This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

On June 20 the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on diversity in America’s boardrooms. The witness list consisted of Ms. Chelsa Gurkin, Acting Director of the Education, Workforce and Income Security team of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Mr. Luke Visconti, Founder and Chairman of DiversityInc, Mr. Ron Lumbra, Managing Partner of Heidrick and Struggles, Ms. Linda Akutagawa, Chair of the Alliance for Board Diversity, the Former Ambassador to Argentina, Vilma Martinez, and Dr. Stephanie Creary, an Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania. The hearing examined options for diversifying the gender, racial and ethnic composition of corporate and federal boards. Each witness presented testimony on how to address the issue of diversity on corporate boards and identify the conditions that lead to meaningful diversity so that more companies can follow the lead of firms that have been successful. D...

The following is a review of a webinar on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investing presented by Franita Neuville, CFA.  To set the stage based on a Greenwich Associates 2018 Future of Investment Research Study, 50% of CEOs, portfolio managers and investment analysts surveyed expect to decrease reliance on traditional investment bank research and to rely more heavily on alternative (ESG and other) data in the future. In the Private Equity Responsible Investment Survey, 2019 , the top issues impacting investment decisions were business ethics, bribery and corruption, with 89 and 97% of surveyed private equity investors saying this is a concern when exploring and implementing investment approaches. The least important issues in the private equity survey were responsible marketing and volunteering, with survey responses of 29 and 13% respectively. Diversity and community investment were also low on the list of issues at 41% and 37%, respectively. Top Barrie...

On June 4, 2019, the Washington Post hosted a forum titled “America’s Health Future” to discuss the future of healthcare, individual health, nutrition, and technology. Four discussions focused on these subjects from different aspects and fit well together under the central theme of the future of American health.  The event opened with an interview of Bernard J. Tyson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente by Ceci Connolly, President and CEO of the Alliance of Community Health Plans. Mr. Tyson introduced Kaiser Permanente’s brand new program entitled Thrive Local, which emphasized outpatient and home care, which Kaiser Permanente encourages to mitigate the costs of hospital stays. Additionally, they aim to align patients, caretakers, and doctors’ incentives by moving away from a fee-for-service model, which incentivizes doctors to aim for more frequent visits while pressuring patients, especially low income patients to avoid hospital visits. Thrive Local is an extensive program, with the i...