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Sasha Burstein is a partner in the firm’s San Francisco office, where she’s a member of the investment management group. Ms. Burstein practices in the area of investment management, corporate and securities law. Ms. Burstein’s practice focuses on structuring and organizing various types of private investment funds, including hedge funds, private equity and debt funds, hybrid funds, and fund-of-funds. Ms. Burstein also counsels investment advisers on a wide variety of legal and regulatory matters, including their structure and organization, registration and operation, merger and acquisition transactions, and ongoing regulatory and compliance matters. In addition, Ms. Burstein represents institutional investors with respect to structuring, negotiating, and documenting alternative investments.

Verity Chegar, Director, is ESG Integration Team Lead within BlackRock Sustainable Investing. The Sustainable Investing team is focused on identifying drivers of long-term return associated with environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, integrating them throughout Blackrock's investment processes, and creating solutions for our clients to achieve sustainable investment return. Ms. Chegar works with the Head and CIO of Sustainable Investing to develop and execute an implementation plan for ESG integration across all investment teams at the firm. Previously, Ms. Chegar was an ESG strategist within the BlackRock Investment Stewardship team researching ESG trends and their implications for investment. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2015, she worked at Allianz Global Investors as an ESG analyst responsible for research and ratings of companies in the global healthcare and global technology sectors. Prior to that, she was a member of the US Large Cap Portfolio Management team at RCM. Ms. Chegar is a Vice Chair of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), an independent standards-setting organization dedicated to enhancing the efficiency of the capital markets by fostering high-quality disclosure of material sustainability information that meets investor needs. She earned a BA from Mount Holyoke College.

Hua Cheng, PhD, CFA, is an Analyst and Portfolio Manager at Mirova, having joined the firm in March 2014. He started his career at Société Générale Asset Management in 2005 as an assistant portfolio manager for Credit Investments. In 2006, he joined Natixis Asset Square as a fund of funds analyst for Global Emerging Markets & Asia Pacific and was a portfolio manager at Natixis Multimanager and Vega Investment Managers for seven years. Mr. Cheng holds a PhD in Financial Economics from the University Paris Dauphine (France) and bachelor’s degrees in international economics & Finance and Business French from the Wuhan University (China). He is a CFA® Charterholder.

Andrew Collins is Director of ESG Investing for the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (SFERS). Previously, he was an ESG Investment Strategist with State Street Global Advisors, and prior to that he was Technical Director of Standards Setting at the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). He has also held roles in environmental auditing and consulting and worked as a corporate sustainability manager for the Indian conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra. He holds a BS from Yale University.

Himani Phadke, Senior Product Manager, is responsible for Data and Content at Truvalue Labs. Himani has over ten years of experience across ESG and financial analysis, research, and strategy. Prior to working at Truvalue Labs, Himani was Director of Research at the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), where she led the research team in developing standards across 79 industries by identifying material ESG issues and gathering evidence of their financial impact. Himani also worked at the UK Treasury on investment banking reform policy, and at LECG in London on financial consulting. She has an MA in international energy and environmental policy from Stanford University, an MSc in development economics from Oxford University, and a BA in economics and statistics from Mumbai University.