Event Profile

CAIA Miami Educational Event - ESG & Impact Investing

Date(s):
November 2, 2017
Note:
All times listed are in local time
Venue:
801 Brickell Avenue, 5th Floor
801 Brickell Avenue
Miami, FL 33131 
Fee(s):
Free Event
Description:
CAIA Miami Educational Event 
 
ESG & Impact Investing
 
Agenda
4:30 Registration/Networking Reception
5:20 Introduction & Sponsor Thank you
5:25 Introduction of Keynote speaker by Bloomberg
5:30 Keynote - Private & Public ESG/Impact Investing
5:50 Introduction of Public ESG panel by Eisner Amper LLP
5:55 Panel Discussion - Public ESG Investing
6:35 Introduction of Private ESG/Impact panel by RBC Global Asset Management
6:40 Panel Discussion - Private ESG/Impact Investing
7:20 Miami Dolphins Football Raffle
7:25 Networking Reception 
 
This event is generously sponsored by:
 
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801 Brickell Avenue, 5th Floor
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Eddy Augsten
Organization: WealthEngage


Eddy is co-founder of WealthEngage, a private wealth advisory and consulting firm focused on complex and personalized investment management and planning. WealthEngage integrates ESG into their large-cap portfolios with a focus on improving risk management. The firm also incorporates mission related and impact investing across their legacy planning. Eddy brings fifteen years’ experience working with institutional asset managers and distributors. He holds both the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA(C)) and the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations. He has a Bachelor’s degree from Florida International University and a Master’s in Finance from IE Business School.


Catherine Banat
Organization: RBC Asset Management, Inc.


Catherine Banat is responsible for servicing the firm’s impact investing clients and ensuring that investment solutions are implemented based on each client’s customized impact requirements. Catherine is dedicated to impact investing and the importance of investments that serve a social good as well as providing a competitive rate of return. Prior to joining RBC GAM, Catherine managed strategic initiatives, risk and compliance for The New York City Retirement Systems, a $150 billion public pension plan, where she also researched, developed and implemented the strategic plan for the Economically Targeted Investment (ETI) program. Catherine has dedicated her entire career to the financial services industry and has held senior level positions at various firms including Paloma Partners, Goldman, Sachs & Co., C3 Capital and Lehman Brothers. She has worked in the investment industry since 1985. She earned a BA in history and a BSE in management from The University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School, as well as an MBA in finance from Columbia University. Catherine holds FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses.


Gustavo Bikkesbakker
Organization: Meketa Investment Group


Mr. Bikkesbakker has more than 20 years of client services experience. A Senior Vice President of Meketa Investment Group, Mr. Bikkesbakker has contributed to the firm’s client services efforts and research responsibilities since 2011. He is an active member of the Florida Public Pension Trustee Association (FPPTA) Advisory Board, and a Certified Public Pension Trustee (CPPT). Mr. Bikkesbakker oversees the operations of the Miami office and the firm’s private markets efforts in Latin America. Previously, he worked as an investment analyst at Ernst Research and Management, a Boston-based hedge fund. He also has extensive client services experience domestically and in Latin America, where he held various positions at EMC in services, business development, and marketing. Mr. Bikkesbakker earned an MS in Finance from Carroll Graduate School of Management at Boston College, an MBA from the Arthur D. Little School of Management, and an Analista de Sistemas degree from the Fundación BankBoston School of Information Science in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mr. Bikkesbakker is fluent in English and Spanish, and is conversant in Portuguese. In addition, he is an avid endurance athlete having completed numerous events including triathlons, Ironman and ultra-marathon distance races.


John Denniston
Organization: Shared-X


John Denniston is Chairman of the Board of Shared-X. Shared-X is an agriculture impact company aiming to generate strong investor returns, while at the same time lift thousands of smallholder farmers out of poverty, by collapsing the dramatic yield gap separating developed and emerging country crop production through the deployment of advanced, sustainable farming techniques. John was previously a Senior Partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where he co-founded and co-ran the firm's $1 billion Green Growth Fund. KPCB’s Green Growth Fund invests in sustainability companies in their growth stage. Prior to Kleiner Perkins, John was a Managing Director and Head of Technology Investment Banking for the Western United States at Salomon Smith Barney. He also served on the Investment Committees for Salomon’s venture capital/private equity direct investment fund, as well as CitiGroup’s venture capital fund-of-funds. Earlier in his career, John was a Partner with a large law firm, where he was Head of the firm’s Venture Capital practice, and Co-Head of its Information Technology practice group. John earned his B.A. (Economics) and J.D. from the University of Michigan.


Greg Elders
Organization: Bloomberg, LP


Gregory Elders, Bloomberg Intelligence Senior ESG Analyst, has fifteen years’ experience valuing environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities. He has consistently earned a top analyst ranking in the Extel/SRI-Connect Independent Research in Responsible Investment (IRRI) survey. He leads Bloomberg’s investment research on ESG, and has spear-headed development of its ESG valuation and analytic tools. His research efforts include financial impacts and opportunities of a low-carbon transition; analysis of company and country governance and corruption control; extractive industries safety and performance link; water scarcity impacts on business operations; activist investor targets and defenses. He has held the roles of Fixed Income Research Analyst at Merrill Lynch in New York and Head of Research at Trucost in London. Gregory has an MSc in Environmental Policy from the London School of Economics and a BA in Economics from Cornell University.


Adam Heltzer
Organization: Partners Group


Adam Heltzer is Partners Group's Head of Responsible Investment, as part of the Industry Value Creation business unit, based in New York. He is responsible for overseeing the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into the due diligence process and ownership period for Partners Group’s investments globally. He has twelve years of industry experience. Prior to joining Partners Group, he was a Global Leadership Fellow at the World Economic Forum, where he built strategic partnerships between the Forum's multinational agribusiness members and leading international NGOs. Prior to joining the World Economic Forum, he worked at The Louis Berger Group and CG/LA Infrastructure. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.


Carol Jeppesen
Organization: UN Principles for Responsible Investment


Carol Jeppesen is the Senior US Network Manager for the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) based in New York. She joined the PRI in September of 2015 to establish their first US office and is responsible for relationship management and outreach in its largest institutional investor market. She has over 20 years of experience at firms including Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs and holds BS/BA degrees in Finance and Economics from Boston University and an MBA in Finance from Wharton.


Noelle Laing
Organization: Cambridge Associates, LLC


Noelle is a Managing Director in the Mission-Related Investing (“MRI”) Group in Cambridge Associates’ Arlington office. She works with clients on developing and executing mission-related and impact investing programs and portfolios. Having led MRI research at Cambridge for many years, she offers in-depth knowledge of the space across asset classes and impact themes. She is a frequent speaker and conference panelist on impact investing topics. Prior to rejoining the firm in 2010, Noelle was a senior investment advisor at the IAM National Pension Fund. She also worked as a public markets investment analyst for the American Red Cross, where she conducted asset allocation analysis and manager due diligence for the public market portfolios of the endowment, pension, corporate accounts, and 401K program. Noelle began her career at Cambridge Associates as an investment associate in 2003. She is a CFA Charterholder and earned her BS in Mathematics from St. Lawrence University.


Shawn Lesser
Organization: Big Path Capital


Shawn Lesser brings over twenty years of experience in the financial advisory sector to Big Path Capital. Prior to co-founding Big Path Capital, Shawn founded the investment bank, Sustainable World Capital, which assisted cleantech companies in raising capital from European institutional investors. Shawn has been Co-Head and Managing Director of the international equity teams at Morgan Keegan and at Deutsche Bank. He is the author of the book, 2012 Global Cleantech Directory: 100 Cleantech Lists That Matter. In partnership with Michael Whelchel, Shawn has founded a number of first of their kind initiatives all of which demonstrate SmarterMoney+- maximize return, maximize impact. Those include the Five Fund Forum, Impact Capitalism Summit, and Impact & Sustainable Trade Missions. In 2010, Shawn also co-founded the Global Cleantech Cluster Association as a meta-cluster to create momentum and move the cleantech market by networking global clusters together. Shawn speaks at events around the world on the topic of Impact and Sustainable Investment and partners with the US Department of Commerce conducting the Impact and Sustainable Trade Mission across the globe. Shawn received his BS in Finance from Syracuse University. He is conversant in German and Spanish and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.


Christine Pishko
Organization: Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA)


Christine Pishko is a Managing Director of Client Portfolio Management for TIAA Investments, a Nuveen Company. In this capacity, Ms. Pishko serves as a product specialist supporting TIAA’s investment strategies and addressing the informational needs of TIAA’s institutional and individual clients. Prior to joining TIAA, Ms. Pishko was a Director in the Retirement Services Group at New York Life Insurance Company. Previously, she held various product specialist roles, including Director and Alternatives Product Specialist covering private equity, hedge funds, real estate, and timber with Morgan Stanley’s Global Wealth Management Alternative Investment Group, and Assistant Vice President at Credit Suisse Asset Management, focusing on fixed- income separately managed account strategies. Ms. Pishko holds a B.A. in English from the State University of New York at Potsdam and an M.B.A. in Financial Management from Pace University.


John Tough
Organization: Invenergy Future Fund


John Tough brings over ten years of experience in finance, investing and operational roles. He is integral to all aspects of the Fund’s operations, including leading sourcing efforts, developing investment theses, driving diligence of potential investments, and supporting and monitoring portfolio companies. Previously, Tough was a venture capital associate for Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ Green Growth fund, where he focused on platform investments at the intersection of technology and energy. Tough was actively involved in research, diligence and investment execution across a variety of verticals, including asset integrity and monitoring, electric vehicle services, business process management (BPM) for energy and industrial applications, and capital light consumer engagement business models. These areas of focus led to three investments including Choose Energy, where he took a position after KPCB’s investment as the first non-engineer. Most recently, Tough was Chief Revenue Officer at Choose Energy, the largest online energy marketplace in North America that originates over $1 billion of energy supply annually. At Choose Energy, he led all operations and growth and raised over $30 million in capital. John holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS from Duke University.


Tony Vu
Organization: Miami-Dade County Public Schools


Phong “Tony” Vu joined the Miami-Dade County School Districts in 2017 after serving on the district’s Treasury Advisory Committee. As treasurer for the school district, he manages a cash portfolio of up to $2 billion and debt program in excess of over $5 billion. He currently serves on Miami-Dade County’s Asian American Advisory Board. Prior to joining the district, he most recently served as University Treasurer at Florida International University, where he continues as an adjunct lecturer for the Honors College. In addition to teaching portfolio theory and management, Mr. Vu has served on various industry panels, and is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Administration. Mr. Vu earned his Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Florida, where he was a member of Florida Blue Key. He is also a graduate of the High Impact Leader Program with FIU’s top-ranked Center for Leadership and was selected ‘Top 20 Under 40’ by Brickell Magazine.