Plenary Speakers and Agenda Announced for US SIF 9th Annual Conference

• By: admin
• On: 05/31/2019 10:56:24
• In: General

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 31, 2019) – US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment has released the full agenda for its 9^th Annual Conference, “New Challenges, New Opportunities,” June 10-12 at the Downtown Radisson Blu Hotel in Minneapolis, MN. This year's plenary speakers and their topics are:
 

• Chris Clark, president of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota regions at Xcel Energy, will present on Xcel Energy's commitment to provide 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2050 and the implications of being the first major utility to set such a goal.
• Me'Lea Connelly, founder of Village Financial Cooperative, will discuss her effort to establish a black-led community development credit union on the north side of Minneapolis.
• The Honorable Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis will discuss the city's investments in sustainability. 
• Winona LaDuke, executive director at Honor the Earth, will discuss her work on Native environmental issues of economic, food and energy sovereignty – and how shareholder engagement can assist these efforts.
• Eoin Murray, head of investment at Hermes Investment Management, will present on Hermes' commitment to responsible investment and its efforts to improve the governance and social responsibility of publicly-traded companies.
• Kat Taylor, co-founder and co-CEO at Beneficial State Bank, will address the challenges in advancing social and economic justice and environmental well-being.
   

More than 50 speakers will address topics ranging from investing in climate change solutions to valuing and measuring human capital, achieving impact with municipal bonds and the link between ESG and outperformance. In addition, the improv group Theater of Public Policy will perform. 
 
This year's event will include representatives from investment management and advisory firms, foundations and family offices, research firms and rating agencies, financial planners and advisors, universities, broker-dealers and community development institutions, federal and state government and private and public corporations. Media passes for the conference are available by request by emailing [email protected]. To view the full agenda visit the conference website.

Committed sponsors for the 2019 conference include Host City Sponsor McKnight Foundation; Prime Sponsors Impax Asset Management, ISS ESG, Parnassus Investments and Trillium Asset Management; Wireless Network Sponsor Vigeo Eiris; Mobile App Sponsor ClearBridge Investments; Conference Lounge Sponsor Bloomberg; Sustainability Sponsor Allianz Investment Management LLC; and Supporting Sponsors Aberdeen Standard Investments, Calvert Research and Management, the College for Financial Planning, DANA Investment Advisors, Domini Impact Investments, Envestnet, MSCI, North Sky Capital, Sustainalytics and Parametric; Community Tour Sponsor CRF USA; Peter DeSimone Scholarship Sponsors Calvert Impact Capital and Natural Investments LLC; and Contributing Sponsors AHP Servicing, Brown Advisory, First Affirmative Financial Network LLC, Hartford Funds, KBI Global Investors, Merrill Lynch, PIMCO and Thornburn Investment Management. Firms interested in sponsoring the 2019 conference can learn more here.

About US SIF
US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment is the leading voice advancing sustainable, responsible and impact investing across all asset classes. Its mission is to rapidly shift investment practices toward sustainability, focusing on long-term investment and the generation of positive social and environmental impacts. US SIF members include investment management and advisory firms, mutual fund companies, pension funds, foundations and other asset owners, research firms, financial planners and advisors, broker-dealers, community investing institutions and nonprofit associations.
 
US SIF is supported in its work by the US SIF Foundation, a 501(C)(3) organization that undertakes educational, research and programmatic activities to advance the mission of US SIF, including offering classes for advisors and other financial professionals on the Fundamentals of Sustainable and Impact Investment. The US SIF Foundation's Report on US Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing Trends is the definitive and most comprehensive report on the sustainable investment industry. The 12^th edition was released late 2018. 

Learn more at ussif.org.