Sustainable Investing:

Philosophies & Evidence, Challenges and Stakeholder Engagement

Please join us for an interactive panel discussion on the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues in the portfolio decision making process.  The panel will address the broad-based perspectives of sustainable investing, the methods and challenges in the application of ESG factor analysis in portfolio management, the means of proactively engaging stakeholders to improve on ESG initiatives, the theory and evidence surrounding investment performance and sustainable investing, and the function of ESG analysis as part of a fiduciary duty in asset allocations.

 

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Speakers Biographies

Valérie Cecchini, M.Sc., CFA, CPA, CGA

With over 20 years of professional experience, Valérie Cecchini is an unrivalled fund manager in Quebec's financial sector. She received her Master of Science (Finance) degree from HEC Montreal, and went on to obtain her CFA, and CPA, CGA designations, and most recently the FSA accreditation from SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standard Board).

Valérie joined Investors Group in January 2012, and today oversees and manages four funds:

• Investors U.S. Opportunities Fund (U.S. mid-cap value equities)

• Investors Summa SRITM Fund (North American equities)

                                             • Investors Global Science & Technology Fund (global equities)

                                             • Investors Core U.S. Equity Fund (U.S. Mid Cap Mandate)

Valérie's total portfolio is currently valued at over $1.4 billion, up considerably since her arrival five years ago ($300 million in 2012).

Valérie has also been given special responsibility alongside the firm's research director for incorporating the environmental, social and governance (ESG) approach within the management and research team. In her day-to-day work, she is committed to inspiring the analytical team to look at companies holistically, i.e. from various angles, in order to better understand and assess the sustainability of their competitive advantages, with a particular focus on culture and governance. Over the past few years, she has participated in Women in Governance, a New York-based group of female managers and corporate directors tasked with reflecting on global governance issues.

Valérie is among the first cohort to have received the Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting designation (FSA), from the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. SASB is an independent organization that has developed the U.S.'s most advanced non-financial reporting standards, thereby making it possible to establish links between material data, specific to each economic sector, and companies' long-term performance.

Valérie has received a number of industry honours, including a Fundata FundGrade A+ Award in both 2014 and 2015. In 2016, she was nominated to the “Top 25 Financial executive in Quebec” of Finance et Investissement and was the winner of the “Portfolio Manager of the Year Award”. Prior to joining Investors Group, Valérie worked at Standard Life Investments, where she received Canadian Investment's Best Canadian Small Cap Pooled Fund Team Award (2007) and was recognized as “Femme Incontournable” in Finance by Premières en Affaires magazine in 2011.

For the past eight years, Valérie has been a member of the CPA Montreal group, which works to promote the accounting profession.

She is also involved with the campaign cabinet tasked with fund raising for the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Montreal.

Valérie is increasingly an expert media contact, having been quoted or published in Les Affaires, La Presse and other outlets.

As a mother of two teenagers, Valérie has a record of achievement that is sure to inspire many young women in Canada to opt for a career in finance!

Michael D. Emslie, CPA, CA, CIA, CISA

Michael is the Vice-President Finance and Administration at the University of Winnipeg with responsibility for finance, information technology, facilities, risk management and ancillary services.  He also serves as Treasurer and Chair of the Defined Benefit Committee of the University of Winnipeg Trusteed Pension Plan. Mike joined the University in 2007 after several years as an internal and external auditor in both the private and public sectors.

 

 

 

Dan Hanson, CFA, MBA, B.A.

Dan Hanson is Portfolio Manager and leads the firm’s U.S. Equity strategies, as well as co-managing the Global Equity strategies. He joined Jarislowsky Fraser as U.S. Equity Manager in 2013 and helped establish the firm’s New York City office. He has 22 years of experience in U.S. and global equities and U.S. credit and mortgage securities. Dan was named to the Investment Strategy Committee in early 2015 and is also a member of the firm's Sustainable Investment Committee.

Prior to joining Jarislowsky Fraser, Dan spent 10 years at BlackRock as Managing Director and Portfolio Manager, managing the fundamental research process on $23 billion AUM. In addition, he was the sole manager and architect of the BlackRock Sustainable Large Cap Core portfolio, delivering top-decile performance to shareholders for more than five years, based on a bottom-up, high-quality, long-term investment approach.

Previously, Dan spent six years at Bear Stearns, most recently advising on equity and debt financing and mergers and acquisitions. Earlier, he was a leveraged finance securities analyst on a top-ranked team. Prior to his time at Bear Stearns, he traded collateralized mortgage obligations and was Assistant Portfolio Manager at Pine Tree Capital.

Dan regularly comments on investments for a number of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Bloomberg and Reuters. Dan is also involved in a number of governance and corporate reporting initiatives, and serves as a director of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board.

Dan has his B.A. (Cum Laude in Economics & French) from Middlebury College, his MBA (Analytical Finance & Accounting) from the University of Chicago, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Karen Lockridge

Karen Lockridge is a Principal in Mercer's Responsible Investment team, based in Toronto. The team assists investors to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors within their beliefs, policies, processes and portfolios. Karen was a member of the core team that developed Mercer’s Investing in a Time of Climate Change (2015) research report, and co-authored Building a Bridge to Sustainable Infrastructure (2016) and IFC World Bank Group reports on Climate Change Investor Initiatives (2013).

During her 20 year career at Mercer, Karen has held a variety of leadership roles in defined benefit risk management, strategy execution, knowledge management, and operations. In addition to her time at Mercer, Karen spent 18 months in 2010/11 as Director, Pension and Benefits at BMO Financial Group.

Karen graduated from the University of Alberta with an Honours Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics in 1990. She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA). Karen is a member of the CIA Board of Directors and she was the founding chair of the CIA Climate Change and Sustainability Committee.

Christie Stephenson

Christie Stephenson is the Executive Director of the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics at the UBC Sauder School of Business. Prior to joining UBC Sauder, she spent more than 15 years in key roles at socially responsible and impact investing firms including Sustainalytics, NEI Investments (Ethical Funds) and Purpose Capital. She previously worked in politics, government and the non-profit sector.

Christie has more than two decades of diverse board experience, having served as a director of cooperatives, non-profit organizations and private companies. She currently serves as a corporate reporting judge for the Chartered Professional Accounts of Canada, a governance committee member at BlueShore Financial and a director of the Canadian Centre for International Justice and Philippe Kirsch Institute. She has an undergraduate degree from University of Victoria and a graduate degree from McGill University.