legal and Fidcuiary Duties, UNEP FI

Paul Watchman is an Independent Legal Advisor. He was named in 2006, with Hank Paulson, formerly Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs and now United States Treasury Secretary, as one of the five most influential world figures in the development of Sustainable Banking. He has lectured and published widely and is the author or co-author of many legal textbooks, collections of essays on the law, reports for governments, government agencies and the United Nations and articles in leading academic, legal and professional journals. Paul is a former Visiting Professor and a Fellow of the Centre for Environment Law at the University of Aberdeen . He lectures presently on Legal Risks and Financial markets on LSE’s LL.M course.

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Keith L. Johnson, Head, Institutional Investor Consulting Services, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c.

Keith L. Johnson heads the Institutional Investor Legal Services team at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c. Mr. Johnson represents pension funds and institutional investors on a global basis on corporate governance, fiduciary, responsible investment and securities litigation matters. His practice focuses on serving as pension fund fiduciary and investment counsel and as a responsible investment advisor to large international investors. He is currently Co-Chair of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys (NAPPA) Working Group on Alternative Investments and is a coordinating team member of the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets, an international think-tank. Mr. Johnson also acts as program director of the Wisconsin International Corporate Governance Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. He has published numerous articles on pension fund and institutional investor issues and regularly presents at legal and investor conferences in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. He is a member of the Wisconsin Bar Association, American College of Investment Counsel and International Corporate Governance Network. Prior to joining Reinhart, Mr. Johnson was legal counsel to the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), the ninth largest public pension fund in the United States, for more than 21 years, including almost seven as chief legal officer. Mr. Johnson holds Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Law Degrees from the University of Wisconsin.

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Benjamin Richardson, Senior Canada Research Chair, University of British Columbia

Professor Richardson joined the UBC Faculty of Law in January 2011, and holds the Senior (tier 1) Canada Research Chair in Environmental Law & Sustainability. Previously, he was a Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University (2003-10) and earlier was a Senior Lecturer at the law faculties of the University of Manchester and University of Auckland. Prior to working in academia, Professor Richardson was a policy advisor to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service in Australia, and a legal consultant to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) in Nepal and Kenya. He completed his undergraduate studies in law and political science at Macquarie University and his PhD at the Australian National University.

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 Sebastian Siegl, Post doctorate student, Sustainable Investment, Abo Akademi

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Engagement is believed to be one of the most effective tools available to responsible investors to foment behaviour changes in companies.

This webinar addressed the following questions, among others:

• Which issues can be quantified as material for investors to engage on? 
• Can engagement be quantified in terms of its financial impact on long term shareholder value and societal value? 
• How should resources be allocated to stewardship?

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Speakers

 Vidette Bullock Mixon, Director, Corporate Relations, General Board of Pension and Health Benefits

Vidette Bullock Mixon is Director of Corporate Relations for the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church. The General Board is a not-for-profit, administrative general agency of The United Methodist Church responsible for the supervision and administration of pension, disability, death and health benefit plans for more than 74,000 clergy and lay employees of the Church and manages and invests over $15 billion dollars in assets. Ms. Mixon oversees the research and monitoring of corporate policies and practices to ensure adherence to the General Board’s socially responsible investment program, monitors proxy voting, files shareholder resolutions and communicates with corporate management on corporate governance, environmental and social issues.

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Wilco van Heteren, Senior Engagement Specialist, Robeco.

Mr. van Heteren is senior engagement specialist at Robeco’s Responsible Investing department. His main areas of concern are corporate governance and issues about human rights and labour conditions. On behalf of Robeco and its clients, he enters into dialog with invested companies, encouraging them to improve their conduct in terms of corporate social responsibility. From 2002, Mr. van Heteren held similar positions at Robeco and PGGM Investments. Before that, from 1998 onwards, he was junior portfolio manager (equity) and quantitative researcher at Robeco. He holds a master’s degree in Econometrics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam..

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 Fabrizio Ferraro, Associate Professor of Strategic Management, IESE Business School

Professor Ferraro is currently studying the emergence and consolidation of the socially responsible investing field. His research project was selected for support by a European Research Council (ERC) 5-year grant. Previously he studied the emergence of novel institutions such as sustainability reporting and the functioning of novel organizational forms like open source software communities. He has published in journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science and his article “Economics Language and Assumptions: How Theories Can Become Self-fulfilling” won the 2006 Best Paper Award from the Academy of Management Review. Before joining IESE, he completed a PhD in Management from Stanford University.

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In 2007 UNEP FI released its seminal report ‘Demystifying Responsible Investment Performance’ which was an important driver in the ESG integration debate. Five years down the line much has changed. This webinar discussed how the RI performance story has unfolded, how industry leaders are using new strategies and academics new methods to add to this debate.

Duration: 60min.

Listen to the panel

Speakers

  Jane Ambachtsheer, National Partner, Mercer

Jane Ambachtsheer is a Partner of Mercer’s investment consulting business, based in Toronto. She leads Mercer’s global responsible investment business, and consults to investors in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Jane was consultant to the United Nations through the development of the Principles for Responsible Investment. She is a global advisor to the Carbon Disclosure Project and sits on the finance committee of the Toronto Atmospheric Fund. In 2005, Jane was recognised by Global Proxy Watch as one of the top 10 ‘Architects of Governance’. Jane holds a Bachelor of Economics and English literature with honours from York University, and a Master of Social Science from the University of Amsterdam. Prior to joining Mercer, Jane worked for the pension benchmarking firm CEM, in Amsterdam and Toronto. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, where she co-teaches a graduate course on responsible investment.

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  Johan Florén, Head of Communications, AP 7

Johan is Head of Communications at AP7 which he joined in 2009. He is also a member of the board of Sweden’s sustainable investment forums, SWESIF. Until 2009 he was chairman of Amnesty Business Group in Sweden. He has previously started, managed and worked at a number of communications agencies and had positions as corporate communications manager in listed IT-companies. He holds several degrees, including philosophy, political science and marketing from Stockholm and Uppsala Universities.

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 Emma Sjöström, PhD, Stockholm School of Economics

Emma Sjöström received her doctoral degree from Stockholm School of Economics for her dissertation “Shareholder Influence on Corporate Social Responsibility” in 2009. She was a guest researcher at the University of Hong Kong, where she conducted research on SRI from an Asian perspective. Emma Sjöström is currently working as an independent researcher and writer, and runs the Swedish website hallbartkapital.se.

 Robert Eccles, Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School

Robert G. Eccles first joined the faculty in 1979 and received tenure in 1989. He left in 1993 to work in the private sector and rejoined the faculty in 2007. Right after receiving tenure, Professor Eccles started doing research on corporate reporting, a topic which remains of great interest to him from a research, managerial practice and public policy perspective. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the International Integrated Reporting Committee (www.integratedreporting.org) and is working with groups all over the world to accelerate the integrated reporting movement.

  Georgios Serafeim, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

George Serafeim is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Accounting and Management Unit. He teaches the course “Innovating for Sustainability” in the MBA elective curriculum, the Executive Education program “Innovating for Sustainability”, and the doctoral seminar “The Role of the Corporation in Society”. Professor Serafeim’s research interests are international, focusing on understanding the relation between environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and financial performance, how innovations in processes, products and business models are developed to forge a sustainable strategy, and the role of disclosure, information and financial intermediation in efficient capital allocation and management practices. His work has been published in prestigious academic and practitioner journals such as the Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Finance, Contemporary Accounting Research, Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Director Notes and has also appeared in media outlets including Bloomberg, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian.

Misalignment of executive pay is an issue that is high on the public agenda. With growing consensus that there are limitations to how well existing incentive systems reward performance, the search is on for new solutions to executive compensation. The contribution of the sustainability field to this debate has been connected to structuring sustainability performance into pay packages.

Designing incentive systems which integrate sustainability is however extremely challenging and raises a number of questions about the type of incentive systems which can be used, the tasks and employees who can be rewarded, the type of information that is needed to make sustainability-linked incentives function well and methods to determine whether such systems are working.

This webinar featured contributions from industry and academic experts.

Duration: 60min.

Speakers

  Scott Zdrazil, First Vice President – Director of Corporate Governance, Amalgamated Bank

Scott Zdrazil is First Vice President – Director of Corporate Governance at Amalgamated Bank, headquartered in New York. Amalgamated Bank manages approximately $11 billion in assets through its LongView Funds. Mr. Zdrazil coordinates the LongView Funds’ corporate governance program, including proxy voting, policy development, and shareholder engagements that aim to enhance shareholder value by promoting sound governance practices. The LongView Funds typically file several dozen shareholder resolutions each season, including spearheading new proposals in areas such as Board accountability, executive compensation, and long-term sustainability. He holds a B.A. with Honours from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and an M.A. from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

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  Professor Nicolas Mottis, Professor, ESSEC

Nicolas Mottis joined ESSEC as a professor in 1995, after having held a number of positions in companies from 1988 to 1995: in the Marketing department with Renault Switzerland (1989-90), then as project manager in the Information Systems department of BNP (1990-93), then with Bertelsmann (1993-95). He was promoted to the rank of full Professor in September 2000. He is the former Director of the school (Grande Ecole & MBAs) and still heavily involved in accreditation processes of universities worldwide for the AACSB. He was Member of the Board of the Initial Accreditation Committee of AACSB from 2003 to 2006 and Chair of the Board of the Accreditation Quality Committee (in charge of defining the standards) from 2006 to 2009. He regularly chairs accreditation teams in Europe, North America and Asia. Dr. Mottis obtained his doctorate in economics from Ecole Polytechnique (France) and a ‘Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches’ degree (qualification to supervise research) from the University of Paris Dauphine. He has been Visiting Researcher at Stanford University (US), the Harvard Business School (US) and the Australian Graduate School of Management (Sydney, Australia). His research areas focus on strategic control (corporate governance, value creation, socially responsible investment, incentives and performance measurement) and project management in high tech sectors. He has published many articles and several books on these subjects (for a complete list see: www.essec.edu/professors-research). In 2011 he was the President of the jury of the FIR-Eurosif Prizes and is member of the jury for the Best Paper Award of the PRI Academic Conference since 2010.

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  Kimberly Gladman, Director of Research and Risk Analytics, GMI Ratings

Kimberly Gladman, CFA, Ph.D. is the Director of Research and Risk Analytics at GMI Ratings, an ESG research firm with offices in the US and UK. She oversees GMI’s research practice and leads a group of analysts responsible for governance ratings. Before joining GMI’s predecessor, The Corporate Library, in 2008, she managed a team of associates researching global corporations at Domini Social Investments, a leading socially responsible investment fund manager. She also served as Lead SRI Analyst for Domini’s European equity fund, and spent several years participating in the firm’s shareholder advocacy on social, environmental, and governance issues. Before joining Domini in 2001, Dr. Gladman had an academic career, focused on interdisciplinary research and teaching. She earned a B.A. from Yale University in 1990, and a Ph.D. from New York University in 2001. Dr. Gladman also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

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