Social Investment Forum Symposium 2010:
Public Policy and Sustainable Portfolios Agenda
The Pew Charitable Trusts
901
E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Frank Altman pioneered the development of a secondary market for community and economic development loans when he cofounded Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF) in 1988. Under Mr. Altman’s leadership, CRF has grown from a small firm to a national organization serving community-based lenders throughout the country. CRF has provided more than $1 billion to over 750 communities across the nation.
In addition, Mr. Altman is a member of the Executive Committee of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition. He was a founding member and first president of the organization established to initiate the creation of a federal tax credit to encourage private investment in low-income communities. He also serves on the boards of directors for the CDFI Coalition, RAIN Source Capital, The Social Investment Forum and Franklin Bank.
He received a B.A. Degree from Brown University and a M.A. Degree from the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
David Bolotsky founded UncommonGoods (www.uncommongoods.com) in 1999 and since that time has focused his efforts on the company's merchandising and marketing strategy. UncommonGoods is an online and catalog retailer of unusual, creatively designed products, with a focus on handmade and sustainable items. The company is steadily increasing its proportion of proprietary product in partnership with artists and designers, as well as through more recent efforts to crowdsource products. UncommonGoods is a founding member of B Corporation, a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging businesses to focus on environmental and employee/community concerns, in addition to profits. Prior to UncommonGoods, Mr. Bolotsky was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, where he researched investment opportunities in the retail industry. Mr. Bolotsky is a member of the Board of Advisors of Comprehensive Development, Inc., a non-profit organization he helped found that works with an innovative NYC public high school to provide support services to its 17-22 year-old students, who are typically previous drop-outs or recent immigrants. Mr. Bolotsky is also the founder of the Friends of Gulick Park, a volunteer organization dedicated to restoring a neglected park on New York's Lower East Side.
As a staff member on the Americans for Financial Reform coalition's Legislative and Policy team, Dana Chasin was involved in strategy, negotiations, outreach, and advocacy relating to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. He served as the coalition's principal point of contact with Congressional leadership, committee and personal staff, led partnerships with the business and banking communities, and served on the coalition's subcommittee on systemic risk and resolution authority.
Prior to joining OMB Watch, Dana served as Legislative Assistant in the Washington, DC office of U.S. Senator Mark Dayton, where he covered a range of issues, including judiciary, tax, budget, banking and insurance regulation, Social Security and welfare.
Dana earned his B.A. at Yale College, where he majored in Philosophy and Political Science, his J.D. at Harvard Law School, and a Master of Public Administration degree at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Paul Clements-Hunt has been the Head of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) since November 2000. UNEP FI, based in Geneva, is the largest partnership between the United Nations and the financial services sector, counting more than 180 banks, insurance companies and investment firms as members. UNEP FI was instrumental in the 2004-06 development and launch of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The PRI is now backed by over 570 institutional investors representing more than USD 18 trillion in assets under management. Mr. Clements-Hunt was one of the two lead United Nations representatives throughout the PRI negotiations in 2005-06 and sits as the UNEP representative on the PRI Board.
In 2007, he was invited to join the Financial Times Sustainability Banking Awards panel of judges and the United Nations special climate change panel on finance and investment. Mr. Clements-Hunt is a Board Member of Sustainable Finance Geneva, a network of professional finance executives committed to pushing forward sustainability practice in the Swiss financial services sector.
In May 2007, Bob Edgar was named president and CEO of Common Cause, a national nonpartisan, non-profit "citizens" lobby working to make government at all levels more honest, open and accountable, and to connect citizens with their democracy.
Mr. Edgar arrived at Common Cause with a long history of leadership and public service that included 12 years in Congress. He was the general secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA for seven years immediately before arriving at Common Cause.
Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 to represent the Seventh Congressional District of Pennsylvania and serving six terms, Mr. Edgar led efforts to improve public transportation, fought wasteful water projects and authored the community Right to Know provision of Super Fund legislation.
Under Mr. Edgar’s leadership, Common Cause is championing a number of critical issues and reforms, including the public funding of political campaigns at all levels, election reforms that make voting more accurate, secure and accessible, improved ethics at all levels of government and a diverse and open media. One of Mr. Edgar’s first actions as president of Common Cause was to call for the resignation and then impeachment of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for politicizing the Justice Department and failing to serve the public interest.
Bruce F. Freed is president of the Center for Political Accountability in Washington, D.C.In his work with CPA, which he helped found in 2003, Mr. Freed has drawn on his more than 30 years of experience in journalism, Congress and strategic public affairs. He has been a columnist and a commentator on public radio on business and politics. For a decade, he served as chief investigator for the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, staff director of a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee, and senior aide to members of the House leadership. He began his career as a journalist with the Baltimore Sunpapers, Congressional Quarterly, and the Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Freed has been invited to speak at The Conference Board’s Directors’ Institute, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Corporate Governance Institute. He has coauthored The Conference Board’s forthcoming handbook on corporate political activity, CPA reports on companies and political spending, and articles in the Financial Times, BusinessWeek, Directors Monthly and Executive Counsel. In addition, Mr. Freed is a member of the advisory board of the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the Wharton School.
Don Graves is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Small Business, Community Development and Housing Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In this role, Mr. Graves manages a portfolio of policy issues including business and small business finance and development, housing finance, community and economic development, capital access, job creation and issues related to underserved communities. Previously, he served as a partner with Graves, Horton, Askew & Johns, LLC. He is the former Director of Public Policy for the Business Roundtable, and was previously a Policy Advisor for the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Domestic Finance.
Mr. Graves holds degrees of Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History from Williams College and Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center where he received the Dean’s Award. He served as volunteer Chief Executive Officer of Progress Through Business, a national nonprofit focused on economic development, supporting lower-income employees and sustainability. He also served on the Board of Trustees of the Community Reinvestment Fund and Board of Directors of the Center on Business and Poverty, as well as the Advisory Boards of Wall Street Without Walls and the Greater Washington Board of Trade’s Small Business Network.
Paul A. Hilton is Director, Sustainable Investment Business Strategy at Calvert. In this role he leads SRI product and business development, with a particular focus on the institutional and international arenas. Mr. Hilton has also held senior positions in Calvert’s Marketing and Equities departments since joining the company in 2005. With over $14 billion in assets under management, Calvert has provided shareholders with solid financial performance and leadership in socially responsible investing (SRI) since 1982.
Prior to joining Calvert, Mr. Hilton was Portfolio Manager, Socially Responsible Investing at The Dreyfus Corporation. At Dreyfus he was responsible for social research and advocacy for the Dreyfus Premier Third Century Fund and its variable annuity counterpart, the Dreyfus Socially Responsible Growth Fund. Mr. Hilton also served as a research analyst in the Social Awareness Investment (SAI) program at Smith Barney Asset Management, then a division of Citigroup.
Mr. Hilton is co-founder of SIRAN, a national group of analysts working to promote dialogue with companies about corporate responsibility. He is also a former Treasurer of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI) and current member and former co-chair of its Asset Management Working Group. In addition, Mr. Hilton serves on the boards of the Social Investment Forum and Communities in Schools of the Nation’s Capital. A Chartered Financial Analyst, he holds Master’s degrees in Anthropology from New York University and Education from Roberts Wesleyan College.
B Lab is a non-profit whose mission is to create a new sector of the economy that harnesses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. B Lab certifies B Corporations, creates standards to measure the social and environmental impact of business and to transform corporate accountability, and promotes public policy and capital markets innovations that will accelerate the growth of beneficial business.
Prior to co-founding B Lab, Mr. Kassoy spent 16 years in the private equity business; as a Partner at MSD Real Estate Capital, an affiliate of MSD Capital, the $12 billion investment vehicle for Michael Dell, and as Managing Director in Credit Suisse First Boston’s Private Equity Department, a founding partner of DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, and President of its international business.
He is a Board Member of the Freelancers Union and the Freelancers Insurance Company, a Board Member of Echoing Green, a member of the investment committee of the Patient Capital Collaborative, and an Advisor to the NYU Reynolds Fellows Program. He was raised in Boulder, Colorado and graduated with Distinction from Stanford University where he was a Truman Scholar and President’s Award winner. He is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Mr. Kassoy lives in New York City with his two sons, the Emperor Maximilian (six years) and the Boy King Jedidiah (three years).
Michael Lent is a wealth advisor and Chief Investment Officer with Veris Wealth Partners. Veris is an independent wealth advisory firm founded by five partners who share a deep conviction in the interdependence of values and wealth. Veris provides high net worth individuals, foundations and endowments with wealth management services to align client’s values with wealth creation and sustainable investments.
Mr. Lent brings extensive experience in socially responsible investing. Prior to founding Veris, he was the Manager for 13 years of the New York office of Progressive Asset Management. He is a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA).
Mr. Lent has been actively pursuing community investment strategies for his clients and has been recognized for his work in this area, receiving in 2005 the Blender award from the Calvert Foundation.
Mr. Lent is a trustee of The Edward W. Hazen Foundation, a private foundation, which assists young people, particularly minorities and those disadvantaged by poverty, to achieve their full potential as individuals and as active participants in a democratic society. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Lotus Music and Dance, a New York City organization that promotes traditional ethnic dance forms.
Ms. Nazareth is a member of Davis Polk’s Financial Institutions Group, practicing in our Washington DC office. She advises clients across a broad range of complex regulatory matters and transactions. She also works closely with Davis Polk’s SEC enforcement practice, counseling non-financial sector corporations that are subject to government regulatory and enforcement actions.
Ms. Nazareth was a key financial services policymaker for more than a decade. She joined the SEC Staff in 1998 as a Senior Counsel to Chairman Arthur Levitt and then served as Interim Director of the Division of Investment Management. She served as Director of the Division of Market Regulation (now the Division of Trading and Markets) from 1999 to 2005. As Director, she oversaw the regulation of broker-dealers, exchanges, clearing agencies, transfer agents and securities information processors. In 2005, she was appointed an SEC Commissioner by President George W. Bush. During her tenure at the Commission, she worked on numerous groundbreaking initiatives, including execution quality disclosure rules, implementation of equities decimal pricing, short sale reforms and modernization of the national market system rules. Ms. Nazareth also served as the Commission’s representative on the Financial Stability Forum from 1999 to 2008.
Since leaving the SEC in January 2008, she has served as Rapporteur for the Group of Thirty’s report, The Structure of Financial Supervision: Approaches and Challenges in a Global Marketplace. Earlier in her career, she held a number of senior legal positions at several investment banks.
Sally O’Brien is the managing director of Philanthropic Services at The Pew Charitable Trusts. She oversees the institution’s development efforts with donors and partner organizations.
Ms. O’Brien who has 18 years of fundraising experience, came to Pew from The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School where she served as Associate Dean for Development and External Affairs and before that as Director of Development at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where she played a pivotal role in the successful conclusion of the school’s $500 million capital campaign.
Before joining Hopkins, Ms. O’Brien was a member of the British Diplomatic Service serving in London, Brussels and Washington. She advised on government policy on overseas students; managed British policy towards Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Maldives and coordinated regular meetings of European Community foreign ministers and ambassadors. During her tenure in the Washington embassy she was appointed a member of the Royal Victorian Order by HM The Queen for services to the Royal Family.
Ms. O’Brien grew up in England and came to the United States as a Robert T. Jones Scholar at Emory University after completing a master’s degree in Art History at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Cheryl Smith is Chair of the Board of the Social Investment Forum, President and Senior Portfolio Manager at Trillium Asset Management Corporation (“Trillium”), an employee-owned investment management company solely devoted to socially responsible investment.
At Trillium, she is additionally Deputy Chief Compliance Officer. After beginning her career as Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Denver, Ms. Smith began her investment management career at Trillium Asset Management in 1987. In 1992 she joined United States Trust Company in Boston (now known as Walden Asset Management) as Vice President and portfolio manager, before rejoining Trillium Asset Management in the fall of 1997.
Ms. Smith serves on the Steering Committee for the Initiative for Responsible Investment and on the Board of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. She is a former Board member and Advisory Board member of Resist! Ms. Smith is a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder, and a member of the CFA Institute, BSAS, and the American Economic Association. She holds a B.S.F.S. degree from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and earned M. A., M. Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Yale University. She has spoken on numerous occasions on integrating environmental, social, and governance criteria into the management of investment portfolios.
Timothy Smith serves as Senior Vice President of Walden Asset Management’s Environment, Social and Governance Group.
Tim joined Walden in October 2000. His primary responsibilities include overseeing shareholder advocacy, public policy, assisting in client services and acting as the spokesperson for Walden on social issues. Walden Asset Management manages approximately $1.8 billion for individual and institutional clients. Walden has been a national leader in responsible investing for over 35 years working on dozens of issues like the environment, climate change, sweatshops, Apartheid in South Africa, executive compensation, corporate governance and equal employment opportunity in the U.S. among others.
Previously Tim served as Executive Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) for 24 years. ICCR has been a primary player in the corporate responsibility movement and social investment community.
In May 2010 Tim received the Bavaria Impact Award named in honor of Joan Bavaria, a pioneer in the arena of responsible investing and co-founder of Ceres. The Award acknowledges persons who are proven innovators and create long term results.
In 2010 Tim Smith was listed as one of the top 100 most influential figures in finance by Treasury and Risk Management Magazine.
Tim is immediate past Chair of the Board of Social Investment Forum, the industry association for socially concerned investors where he served for five years.
Elected to the New York State Senate in November, 2008, Daniel Squadron is serving his first term in the 25th Senatorial District. His district includes the neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Senator Squadron has spent his life in New York and his career in public service. He served as a top aide to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, and together with Senator Schumer co-authored "Positively American: Winning Back the Middle Class Majority One Family at a Time." As communications director for the campaign to pass the Rebuild and Renew Transportation Bond Act, Daniel Squadron worked to secure nearly $3 billion in infrastructure improvements and expansion to our subways and buses. He also worked for our public school system to move money from the bureaucracy to the classroom.
In his first term, Senator Squadron is focused on addressing neighborhood concerns in his district; rationalizing and increasing affordable housing; improving and reforming our public schools; preserving and enhancing the regional transportation infrastructure; and promoting comprehensive, community-empowering economic development across New York State. At the heart of these priorities is the goal of reforming the way Albany does business so that our state government can pursue the ambitious agenda that is necessary in this legislative session.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy is Counsel for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, working on campaign finance reform. Ms. Torres-Spelliscy earned her B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard. She earned her J.D. from Columbia Law School. Before joining the Center, she worked as a corporate associate at the law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP and was a staff member of Senator Richard Durbin.
She is author of Corporate Campaign Spending: Giving Shareholders A Voice (Brennan Center 2010) which she presented to Congress, as well as the author of Corporate Political Spending & Shareholders’ Rights: Why the U.S. Should Adopt the British Approach (forthcoming Routledge 2010). Ms. Torres-Spelliscy has been published in Business Week, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, New York Law Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Roll Call, The Hill, The Root.com, Salon.com, CNN.com, Huffington Post and the ABA Judges Journal. Ms. Torres-Spelliscy has also been quoted by the media in the Associated Press, The Economist, USA Today, Legal Times, National Journal, National Law Journal, Sirius Radio, Newsweek on Air, NY1 and NPR. She provides constitutional and legislative guidance to lawmakers who are drafting bills.
Betsy Zeidman is Director of the Center for Emerging Domestic Markets and a Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica, CA. A recognized leader in seeking innovative solutions to the capital gaps facing ethnic and low-income entrepreneurs and communities, she also manages the Institute’s work in mission-related investing, corporate governance and development finance. In this position, Ms. Zeidman works with institutional and individual investors, foundations, governments, entrepreneurs and policy markers. She has authored numerous reports and op-eds, and speaks frequently at industry conferences and to the media.
Ms. Zeidman is a member of the board of directors of the Social Investment Forum and CARAT (California Resources and Training), and sits on the advisory boards of the Center for Community Investments at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Wall Street Without Walls.
Prior to joining the Institute, Ms. Zeidman provided strategic management and marketing advisory services to clients in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, with a specialty in corporate responsibility and financial performance. She also played senior roles in finance and business affairs at several entertainment firms. She received both her BA, cum laude with distinction, and her MBA from Yale University.