NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

SOCAP Open is a public forum where diverse voices come together for dynamic conversation to advance social capital markets. It is our invitation to you to share your best programming ideas with our conference team and the SOCAP community, and to add your perspective to the mix. After the submission period, all ideas are voted on by the general public and reviewed by an advisory panel of experts.

Selected session leaders then develop their content and present it during the SOCAP conference in San Francisco. SOCAP17 will include interactive sessions, panel discussions, workshops, and storytelling opportunities. We invite you to add your unique voice to the conversation by submitting your session idea.

Join editors of The Economist and more than 200 leading financiers, institutional investors, policymakers, academics, impact investors and philanthropies, to analyse the main obstacles and opportunities presented by impact investing and examine how it could alter the course of trillions of pounds of investment in the years to come.

The relationship between the private capital markets and the well-being of society and the planet has become a hot topic. In 2015, in New York and Paris, the world’s governments signed up to ambitious goals to curb climate change and generate the sort of economic growth that benefits everyone, not just a wealthy minority – goals that it is estimated will require over $2.5 trillion a year of additional private investment.

At the same time, partly in response to criticisms that irresponsible short-termism in the capital markets caused the 2008 financial crash and the Great Recession that followed, some leading capital-market institutions have pledged to take a more long term, sustainable and socially responsible approach to investing.

The growing demand for a more socially-responsible, purpose-driven finance has been best illustrated by the emergence of a new approach to putting capital to work called “impact investing.” Having started out as a niche activity, largely practised by wealthy and philanthropically-inclined individuals, impact investment is now championed by a growing number of leading institutions in the capital markets. Yet such a shift is by no means inevitable. Critics question whether the recent commitment of mainstream finance to impact investing is more than skin deep.

Uniting leading financiers, institutional investors, policymakers, academics, impact investors and philanthropists, The Impact Investing Summit will analyse the main obstacles and opportunities presented by impact investing, broadly defined, and examine how it could alter the course of trillions of pounds of investment in the years to come.

The Why & How of Applying ESG Factors to Corporate Valuations

– A One-Day Training Program Presented by
Governance & Accountability Institute and Global Change Associates
Hosted by Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College/CUNY

In response to the growing demand for sustainable investing training from asset owners, asset managers, financial analysts and other financial professionals, we offer a one-day training program entitled, “Intro to ESG, Sustainable & Impact Investment Training.” The program is organized by Governance & Accountability Institute (G&A) in collaboration with Global Change Associates (GCA) and hosted by the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College/CUNY.

This all-day training program will be presented on Thursday, June 15, 2017. The program is being hosted at Baruch College’s Newman Vertical Campus (55 Lexington Avenue) in midtown Manhattan. The course will begin at 8:30 am with registration and continental breakfast, leading into a full day of lectures by outstanding speakers who are practitioners in the field, sharing their knowledge to bring participants up to speed on ESG / sustainable / impact investing best practices, research, data providers, and methodologies. A networking lunch is included. At the end of the program, participants will receive a certificate of completion.

CONFIRMED AGENDA & SPEAKERS / PRESENTERS

8.30am – Arrival, Registration & Continental Breakfast

9.00am – Welcoming Remarks
Donald Schepers, Associate Dean, Baruch College

9.10am – Introduction to Corporate ESG Strategies, Performance, Actions
— What is Corporate ESG & Why It Really Matters to Shareowners
Hank Boerner, Chairman & Co-Founder, Governance & Accountability Institute

9.20am – Bridging the Perceived Gap Between Sustainability & Profitability:
Materiality, Risk Management & How Top and Bottom Lines Are Affected
Louis Coppola, EVP & Co-Founder, Governance & Accountability Institute

9.50am – Integrating ESG Factors into Portfolio Construction
Jordan Kimmel, Co-Founder & Portfolio Manager, FACTS Asset Management

10.20am – Break & Networking

10.40am – ESG Analysis, Rating & Research
Gaurav Trivedi, Senior Associate, ESG, MSCI

11.10am – What Investors Need to Know About the Rising Importance of Impact Investing
Kate Starr, Founder & CIO, Flat World Partners; formerly Vice President-Capital Deployment, Heron Foundation

11.40am – About SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) and More Effective 10-K Disclosure
Eric Kane, Sector Analyst – Health Care, SASB

12.10pm – Lunch & Networking

1.25pm – Case Study of Corporate Malfeasance: The VW Emissions Scandal
Peter Fusaro, Chairman, Global Change Associates

1.55pm – Bridging the Gap: Sustainability vs. Profitability
Bahar Gidwani, Founder & CEO, CSRHub

2.25pm – ESG Equity Fundamentals Data Analytics
Hideki Suzuki, Senior ESG Analyst, Bloomberg LP

2.55pm – Break & Networking

3.15pm – CDP Investor Initiatives
Agnes Terestchenko, Senior Manager, Investor Initiatives North America, CDP

3.45pm – About the Baruch CSR-Sustainability Monitor Project
Mert Demir, PhD in Finance, Director of Research, Weismann Center for International Business at Baruch College

4.00pm – Wrap-Up Comments, Certificates Distribution, Seminar Concludes
Hank Boerner, Chairman & Co-Founder, Governance & Accountability Institute
Louis Coppola, EVP & Co-Founder, Governance & Accountability Institute
Peter Fusaro, Chairman, Global Change Associates
Lecturers include leading experts in the sustainable investing field and the session participants will come away with an understanding of why ESG issues matter in investing, and how to apply ESG factors to corporate valuations; analysis of impact, reputation, risk, opportunity and other aspects of financial analysis.

All participants will have access to all presentations after the seminar. Each attendee will receive a digital copy of Hank Boerner’s book — “Trends Converging, A Look Ahead of the Curve for ESG, Sustainability, CR, SRI Professionals.”

Cancellation Terms
All cancellations 10 days or less from the day of the event will receive credit towards another training.

Group Discount Rate Available
Register four (4) attendees and get the fifth attendee registration free.