Redirecting Capital to Accelerate Racial Equity: Leveraging Public Equities

May 11th, 2022, 2:00-3:15 pm

This is the fourth webinar in our Redirecting Capital to Accelerate Racial Equity series, highlighting opportunities to pursue racial and economic justice in America with foundational examples in each asset class. The investment community is now intensely focused on systemic and institutional racism and are seeking opportunities to tackle racial inequities by leveraging their portfolio allocations. Public equities have long incorporated social criteria, including racial diversity and representation, as a proxy to address racial inequities in the workplace. Increasingly, portfolio managers are looking at the intersection of race and critical issues such as climate change.

In this session, public equities asset managers will:

  1. explain how managers have historically used public equities to create institutional and systemic change;
  2. explain how COVID-19 and the death of George Floyd changed the perspectives of investors; and,
  3. share strategies equity managers are using to create change that uplifts communities of color.

Speakers:

  • Sharlene Brown, Director of REEFS, Senior Fellow of Croatan Institute (Moderator)
  • Lisa Hayles, Director, International Shareholder Advocacy, Trillium Asset Management
  • Marcela Pinilla, Director, Sustainable Investing, Zevin Asset Management
  • Keith Beverly, Managing Partner, GRID 202 Partners
  • Craig Metrick, Managing Director, Pathstone

About the Series:

This conversation is part of a larger series organized by Croatan Institute’s Racial Equity, Economics, Finance, and Sustainability (REEFS) program, Redirecting Capital to Accelerate Racial Equity, a Total Portfolio Activation Approach.

Our nation is at a crossroads. The continued onslaught of racial inequities and injustices has led to a moment of keen reflection and should lead to sustained action. As impact and other conscientious investors consider how to tackle racial equity, we must acknowledge that the intensity of resources invested in White communities throughout this country’s history has led to today’s income and wealth gaps. Many decades of affirmative actions mainly benefiting White Americans — investments in education, homeownership, and job access — have created disparate outcomes for communities of color.

Today, the investment community must be collaborators willing to invest transformative capital in communities of color — both to address historical wrongs and seize future opportunities — that bank on the full potential of all citizens in this nation. This educational series Redirecting Capital to Accelerate Racial Equity, a Total Portfolio Activation Approach, showcases investable opportunities across asset classes.