Free Forum Tuesday on 'Responsible Investing' at St. Mary's College

The Elfenworks Center for Responsible Business (ECRB) in Saint Mary’s College of California’s School of Economics and Business Administration (SEBA) presents a “Panel Discussion on Responsible Investing,” a forum focusing on how financial assets can be used to impact corporate governance and environmental and social issues.

Held on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014 at 6:45 p.m. in Saint Mary’s Soda Center, this special event examines a growing financial revolution where institutional investors such as BlackRock, TIAA-CREF, Fidelity, Vanguard and CalPERs, have adopted financial management practices categorized as responsible investing.

Featuring a panel of leading executives, the forum will address the criteria for responsible investments and how they are typically practiced with assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate and commodities.

Panel members include Lloyd Kurtz, chief investment officer of Nelson Capital Management, a money management firm affiliated with Wells Fargo; Doug Park, director of education for the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), which promotes and distributes sustainability standards to help public corporations disclose important non-financial information and Chad Spitler, global chief operating officer for BlackRock’s Corporate Governance & Responsible Investment team.

The panel will be moderated by ECRB Senior Fellow and Saint Mary’s Management Professor James Hawley and includes a question and answer session with students and audience members.

The event includes a reception and features the launch of the Saint Mary’s College Investment Group, a student run organization that manages a $125,000 Responsible Investment Fund. The goal of the investment group is to provide students with opportunities to learn first-hand about managing investments in a responsible way.

When: Tuesday October 14, 2014

• 5:30 p.m. Reception, Launch of Saint Mary’s College Student Investment Group.
• 6:45 p.m. Panel Discussion

Where: Soda Center, Saint Mary’s College of California, 1928 St. Mary’s Road, Moraga, Calif. 94575

The event is free, but RSVPs are requested. Follow this link for more details.

Background: The ECRB’s responsible investing panel discussion is part of the Center’s public outreach effort to promote understanding, collaboration and innovation in responsible business practices. Directed by Saint Mary’s Marketing Professor Saroja Subrahmanyan, the ECRB provides research opportunities for faculty in the areas of environmental, social (poverty, social justice issues, social enterprises) and corporate governance for nonprofit and for-profit businesses. The Center also provides Saint Mary’s business students with educational opportunities to inspire social responsibility and community engagement, which are an outgrowth of the global leadership and responsible business orientation in the College’s School of Economic and Business Administration.

For more information about the panel, or the ECRB, visit stmarys-ca.edu/elfenworks-center-panel-on-responsible-investment or contact Professor Subrahmanyan at (925) 631-8675 or by email at ssubrahm@stmarys-ca.edu.

--Information courtesy of St. Mary’s College of California

--Image via Shutterstock