Tell us a bit about yourself
I have worked at the intersection between climate, energy, water and economics/finance for over 15 years now. Following my undergraduate degree in environmental economics at the University of Queensland, I started at the Queensland Water Commission during the Millennium drought. There I saw the substantial environmental, social and economic cost of responding to temporary climatic shifts with billions of dollars spent in 22 months to drought-proof the region. I saw firsthand that responding to unmitigated climate change was going to be extraordinarily costly.
Since then, I have worked in climate policy in the Queensland Government, building a carbon trading company and then as a climate change economist with the global advisory firm, AECOM. I pursued an MBA in Finance from New York University and went on to help build Cornerstone Capital Group in New York. Cornerstone Capital provides investment advisory services and products including divestment and sustainable investment portfolios and is now one of the largest sustainable investment advisors in the US.
Having recently returned to Australia, I advise governments and the private sector on infrastructure resilience and mitigation measures as well as building new businesses. For instance, my team is finalising our third climate-controlled, automated agricultural production facility, literally a modular plant factory, in Brisbane. Building resilient food production is one of my key interests.
There is just so much to learn and do as we grapple dangerous climate change.
What attracted you to Altiorem?
I was fortunate, during my time on Wall Street, to be mentored by investors who instilled a strong sense of the value of great investment research. Great research delivers predictive insights and drives the reader towards the next set of questions.
My experience is that sustainability and ESG research is not a niche area of investment research but a ‘must have’ component of investment decision making in our rapidly changing, global investment world.
Altiorem has a strong role to play in collating the best research and enabling people to learn how to build good investment cases that integrate ESG considerations. This is not just to increase the quality of their investment cases but also to finance new and powerful responses to climate change. It is also good for someone like me who is building businesses in these areas.
How have you found the experience?
I have been very impressed by the infrastructure and the enthusiasm of the Altiorem team, particularly Alexandra. I have found the mentoring process to be fairly straightforward although I use WordPress for my blog, so that helps.
It is a powerful ambition to ‘build a library’ so I am grateful to be of assistance. Nothing is easy when you are building something from scratch. I appreciate that the Altiorem team is focused on building a robust system and capturing many data points in a piece of research, organisation, chart or quote. While it is time-intensive, a data-rich library will be more useful for users and lends itself to emerging machine learning and big data analysis which will all be a part of our future.
What is the most interesting piece of research you have come across?
I am biased as it is a piece that I provided as a contributor called ‘Multi-asset investments managing sustainability from a total portfolio perspective’ by Schroders. While the report has a terrifically dry name, it links key portfolio management concepts such as risk and asset correlation to sustainable investing.
In addition, the report examines a practical issue which affects most sustainable investment practitioners and one that I experienced at Cornerstone. There is a finite number of time and resources that can be allocated to sustainable investing so investors should develop a ‘sustainability budget’ to prioritise their efforts. It is not different from any other budget within an organisation. Being conscious of the costs associated with implementing and monitoring a sustainable investment process is critical for its long term sustainability and embedding these processes in an organisation.
I think it is a good piece for any investor to consider as they build or refine their sustainable investment approach.
What would you say to other people thinking about mentoring for Altiorem?
Altiorem is a work in progress but that is the exciting part. Being a mentor is not just about helping contributors complete summaries for the library but also to help build a global resource. Come and help build a Great Library of Alexandria for sustainable investing!
