Good Future

How can we influence big, public companies to think more long-term, and be better corporate citizens.

Well, today I’m joined by Brynn O’Brien to answer just that question, she is Executive Director of the ACCR, the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility. The ACCR is a research and advocacy organisation that engages with companies on managing a whole range of issues; like climate, labour, human rights and governance.

Brynn’s passion for these issues shines through in this episode, but so too does the technical rigour and the financial depth that she and her team harness to drive some big changes.

With a legal background, Brynn gets to the heart of how corporate democracy works, or doesn’t work, and she rallies like-minded groups who are all driven by a shared goal; whether that be reducing climate risk, improving labor standards, or demanding greater transparency. It’s shareholder advocacy, founded on solid legal footings.

You can find all the show-notes and links on my web site at www.johntreadgold.com

And if you want to leave a review, itunes is the best place, or you can do it directly through the Apple podcast app.

Enjoy!

Today we’re talking about Green Bonds, with Stephen Fitzgerald. Stephen is the founder of Affirmative Investment Management, a specialist firm that manages only impact bonds. Their pure-play approach makes Green Bonds, Social bonds and sustainability bonds available to more investors.

Stephen has a lot of insights to share, from the early days of his career at Goldman Sachs to his roles with QBE, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and of course Affirmative.

I really enjoyed this one, Stephen is a genuine guy, and he’s putting his deep understanding of financial markets to good use.

All the show notes and links are on my website at www.Johntreadgold.com

If you have any comments shoot me an email, or leave a review on itunes.

Enjoy

My guest today is Eric Rice, and in his role as Head of active equities Impact Investing, at Blackrock, he’s working to bring the rigour of impact investing to public markets.

Blackrock is the world’s largest fund manager, they have more than $7 trillion of assets under management, so the potential to scale impact is massive. But, there are big questions around whether public companies can be held to account in the same way as private companies, and, whether a fund can maintain impact-with-integrity at such a large scale.

Eric didn’t start out in finance, in fact, he was a diplomat. He then shifted to working as an economist for the World bank. He did a PHD at Harvard, and eventually he realised that it was in the world of finance that he could drive the most change.

I hope you enjoy this conversation, it’s offers some deep insights into the cutting edge thinking around how to have impact in public markets, but also, I asked Eric about how Larry Fink’s highly influential letters have been translated into action across their range of portfolios and across their investment policies.

Please do let me know what you think. Feel free to leave a review or comment on iTunes.

Plus, you can find all the show notes on my website, at www.johntreadgold.com

Enjoy!

My guest today is Ben Thornley, he’s co-founder and Managing Partner of Tideline, a specialist consultancy for the impact investment industry. Ben works with the firm’s long list of clients to integrate impact and sustainability into various stages of the investment process.

And they’ve recently spun-out a stand-alone business called BlueMark, which provides third-party impact verification services for investors across the spectrum.

Ben’s a consultant, he expertly explained some of the nuance and details about how the world of impact investing has changed over the past decade, and the components that are of particular interest today.

And, going back a few years now, Ben was the co-author of the seminal book titled, The Impact Investor: Lessons in Leadership and Strategy for Collaborative Capitalism. His co-authors were Jed Emerson and Cathy Clark who have both been on the podcast previously, so it was good to have Ben on the show, to add the final piece to the puzzle.

As usual all the show notes are on my website at www.Johntreadgold.com, and please send through any questions or comments.

Enjoy

Matt Whineray is CEO of the New Zealand Super Fund, and the co-chair of the Sustainable Finance Forum.

In this conversation we dug into what makes the NZ super and pension system unique, as well as how the organisation integrates sustainability. And, it’s a public fund, it’s a government body, and I wanted to know how the increasingly politicised issues of climate change and pollution are managed by Matt and his team.

Matt also talked about his move from the private sector in Hong Kong and New York, and the challenges of shifting from the sell-side, to the buy-side.

Have a listen, and let me know your thoughts.

All the show-notes are on my website at www.Johntreadgold.com, feel free to send through any comments, or leave a review on iTunes.

And I must thank Carly from the Responsible Investment Association of Australia (aka RIAA) she made the introductions for me, and the organisation continues to be a great supporter of the show.

RIAA has over 300 members managing more than $9 trillion in assets globally, they’re the largest network of people and organisations engaged in responsible, ethical and impact investing across Australia and New Zealand.

Head to www.ResponsibleInvestment.org to find out more.

Enjoy the show.

My guest today is Amit Bouri, he was one of the founders of the Global Impact Investment Network (known as the GIIN) back in 2009. Today, he’s the CEO, and he not only manages this key global institution, but he’s also steered the global direction of the field of impact investment.

This was a radical new concept a mere ten years ago, the idea of investors measuring their social impact as closely as they measure their profits. But today, it’s prolific. Growth is strong, and it's proven that it can not only survive a downturn, but also contribute to the rebuilding.

Amit was generous with the insights about his own background, as much as he was about how he sees the future evolution of this concept of impact, in all its forms.

But enough from me, let’s dive in.

You can find all the show-notes on my website, at www.JohnTreadgold.com, and if you have any feedback or comments, don’t hesitate to send me a message. I’m always keen to hear from my listeners.

Enjoy

Jacqueline Novogratz is leading a moral revolution. She left a successful career in banking in New York when she was 25 to head to Rwanda with hopes of launching a microfinance fund. It didn’t go quite as planned, but she persevered.

Along the way she worked for the World Bank and for Unicef, she founded leadership programs at the Rockefeller Foundation, and then in 2001 she founded Acumen. A not for profit that invests patient capital in businesses that provide critical goods and services to people living in poverty.

Acumen has invested $128 million of patient capital to build more than 130 social enterprises across Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the United States. These companies have leveraged an additional $611 million of invested funds, and brought basic services like affordable education, health care, clean water, energy and sanitation to more than 308 million people. Now that’s impact.

Jacqueline really is a force of nature, she has a heart of gold, but she also has a steely focus on how to get a deal across the line. And I feel I’ve found a kindred spirit in Jacqueline, we’re both translators, straddling the worlds of finance and social development, trying our best to tell the stories of hope in a world that’s looking more chaotic by the day.

I really hope you enjoy this one as much as I did. There’s so many really valuable insights here, especially towards the end when Jacqueline offers advice on how we can all shift our careers to have more purpose.

All the show notes are at www.johntreadgold.com

Enjoy!

On the show today I have William Wu, he’s portfolio manager at Melior Investment Management, he teaches courses in sustainable investing at UNSW and he advises on boards of purpose-led businesses.

Will and I have had some great conversations in the past, and it was a pleasure to take it further today. We discussed how you can have an impact when investing in public markets, how ESG is evolving and the changing ways investors can influence the companies that are playing a growing part in our society.

Now Melior is only young and they’ve just completed their first impact report, so it was useful to understand how they’re starting out, where they hope to get to, and down the track we can check-in and get an update on progress.

So let’s dive in.

For all the show-notes and links you can go to my website at www.johntreadgold.com

And, if you’d like to help spread the word about the show, please leave a review on itunes, it would be much appreciated.

And someone else who’s helping spread the message is RIAA, that’s the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia. They have over 300 members managing more than $9 trillion in assets globally. They do great work and they’ve come on board to help support a series of upcoming episodes featuring the leading names in responsible investing.

Head to www.ResponsibleInvestment.org to find out all about it.

Enjoy

Michael O’Leary was part of the team that founded BainCapital’s DoubleImpact fund, he’s been flying the flag for the evolution of finance for many years, and he’s published a book it’s called Accountable: The rise of Citizen Capitalism.

Michael’s book manages the difficult task of talking about the new world of capitalism without being preachy. He brings together the nature and stories of the world’s biggest companies, and ties them to the many ways both investors and consumers are becoming increasingly empowered to influence and drive change at these companies.

You can find a link to his book in the show notes, at www.Johntreadgold.com and that’s where you’ll also find the whole back catalogue of previous episodes if you want to hear from more impact leaders.

Enjoy!

My guest this week is Sir Ronald Cohen. Ronnie has been a venture capitalist, private equity investor, and leader of the global impact investing revolution. He was co-founder and Executive Chairman of Apax Partners, And today, he’s the Chairman of the Global Steering Group on Impact Investing (GSG) which followed the G8 Social Impact Investment Task Force.

He’s Chairman and co-Founder of The Portland Trust, co-founder of Social Finance UK, US, and Israel, and co-founder of Bridges Fund Management. Plus, he’s written a book, it’s called Impact: Reshaping capitalism to drive real change.

I’ve looked forward to this conversation for a long time. And right now, is a perfect moment to speak with Ronnie, partly because he’s published a book all about impact, but also, because of the revolutionary work he’s done in the contributing to the concept of Impact Weighted Accounts. It takes transparency to a new level and it has the potential to change the very foundations of accounting that we’ve depended on for decades.

But we didn’t just talk about impact measurement, I wanted to know about the pivotal moments of Ronnie’s life when he left Egypt as a boy, to travel to England, and how that shaped his mindset. As well as his time at Oxford, Harvard, and the many stages of his career in finance.

I got so much out of this one, and I hope you do too.

Now for all the show-notes and links, jump onto my website at www.Johntreadgold.com

And, you can leave us a review on iTunes, because that helps to spread the message of the show.

And someone else who’s helping spread the message is RIAA, that’s the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia. They have over 300 members managing more than $9 trillion in assets globally, they’re the largest network of people and organisations engaged in responsible, ethical and impact investing across Australia and New Zealand. They do great work and they’ve come on board to help support a series of upcoming episodes featuring the leading names in responsible investing.

Head to www.ResponsibleInvestment.org to find out more.

Enjoy the show