On this episode of the Under the Hood podcast, host Timothy Douglas has an in-depth conversation with Sloane Ortel, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Invest Vegan, an ethics-first asset manager based in Provo, Utah.
Sloane says...
"I founded Invest Vegan after more than a decade working in the investment profession. When I was just nineteen years old, I got a job helping a small team at Oppenheimer & Company optimize its trading models.
That was in June of 2007, which means that I experienced the financial crisis firsthand. The profound conflicts of interest that are still endemic to most investment firms manifested in more forms than I could count. And I began dreaming of building a better place for people to entrust their hard-earned money.
So, after a short period working for a Bangalore-based family office, I joined the New York office of CFA Institute, a global nonprofit association of investment professionals that had just rededicated itself to building a more forward-thinking financial industry for the ultimate benefit of society.
My primary focus was on understanding “cutting edge” tools and techniques and explaining them to the organization’s 170,000+ dues-paying members worldwide. In other words, I was paid to learn and write about newfangled concepts like sustainable investing.
After authoring hundreds of articles, a few courses, and even a textbook, I began thinking back to my earliest days in the industry. My dream of building a firm that people could trust to manage their money without moral compromise had only grown more important. And just like that, Invest Vegan LLC was born."