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

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

By Thomas Franck

A fledgling female- and minority-led activist hedge fund said Monday it had backing from the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, which has agreed to provide a $250 million investment for a six-year term.

The sizable — and lengthy — capital commitment from the largest educator-only pension will allow the firm, Impactive Capital, to begin investing. It was founded by Lauren Wolfe and Christian Asmar, who have 20 years of combined experience in activist investing and most recently worked at Clifton Robbins’ Blue Harbour Group.

Wolfe explained in a press release on Monday that the new fund’s strategy will be to make long-term investments while being engaged with management teams and boards to improve returns for shareholders by focusing on how they spend their capital and on their policies related to environmental, social and governance issues.

Photo courtesy of Sudipto Sarkar.