The Power of Active Ownership - feat. Trillium Asset Management!

NEIII is proud to host Matt Patsky, CEO of Trillium Asset Management (http://www.trilliuminvest.com/team/matthew-w-patsky-cfa/) for an inspiring conversation about how Trillium used the shareholder proposal process, working collaboratively with other stakeholders, to help change the proxy voting policies of the world's largest investor for the benefit of society and the environment. He'll tell the full (and little known) story of Trillium's recent victories and the ripple effect that led to Larry Fink of BlackRock's letter to CEOs (https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/larry-fink-ceo-letter), in which he emphasized the fact that "society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose."

Matt will walk us through how Trillium exercises active ownership by escalating the steps they'll take to advocate for things like gender identity and environmental protections at the world's largest companies, and how they're able to convince the world's largest investors to change their proxy voting policies from voting 100% in accordance with management, to voting to uphold the values they profess to hold. The power of his story is found not only in how Trillium was able to persuade asset managers, but in the fact that employees of the companies Trillium targeted played their part in bringing about a change for the good. Matt will also address proposed changes the Trump administration wants to make to the tools of shareholder advocacy and what implications they have for the future of active ownership.

Trillium Asset Management is the oldest investment advisor exclusively focused on sustainable and responsible investing. Joan Bavaria founded Trillium in 1982 to provide a space for clients to invest their money in alignment with their values. She is often referred to as the “Founding Mother” of Socially Responsible Investing. Under Joan’s visionary leadership, Trillium grew to become one of the largest SRI investment firms in the U.S. Joan was proud to use Trillium as an incubator to create organizations with impact. Trillium helped nurture US SIF (https://www.ussif.org/), Ceres (https://www.ceres.org/), SIRAN (https://www.ussif.org/projects/siran.cfm) and Open MIC (http://www.openmic.org/). Following Joan’s death in 2008, Matt Patsky joined the firm as CEO, and committed to furthering her legacy.

After Matt's presentation, we will divide the room into small groups to discuss our own roles in active ownership (every person with a retirement fund owns part of the companies in which the fund is invested) and the opportunity to take a hard look at whether we're investing in companies that align with our values. We'll also learn about the steps asset managers like Trillium take in their quest to encourage public companies to become responsible stewards of society and the environment.

NOTE: To make the most of this session, we have a packet of Trillium shareholder engagement documents that we'd like to circulate for advanced reading. Please email Lubna at lubna.maria.elia@gmail.com if you'd like the documents ahead of time.

For libations and further conversation, please join us at Scholars (http://www.scholarsbostonbistro.com/) at 25 School Street after the event.