Webinar: Allocator Insights: ESG and Sustainable Investing by Chief Investment Officer

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About This Webinar

Sponsored by Backstop Solutions

Whether it’s a sustainable sleeve in a portfolio or a successful screen for investments, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing is growing. This webinar will explore effective ways to use ESG investing as a tool to enhance returns. We’ll be asking what the future is for ESG and sustainable investments, investigate key growing markets, and explore how current investment tactics can be used for long time horizons.

Presenters

Alison Mintzer

Christine Giordano

Managing Editor, Chief Investment Officer

Christine Giordano has been managing editor of ai-CIO.com (Chief Investment Officer’s digital news site) since 2016. The ai-CIO brand was honored with the prestigious Best Media Brand award in 2016, 2018, and 2019 in the Jesse H. Neal Awards.
A career journalist, prior to joining the company, Giordano wrote in-depth news for daily newspapers and as a staff writer for The New York Times Company, winning the team NYT Chairman’s Award, the Florida Bar’s Grand Prize award, and various first place awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. She is a fellow of both the National Press Foundation and the American Institute for Economic Research.

Chris Ailman

Chief Investment Officer, CalSTRS

Mr. Ailman has been the Chief Investment Officer of the $250+ billion CalSTRS, for 20 years. Mr. Ailman leads an investment staff of 175. He joined CalSTRS in 2000 and is one of the longest serving public CIO in the country. He has over 35 years of institutional investment experience. Annually, he is listed as one of the top ten CIO’s in the USA and globally by the institutional investment media. integration of the standards in security analysis and portfolio construction.

He has served on several boards and advisory boards in the U.S. and U.K. such as PRI, ICGN, PPI, EDHEC, and most recently as the inaugural Chair of the SASB Investor Advisory Board and the Pacific Asset Management center at UCSD Rady School. He is currently the North American Chair of the “300” CIO Club and the Milken Global Capital Markets Committee. He has received numerous awards and recognitions over his career, from CIO of the Year in 2000, the NAA Latino service award, 2011 Large Plan CIO of the year, and Investment Innovator of the Year in 2011 and again in 2013, all culminating in 2017, with receiving the inaugural Institutional Investor Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, he was named the top CIO in the world by Chief Investment Officer Magazine.

Mr. Ailman is a regular guest on the TV and radio, CNBC, Bloomberg, and Nightly Business Report. He is frequently quoted in in major financial publications such as the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Barron’s. He has a BA from UCSB, an FSA, the Fundamentals in Sustainable Accounting credential from SASB. He has been married for 35 years with three adult daughters and is a committed Promise Keeper.

Jaap van Dam

Principal Director of Investment Strategy at PGGM

Van Dam is the principal director of investment strategy at PGGM. He is chairman of the Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO), of the European chapter of the 300 Club and of the International Advisory Board of EDHEC.
Van Dam has performed many roles within the investment field. He joined PGGM in 2005 as head of internal equity management. In 2006, he was appointed chief strategist. Van Dam is a member of the NEST (UK) Investment Committee and ICPM’s research committee.
Together with professors Kees Koedijk and Alfred Slager, he authored the book Achieving Investment Excellence: a Practical Guide for Trustees of Pension Funds, Endowments and Foundations (2019).

Elizabeth McGeveran

Director of Investments, McKnight Foundation

Elizabeth McGeveran, director of investments of the McKnight Foundation since 2019, is responsible for the long-term health and growth of the Foundation’s $2.2 billion endowment. She joined McKnight in 2014 as director of impact investing to lead a new board-initiated program that reshaped priorities. McKnight has since invested 10 percent of its endowment in businesses and funds that are building the low-carbon economy, improving the water quality of the Mississippi River, and contributing to a thriving, sustainable Minnesota. Prior to McKnight, McGeveran was senior vice president for governance and sustainable investment at F&C Asset Management, a London-based commercial asset manager (now BMO Global Asset Management).
McGeveran is an independent trustee of the Boston Trust & Walden Funds, a longtime leader in incorporating environmental, social, and governance priorities into its investment approach. She has also served on advisory committees for companies such as ExxonMobil and General Electric and was an original member of the US Advisory Committee for the FTSE4Good indexes.

Hernando Cortina

Head of Index Strategy at ISS ESG

Hernando Cortina, CFA is Head of Index Strategy at ISS ESG. Previously, he was Director of Indexes & Analytics at JUST Capital where he led the launch of the JUST ETF, and portfolio strategist and equity index trader with Morgan Stanley. He started his career in Latin America equity research at Goldman Sachs. Hernando earned Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering and Economics from MIT and an M.A. in Mathematical Finance from Columbia University. He was also awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

ISS Conference Team