Sustainable Investment Forum North America 2022

Adam is Head of Stewardship – Americas for BNP Paribas Asset Management.

In this role Adam leads BNPP AM’s stewardship activities in the region. This includes direct corporate engagement and proxy voting, working with policymakers on key issues relating to sustainable finance and investment, and representing BNPP AM in key investor ESG networks. He joined the firm in 2018 and is based in New York.

Currently Adam also serves on the Human Rights Advisory Committee of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, the steering committee of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, and is a board member and a founder of the Global Network Initiative.

Prior to joining BNPP AM, Adam spent 20 years at Domini Impact Investments, where he was Managing Director of Corporate Engagement. During his time at Domini, he built a corporate engagement programme focused on improving the ESG performance of major US corporations, as well as developing Domini’s public policy advocacy programme and proxy voting policies.

Adam has over 23 years of experience and holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Chris is a climate change and environmental policy expert with over 25 years’ of public and private sector experience. He is responsible for managing Impax’s engagement in the development of policy issues and providing insights on policy to the firm’s investment teams.

Before joining Impax in 2019, Chris worked at Ricardo Energy & Environment for eight years as Director of Climate Change, Clean Growth and Strategic Partnerships. Here he was responsible for overseeing key projects in the aforementioned areas as well as building relationships with clients in the public and financial services sectors. Prior to this he worked for 10 years at the heart of the UK Government’s work on climate change, including leading the UK’s implementation of the EU Emissions Trading System and heading the UK Delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Chris began his career as a solicitor at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer where he worked on a variety of civil, criminal and public law litigation relating to the impact of pollution on the environment and human health.

Chris graduated with a BA Hons in Classics from the University of Cambridge in 1990 and later went on to achieve a Master of Laws in Environmental Law from University College London in 2002.

Eron Bloomgarden is a Founding Partner of Climate Finance Partners, an investment firm focused on climate impact and sub-advisor to the largest carbon fund in the world, an exchange listed fund (ETF) on the New York Stock Exchange. Eron has been a pioneer in the development of carbon markets for the past two decades and has advised governments, multilateral institutions, and international corporations on many aspects of the carbon and environmental markets. Eron is also Founder and Executive Director of Emergent, a non-profit organization dedicated to reversing global deforestation. Emergent launched the LEAF Coalition at COP26, which mobilized US$1 billion in commitments from corporations and donor government to pay countries committed to increasing ambition to protect their forests. With extensive experience in the areas of climate finance and carbon markets, Eron has worked on several carbon market milestones, including the first Kyoto (CDM) project in the world to receive issuance of carbon credits. He is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University where he was part of the inaugural faculty of the MSc in Sustainability Management at the Earth Institute.

James Andrus was named interim managing investment director for Board Governance & Sustainability in January 2022.

He’s responsible for developing and executing CalPERS’ Sustainable Investment Strategy across the portfolio.

As the investment manager for financial markets, James draws on experience as a corporate partner at a global law firm (K&L Gates) and his deep industry and regulatory knowledge, to effectively coordinate the development and execution of financial market strategic priorities for CalPERS. He uses this expertise to identify, shape, and respond to policy and regulatory developments that impact investors.

James provides a skilled voice for institutional asset owners in several national and international forums. He serves on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Investor Advisory Committee, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) Investor Advisory Group, Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC) and the International Financial Reporting Standards Advisory Council. He also co-chairs the Financial Capital Committee of the International Corporate Governance Network, which serves investors representing assets under management of more than $54 trillion. He’s worked collaboratively across stakeholder groups, partisan affiliations, and geographic boundaries to drive investor-favorable policies forward.

He has a history of service to his country and his local community as a former U.S. Army officer and as president of the King County Bar Association representing more than 14,000 lawyers in Seattle/King County, Washington. He also served as a board member and finance committee chair of Pioneer Human Services, a social entrepreneurship organization that assists people with criminal, alcohol, or drug histories to become productive citizens.

James graduated West Point and the University of Texas School of Law.

As Global Head of ESG and Climate Research, Linda-Eling Lee oversees all ESG- and Climate-related content and methodology. MSCI is the largest provider of ESG Ratings and analytics to global institutional investors. Linda leads one of the largest teams of research analysts in the world who are dedicated to identifying risks and opportunities arising from material Climate and ESG issues. She and her team have been widely recognized as the best Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)/Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) researchers by market surveys and awards. Linda is also a member of MSCI’s Executive Committee.

Linda joined MSCI in 2010 following the acquisition of RiskMetrics, where she led ESG ratings research and was head of consumer sector analysis. Linda joined RiskMetrics Group in 2009 through the acquisition of Innovest. Prior to joining Innovest, Linda was the Research Director at the Center for Research on Corporate Performance, developing academic research at Harvard Business School into management tools to drive long-term corporate performance. Previously, she was a strategy consultant with Monitor Group in Europe and in Asia, where she worked with Fortune 500 clients in industries ranging from beverages to telecommunications.

Linda received her A.B. from Harvard University, M.St. from Oxford and Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Harvard.

Linda serves as a member of the board of directors of US SIF. She has published research in both management and investment practitioner journals, as well as in top academic peer-reviewed journals. Linda was named one of the Top 100 Women in Finance by Barron’s in 2019 and 2021. She was voted #1 for an Individual Making the Most Positive Overall Contribution to Sustainable Investment / Corporate Governance in 2018 and 2019 by Extel/IRRI. Linda is a frequent media commentator on Climate, ESG and sustainable investing in outlets including the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and The New York Times.

As Executive Vice-President and Head of CDPQ Global and Global Head of Sustainability, Mr. Blanchard is responsible for coordinating CDPQ’s international operations. He oversees CDPQ’s international offices, ensuring the organization’s positioning as an investment partner of choice. He also supports the international growth and development of Québec companies. In addition, he oversees the organizations sustainability orientations and activities and leads CDPQ’s strategy to integrate ESG factors into all investment activities. He sits on the Executive and Investment-Risk Committees.

Before joining CDPQ in September 2020, he was Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York from 2016 to 2020. From 2017 to 2020, he sat on Canada’s North American Free Trade Agreement Council. Prior to that, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of McCarthy Tétrault, one of Canada’s leading law firms.

In addition to a Bachelor of Laws from Université de Montréal, Mr. Blanchard holds an LLM in Public International Law from the London
School of Economics and Political Science. He also holds a Master’s in Public Administration and a Master’s in International Affairs, both from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He was called to the Québec Bar in 1992.