Impact Investing: Aligning Investments with Mission

Alliance Series

An Alliance Networking Event with the CFA Society of San Francisco

Impact Investing is gaining interest among investors who want to align some or all of their portfolio with their mission. Impact Investing incorporates socially responsible investing (SRI) objectives and integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors to intentionally make an impact.

This panel of local impact investing professionals will discuss the aspects of aligning a portfolio with an institution’s mission across all asset classes, the state of the impact investing industry, the investment process, how to conform to fiduciary responsibilities, and various impact investing opportunities in the Bay Area.

Please join Jessica Matthews of Cambridge Associates, a leading consulting firm in mission-related investing, Nancy Pfund of DBL Capital, a Bay Area-focused private equity firm with a double-bottom-line orientation, and  Lauryn Agnew of Seal Cove Financial, author of  “Impact Investing for Small, Place-Based Fiduciaries: The Research Study Initiated by the United Way of the Bay Area,” December, 2012, a working paper posted on the SF Federal Reserve Bank’s website. The session will be moderated by Kumiko Yoshinari, CFA.

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About the Speakers:

Jessica Mathews

Jessica Matthews is associate director of the Mission-Related Investing (MRI) Group at Cambridge Associates. Jessica oversees and coordinates the activities of all MRI resources across the firm, including a team of generalist and research consultants and analysts. Jessica advises a variety of clients on their mission-related investment programs, including foundations, religious institutions, universities, and high-net worth families. She also works with various functional areas across the firm, including manager research, capital markets research and performance measurement.

Previously, Jessica was an associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, specializing in transformation and change management for government clients in the financial services sector. She also worked in the investment office at the American Red Cross, with a focus on the alternatives assets portfolio, and in the global consultant relations group at BlackRock, where she cultivated and maintained relationships with investment consulting firms. Jessica began her career with Cambridge Associates as a consulting analyst. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in government and a minor in economics.

Nancy E. Pfund

Nancy E. Pfund is Founder and Managing Partner of DBL Investors, a venture capital firm located in San Francisco, whose goal is to combine top-tier financial returns with meaningful social, economic and environmental returns in the regions in which it invests. Ms. Pfund currently sponsors or sits on the board of directors of several companies, including; SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY), Solaria, BrightSource Energy, Primus Power, Eco.logic Brands, EcoScraps, OPx Biotechnologies, Powergenix and, prior to their public offerings, Tesla Motors and Pandora Media. Originally a regional venture capital group within JPMorgan, DBL Investors spun out as an independent firm in January 2008. Ms. Pfund joined JPMorgan (then Hambrecht & Quist) in 1984 first as a securities analyst and then as a Venture Capital Partner and Managing Director.

Ms. Pfund also built and directed H&Q’s external affairs and philanthropic programs from 1996 to 2001. Previously, from 1977-1984, Ms. Pfund worked at Intel Corporation, the State of California Department of Health Services and the Governor's Office of Appropriate Technology, Stanford University School of Medicine, and the Sierra  Club.  In 1988, President Bush appointed Ms. Pfund as a charter member of the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology. In 1999, Ms. Pfund was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the Congressional Web-Based Education Commission. Ms. Pfund is a member of the board of directors of the California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF); member of the Advisory Board of the UC Davis Center for Energy Efficiency; member of the Advisory Council of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University; member of the California STEM Learning Network board of directors; a C3E Ambassador to the U.S. Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Program, led by the U.S. Department of Energy in partnership with the MIT Energy Initiative; and is a founding officer and director of ABC2, a foundation aimed at accelerating a cure for brain cancer.

Ms. Pfund is the author, along with Benjamin Healey of the widely cited report on the history of U.S. energy subsidies entitled, “What Would Jefferson Do? The Historical Role of Federal Subsidies in Shaping America’s Energy Subsidies” and co-authored with Michael Lazar, “Red, White & Green: The True Colors of America’s Clean Tech Jobs.” Ms. Pfund received her BA and MA in anthropology from Stanford University, and her MBA from the Yale School of Management. 

Lauryn Agnew

Lauryn Agnew, Seal Coast Financial: With nearly three decades of experience in developing and implementing strategies in the institutional investment industry, Lauryn Agnew serves as a resource to non-profit organizations for investment consulting services and provides fiduciary education and trustee training for public fund and non-profit board and committee members. She also offers strategic marketing analysis and recommendations to firms with specialized investment strategies through her company Seal Cove Financial (www.sealcovefinancial.com).

Currently, Lauryn is a trustee on the Board of the San Mateo County Employees’ Retirement Association (SamCERA), a defined benefit plan with $2.5 billion in assets.  She is the Chair of both investment committees at the United Way of the Bay Area and the Girl Scouts of Northern California, and is a member of the finance committee of the Immaculate Conception Academy of San Francisco.  Lauryn recently authored a research paper about Impact Investing for small place-based fiduciaries, which is posted on the website of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. As an advocate for impact investing strategies, she is working to develop a Bay Area Impact Investing Initiative for institutional asset pools.

Lauryn was born in Wyoming and grew up in Montana. She has a BA degree in Economics from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington and an MBA in Finance from the University of Oregon. She is a member of the CFA Society of San Francisco and the Financial Women of San Francisco.

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