Proxy Preview Contributors
Here are the authors who contributed in 2018.
Susan baker
Susan is a Vice President and a member of our Shareholder Advocacy team, overseeing engagement with corporate leadership on numerous environmental, social, and governance issues. She has over 20 years of experience in the investment industry having started her career at Harvard Management Company and later moving to Trillium where she held investment management and equity research positions under the leadership of Joan Bavaria. In 2000, Susan left Trillium to become the religious education director of a faith-based organization, and rejoined the firm and its advocacy department in 2006. Susan currently serves on the board of Thirty Percent Coalition and recently served on the boards of The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and Pesticide Action Network, North America. She holds a Master’s Degree from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. from Middlebury College.
mark bateman
Mark Bateman is Aperio’s Director of ESG/SRI Research. He is an internationally recognized ESG/SRI/Impact expert and works with Aperio’s clients to create customized ESG/SRI/Impact solutions that reflect their values. In addition to his work with Aperio, Mark is the founder of ENSOGO Analytics, a firm offering environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings of mutual funds and ETFs. Before founding ENSOGO, he served as the Director of Research at IW Financial (now part of ISS), a leading provider of value-added ESG research. Prior to that, Mark spent 11 years at the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi, now part of MSCI) in Washington, DC, in a range of positions, including Director of the Environmental Information Service, and ultimately, Vice President of Research and Operations. He also served on the original steering committee of the Global Reporting Initiative, helping to develop a sustainability reporting framework for companies. He serves on the board of directors for the Sustainable Investments Institute (Si2), a social proxy research firm. Mark holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University and an MA from George Washington University. Mark lives in Salem, Oregon, where he serves on the school district budget committee as well as a number of church boards and committees at the local, state, and regional level. In his free time, Mark enjoys photography and playing board games with his wife and kids.
Andrew behar
Andrew Behar is CEO of As You Sow, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing corporate environmental and social responsibility. Founded in 1992, As You Sow envisions a safe, just, and sustainable world in which environmental health and human rights are central to corporate decision making. Previously, Andrew founded a clean-tech start-up developing innovative fuel cell technologies for grid-scale energy storage. He is on the Board of Directors of the US Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investing (US-SIF), he is on advisory boards of Real Impact Tracker and 1-Earth Institute, on the steering committee of Institutional Investor Educational Foundation, is a member of the UN Green Finance Advisory Group that developed the recently released UN Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative, and was named one of 30 “Eco Rock Stars and Environmental Mavericks” in Origin Magazine. His book, The Shareholders Action Guide: Unleash Your Hidden Powers to Hold Corporations Accountable was published in November 2016 by Berrett-Koehler.
simon billenness
Described by the New York Times “a super-specialist” in human rights activism, Simon Billenness has over 25 years of experience in advising investors on shareholder advocacy. At Trillium Asset Management, Simon Billenness pioneered the use of shareholder engagement of companies operating in countries with repressive regimes. He organized shareholder activism to put pressure on corporations to withdraw from Burma (Myanmar). In 2016, Simon Billenness founded the International Campaign for the Rohingya where he serves as Board Treasurer and Executive Director. As Co-chair of the Business and Human Rights Group of Amnesty International USA, Simon Billenness helps manage Amnesty International USA’s use of a portfolio of stocks for shareholder activism on issues of human rights.
laura campos
As director of the Nathan Cummings Foundation's Corporate & Political Accountability program, Laura employs both grant making and active ownership strategies to address the ways in which corporations can both advance and hinder progress on climate change and inequality. In her prior role as the Director of Shareholder Activities at the Foundation, Laura successfully engaged public corporations on topics ranging from climate change to corporate governance. She is active in numerous outside groups and shareholder coalitions focusing on responsible investment practices including the Investor Network on Climate Risk and the United Nations backed Principles for Responsible Investment, for which she served as the Co-Chair of the Small Funds Initiative Work Stream. Laura’s work has been covered by numerous publications and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Chronicle of Philanthropy and The International Business Times among others. Prior experience includes projects for the Arcus Foundation, the Aga Khan Foundation and Christian Aid. Laura holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the College of Wooster and an MSc, Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
jackie cook
Jackie Cook is a specialist in corporate ESG disclosure analysis and author of research reports and academic articles on shareholder activism, corporate governance and mutuality. Jackie founded and runs Fund Votes which holds a large, current and indexed repository of institutional investor proxy voting data. As CookESG Jackie developed proprietary tools for analyzing and representing large volumes of narrative corporate disclosures in various ESG domains, including climate change. Jackie has worked for governmental, academic, advocacy and commercial organizations in delivering ESG-related research and analytical data solutions and is a graduate of Rhodes University, Said Business School (University of Oxford), a Rhodes Scholar, and former Junior Research Fellow at the ESRC Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
patrick doherty
Patrick Doherty is Director of Corporate Governance in the Office of the New York State Comptroller, where he helps develop and administer corporate responsibility initiatives for the $209billion New York State Common Retirement Fund. Prior to coming to the State Comptroller’s Office in 2010, Mr. Doherty was Director of Investment Responsibility in the New York City Comptroller’s Office. Mr. Doherty holds BA and JD degrees from Hofstra University and a MIA from the Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He has been a member of the New York State Bar since 1985.
bruce freed
Bruce Freed is president of the Center for Political Accountability, a Washington, D.C. based NGO whose mission is to bring transparency and accountability to corporate political spending. It has pioneered the examination of corporate political spending and the risk it poses to companies and shareholders and produces the CPA-Zicklin Index that benchmarks companies on their political disclosure and accountability policies and practices. As a result of CPA’s efforts, political disclosure has been adopted by 130 large companies and is becoming a mainstream corporate practice.In his work with CPA, which he founded in 2003, he has drawn on his three decades of experience in journalism, Congress, and strategic public affairs. Mr. Freed speaks widely and co-authored The Conference Board’s Handbook on Corporate Political Activity. He has appeared in the Washington Post, Financial Times, Reuters, US News & World Report, the Sacramento Bee, the International Corporate Governance Network 2013 Yearbook, and The Conference Board Review.
danielle fugere
Danielle Fugere is President and Chief Counsel at As You Sow. She brings a wealth of experience in achieving broad and lasting change and in-depth knowledge of clean energy, conservation policy, toxic enforcement, and team building. Danielle served most recently as Executive Director of the Environmental Law Foundation. Prior, she was Legal Director and Regional Program Director for national nonprofit Friends of the Earth, where she spearheaded innovative legal strategies to reduce global warming pollution and directed campaigns to reduce pollution and promote sustainable alternative energies and fuels. Through her work, Danielle has been instrumental in securing compliance with environmental laws and industry conversions to environmentally sound technologies, including a settlement with the City and County of Los Angeles resulting in a $2.1 billion sewer system upgrade. Danielle was recognized with the WaterKeeper’s Environmental Achievement Award in 2000 for her outstanding achievements protecting California waters from pollution and compelling polluters to assume the costs of environmental degradation. She holds a JD from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and a BA in Political Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
michael garland
Michael Garland is Assistant Comptroller for Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment for New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. The Comptroller serves as investment advisor, custodian and a trustee to the New York City Pension Funds, which have more than $160 billion in assets and a long history of active ownership on issues of corporate governance and sustainability. Mr. Garland and his team are responsible for developing and implementing the Funds’ active ownership programs for public equities, including voting proxies, engaging portfolio companies on their environmental, social and governance policies and practices, and advocating for regulatory reforms to protect investors and strengthen shareholder rights. He also co-chairs the Activism Committee of the Council of Institutional Investors and serves as Comptroller Stringer’s designated representative to the CERES board of directors.
tiffany grabski
Tiffany Grabski, Senior Project Manager for the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative. In her role as Senior Project Manager at the United Nations SSE initiative, Tiffany leads a work stream on green finance and works with stock exchanges and regulators more broadly to improve sustainability and transparency of capital markets worldwide. Tiffany has been with the SSE for three years, and worked on the launch of its campaign to "close the gap on ESG reporting" within which the SSE asked all stock exchanges to commit to providing written guidance to listed companies on reporting ESG information. Prior to her work at the United Nations Tiffany was a journalist specialized in the Latin American mining industry. Tiffany has an MBA specialized in International Organizations, BA in International Business, and is currently working on a PhD at the University of Geneva.
Bruce herbert
Bruce Herbert, AIF founded Newground Social Investment – the nation’s 1st Social Purpose Corporation and a pioneering ESG-focused Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) – where he and his team manage high-impact sustainable investment portfolios for institutions and high net worth individuals. Under Bruce's direction Newground, in conjunction with sister firm Investor Voice, has led hundreds of successful shareholder engagements with corporations on a wide range of ESG and sustainability issues. Over a 31-year sustainable investment career, he has also served in leadership or founding roles with many organizations, including: the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment, the Network for Business Innovation and Sustainability, Sustainable Seattle, and the NW Board of US SIF. In addition, Bruce has served overseas as a human rights observer, and been a consultant to mutual funds, public pension funds, student groups, legislators, and RIAs.
patricia jurewicz
Patricia Jurewicz is Founder and Director of Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN), which champions human rights in the mining and harvesting of raw materials found in products we use every day. Since 2006, Patricia has worked with the shareholder community to address labor and human rights abuses. She writes and speaks extensively on the issues of modern slavery, benchmarking, traceability, and supply chains. Currently she sits on advisory committees for Know the Chain, ICCR’s Human Trafficking Group, and Cotton Campaign. Her latest project is YESS: Yarn Ethically & Sustainably Sourced, which aims to eliminate forced labor from cotton sourcing globally. Preceding As You Sow, she researched US adherence to global treaties at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP); she rewrote Gap, Inc.’s Vendor Handbook; and she volunteered with women's craft cooperatives in Latin America. Patricia has degrees from Thunderbird School of Global Management, Cornell University, and Fashion Institute of Technology.
john keenan
John Keenan is the Corporate Governance Analyst for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). John has been working on corporate governance research, pension fund activism, and pension defense since November 2003. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Council of Institutional Investors (CII). From 2012 to 2016, he co-chaired of the Activism Committee of the CII. In 2008, John was named one of the “Rising Stars of Corporate Governance” by the Yale Millstein Center. From 2001 through October 2003, he served as Senior Policy Analyst for Proxy Voter Services, a division of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) serving the Taft-Hartley community.
jonas kron
Jonas Kron is Trillium’s Director of Shareholder Advocacy. With almost 20 years of experience in shareholder advocacy, Jonas is responsible for leading and coordinating Trillium’s extensive advocacy program, which works to engage companies on their environmental and social performance. His advocacy work includes direct communications with company leadership, investor education and awareness, filing shareholder proposals, and public policy advocacy at the municipal, state and federal levels. Jonas is co-chair of US SIF’s Public Policy Committee and is a member of the US SIF Board of Directors. As a recognized legal expert in the field and a leader in shareholder advocacy, Jonas regularly represents Trillium in the media, at public events, and with clients. Prior to joining Trillium, Jonas was an environmental attorney and public defender as well as outside counsel to many socially responsible investment organizations. Jonas holds J.D. and master’s degrees from Vermont Law School.
natasha lamb
Natasha Lamb is a Managing Partner and Director of Equity Research & Shareholder Engagement at Arjuna Capital. Natasha integrates Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into Arjuna’s investment process while engaging major corporations to improve their performance through shareholder advocacy. Previously, Natasha was Vice President, Shareholder Advocacy and Corporate Engagement, and an Equity Analyst at Trillium Asset Management. Natasha has been profiled in Forbes and the Boston Globe, while her work has been featured in Rolling Stone, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times, as well as on NPR and CNN. In 2016, Natasha received the Upstart Business Journal Upstart 100 Award and the Aiming High Award from Legal Momentum for pioneering a shareholder campaign on gender pay equity. Her 2014 landmark negotiation with Exxon Mobil led to the company’s first public report on global warming and carbon asset risk. Natasha is a trustee of The Food Project and Chairman of the Crane Institute of Sustainability, host to the Intentionally Designed Endowments Network. She teaches sustainable investing at Pinchot University and holds an M.B.A in Sustainable Business from Pinchot. Natasha received her B.A. cum laude from Mount Holyoke College.
erica lasdon
Erica Lasdon is responsible for directing the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) research and analysis related to Calvert funds. She manages the ESG research process for Calvert’s equity and fixed income products and broader policy and research related to responsible investment and sustainability themes. Her specific expertise is in the materials, technology and extractives sectors and on issues relating to human rights, corporate governance and water. Prior to joining Calvert in 2005, Ms. Lasdon served as Deputy Director of Research for People for the American Way Foundation, where she published research on civil rights and civil liberties issues. She earned a BS in Biology and a BA in History from the University of California at San Diego.
sanford lewis
Sanford Lewis is an environmental attorney with 35 years of experience in environmental law and policy. His clients include institutional investors, social investment firms and nonprofit organizations. His practice is focused on shareholder proposals, shareholder rights and improving corporate environmental and social disclosure requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Lewis is the director of the Shareholder Rights Group http://shareholderrightsgroup.com and was co-author of “Fooling Investors and Fooling Themselves: How Aggressive Corporate Accounting and Asset Management Tactics Can Lead to Environmental Accounting Fraud.” He is also a documentary filmmaker. Mr. Lewis has a BS in Environmental Studies and Urban Communications from Cook College, Rutgers University, and a JD from the University of Michigan Law School.
luan jenifer
Luan Jenifer, Executive Vice President, joined Miller/Howard Investments in 2002. Luan has worked in the operations department since joining the firm. During her tenure she was promoted to Head Trader and then to Director of Operations and Shareholder Advocacy. Prior to joining the firm, her work experience included managing a local TV station, customer service, inventory control and data management for various businesses and non-profit organizations. She continues volunteer work for several community organizations in the Woodstock area. She received her Associate of Science degree from the State University of New York at Ulster in 1993.
conrad mackerron
Conrad MacKerron has more than a decade of experience managing corporate dialogues and shareholder advocacy initiatives on cutting-edge social and environmental issues. Conrad founded the As You Sow Corporate Social Responsibility Program in 1997. He is former senior social researcher at Piper Jaffray Philanthropic & Social Investment Consulting, and Social Research Director at Progressive Asset Management (both social investment firms). He also served as Senior Analyst, Energy and Environment, at the Investor Responsibility Research Center (now part of RiskMetrics Group). Formerly a journalist, he was Washington Bureau Chief for Chemical Week and a writer for BNA’s Environment Reporter. He is author of Business in the Rainforests: Corporations, Deforestation and Sustainability (IRRC, 1993) and Unlocking the Power of the Proxy (2004). Conrad served on the board of the Social Investment Forum (SIF), and was chair of the steering committee for its Advocacy and Public Policy Program. He also served on the As You Sow Board of Directors from 1993 until 2005. In 2007, he received the SRI Service Award from SIF for “outstanding contributions to the SRI community.” He holds a Masters Degree in Journalism and Public Affairs from The American University.
divya mankikar
Divya Mankikar is the Investment Manager for CalPERS’ Sustainable Investment team, and guides the firm’s work to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors across the total fund. CalPERS manages $350 billion across global equity, global fixed income, real assets and private equity invested in 47 markets. Divya joined CalPERS in 2015 with a decade of professional experience in sustainable investment. She was previously at Trucost in New York as the head of consulting to financial institutions in North America. Prior to Trucost, Divya worked for Patagonia Sur developing the first certified forest carbon project. Divya holds a BA and MA from Boston University in Energy and Environmental Analysis. In addition she has an International MBA with a concentration in finance from IE business school in Madrid, Spain, and an MA in Law and Diplomacy focused in human rights from Tufts University’s Fletcher School.
tom mccaney
Tom McCaney has been the Associate Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for the past twelve years. His areas of focus include domestic and global health issues, water, tobacco, corporate governance, farmworkers’ rights and food justice. In addition, he manages a portfolio of community development investments for the community. Previously, he managed emergency housing programs for The Salvation Army in Norristown and Chester, PA.
mary jane mcquillen
Mary Jane McQuillen is a Portfolio Manager and the Head of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investment Program at ClearBridge Investments. Mary Jane co-manages the ClearBridge Sustainability Leaders Strategy, as well as a number of other active equity ESG strategies, and is a member of the ClearBridge Proxy Committee. She has 20 years of investment industry experience. Mary Jane serves on the Board of Directors for the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute and the Sustainable Investments Institute. She is a member of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) Listed Equities Steering Committee and ESG Integration Sub-Committee, and the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Asset Management Working Group. Mary Jane received her MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School. She holds a BS in Finance from Fordham University.
donna meyer
Donna Meyer joined Mercy Investment Services as social responsibility consultant in 2012 and became director of shareholder advocacy in 2013; she provides advocacy services for the socially responsible investment program with a focus on health issues, including domestic health, global health, and nutrition. Donna served as a healthcare administrator for a number of years prior to becoming the CHRISTUS Health system leader for Community Health; in the latter position, she directed their socially responsible investment program. She also has provided SRI consulting services for Dignity Health and several other organizations and has an adjunct faculty appointment at the Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice, Department of Health Management and Policy. She served on the board of directors of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) from 2007 through 2013. She currently serves on the Texas Health Institute Board, the CHI Mission and Ministry Fund, the UT Conflict of Interest Committee. Donna has bachelor's with high distinction and master's degrees from the University of Minnesota and a PhD from the University of Texas School of Public Health.
brianna murphy
Brianna is a Vice President and member of Trillium’s Shareholder Advocacy team and joined Trillium in 2010. Brianna’s responsibilities include engaging companies on environmental, social, and governance issues and public policy advocacy. Prior to Trillium she was a Portfolio Administrator at US Bank in Trust Services. Brianna earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of New Hampshire and an ALM in Sustainability and Environmental Management from Harvard University Extension School. She previously served on Bentley University’s Sustainability Advisory Board and was Board Treasurer of the IGLTA Foundation.
michael passoff
Michael Passoff is the founder and CEO of Proxy Impact, a shareholder advocacy and proxy voting service for sustainable and responsible investors (SRIs). Michael has over 20 years of experience in corporate social responsibility, shareholder advocacy, and philanthropy. For more than a decade Michael served as the Senior Program Director for the As You Sow Foundation’s Corporate Social Responsibility Program. In 2005 he founded the Proxy Preview to alert foundations, SRIs, pension funds, labor, and faith-based communities to upcoming shareholder resolutions that are relevant to their mission. Michael has led and participated in more than 300 shareholder dialogues and resolutions on environmental, social and governance issues. His shareholder advocacy work led him to be named as one of 2009’s “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics” by Ethisphere Magazine and he also received the Climate Change Business Journal award for a shareholder campaign that prompted greenhouse gas emission reductions and renewable energy development at public utilities.
vaishnavi ravishankar
Vaishnavi Ravishankar manages corporate governance collaborative engagements and related projects at the PRI. She is currently coordinating engagements on cyber security and corporate tax responsibility. Prior to joining the PRI Vaishnavi worked for an Australian based ESG research service provider for over five years. She assessed the ESG performance of Australian and International companies, developed ESG position papers and thematic research papers for clients. She has a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Accounting and Finance from the Australian National University (ANU) and is working towards a Graduate Certificate of Law at the ANU.
Amina rubin
Amina Rubin tackles marketing, communications, and shareholder advocacy at Azzad Asset Management. She was half of the team that filed Azzad’s first shareholder proposal, which asked Chevron to evaluate the risk of its business partnerships with governments engaged in crimes against humanity, and is participating in an ongoing dialogue with Chevron on that topic. With a background in civil rights advocacy, Amina has a special appreciation for the impact of working for social and economic justice through investing and shareholder engagement. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.
leslie samuelrich
Leslie Samuelrich is President of Green Century Capital Management. Leslie focuses on the firm’s current and emerging investment strategies, business development, and impact investing program. She is a frequent speaker on impact, gender-lens, and environmentally sustainable investing. Prior to joining Green Century, Leslie served as the Chief of Staff at Corporate Accountability International and Executive Director of Green Corps. Leslie earned her BA in economics from Boston College and currently serves on the Board of Directors for US SIF, the membership association for professionals, firms, institutions and organizations engaged in sustainable, responsible, and impact investing, as well as the Advisory Board of the Intentional Endowments Network.
david schilling
David Schilling joined the staff at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) in 1994 and works with ICCR members and allies to engage corporations, cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder initiatives on human rights in corporate operations and supply chains. He has participated in delegations to a number of countries visiting factories and meeting with workers and NGOs. For the past ten years, David has provided staff leadership for initiatives to counter human trafficking and modern slavery. He is part of the ICCR team building the new Investor Alliance for Human Rights. David is coordinator of ICCR‘s Bangladesh Investor Initiative, a global collaboration in support of the Accord for Fire and Building Safety; member, Steering Committee of the Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment; member, Advisory Group of the newly formed Responsible Labor Initiative of the Responsible Business Alliance and former chair, Advisory Board, Global Social Compliance Program.
dan seligman
Dan leads Ceres’ efforts to secure commitments from 25 large companies to double the amount of value they generate from each unit of energy by 2030. Dan has a track record of winning advances in energy conservation and environmental protection for leading organizations such as the Maryland Energy Administration, the United Nations Foundation/Energy Future Coalition, and the Sierra Club. Among other achievements, Dan brought data-driven energy efficiency services to Maryland's commercial utility customers, wrote the landmark Green Jobs Act of 2007, and championed trade rules aligned with forest, wildlife, and climate protection. He has led campaigns uniting business, labor, and environmental groups, testified before Congress, and been cited in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and other major news outlets. He has also published studies on energy analytics and clean-energy economic development.
anne sheehan
Anne Sheehan is the Director of Corporate Governance for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the largest teacher’s public pension fund in the USA, where she is responsible for overseeing all corporate governance activities for the fund including proxy voting, company engagements and managing $4 billion placed with activists managers and sustainability managers. Prior to that, she served as Chief Deputy Director for Policy at the California Department of Finance. During her tenure at Finance, Ms. Sheehan served on both the CalSTRS and CalPERS Boards as well as serving as the Executive Director of the Governor’s Post-Employment Benefits Commission. Ms. Sheehan served two terms as the Chair of the Council of Institutional Investors, is a member of the SEC Investor Advisory Committee, the NASDAQ Listing Council, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. Ms. Sheehan was named one of the 100 most influential people on corporate governance by Directorship magazine in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
tim smith
Tim Smith serves as the Director of ESG Shareowner Engagement at Walden Asset Management, a division of Boston Trust & Investment Management Company. Walden has been a leader in sustainable and responsible investing (SRI) since 1975. As of June 30, 2015, Walden managed approximately $2.7 billion in assets for individual and institutional clients. Mr. Smith joined Walden in 2000 to lead Walden’s ongoing shareholder engagement program to promote greater corporate leadership on ESG issues. This includes company dialogues, shareholder proposals, proxy voting, and public policy advocacy. One of Walden’s priority issues is Board diversity pursued through letters, company dialogues, shareholder resolution and proxy voting. Previously, Mr. Smith served as executive director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) for 24 years.
nanya springer
Nanya Springer is associate director of the Center for Political Accountability and is responsible for working with our shareholder partners, engaging the corporate community, and overseeing research projects including the annual CPA-Zicklin Index of Corporate Political Disclosure and Accountability. She brings over a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector and is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the University of Illinois College of Law.
winston vaughan
Winston works with investors and companies to increase corporate adoption of clean energy and advocate for clean energy solutions to utilities and policymakers. Prior to Ceres, Winston worked to educate and mobilize public support to pass major state legislation to promote clean energy and tackle climate change, including California’s Zero Emissions Vehicles regulations, “Million Solar Roofs Initiative” and “Global Warming Solutions Act". In 2007, Winston lead a statewide organizing initiative which helped pass a comprehensive climate law in Massachusetts. Winston has also worked on and managed several successful state and national political campaigns. Most recently, Winston has worked with several residential energy efficiency and solar companies, helping them apply grassroots campaign approaches to growing their business and reach customers.
rosanna landis weaver
Rosanna Landis Weaver has been working in the governance and compensation fields since 1992. She began her work in governance with a position in the Corporate Affairs office at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, supervising research on corporate governance and management practices. She joined the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) in 1999 and served as an expert on labor shareholder activism, writing reports on labor fund activism, executive compensation shareholder proposals and golden parachutes. At Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), she worked on the executive compensation team as a senior analyst until 2010, with a particular focus on change of control packages, and analyzed “say on pay” resolutions. From 2010 to 2012 she was governance initiatives coordinator at Change to Win. Ms. Weaver holds a BA in English from Goshen College and a Masters in American Studies from the University of Notre Dame.
heidi welsh
Heidi Welsh, the founding executive director of the Sustainable Investments Institute (Si2), has analyzed corporate responsibility issues for 30 years. Starting at the Investor Responsibility Research Center in 1987, she provided detailed coverage of shareholder advocacy and monitored corporate compliance with a fair employment code in Northern Ireland for 16 years. In addition, she co-authored CDP’s S&P 500 report in 2007, headed up sustainability research within a unit of what is now MSCI, and consulted on Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. Welsh is the lead author of three Si2 studies about corporate political activity governance and spending. She received her B.A. from Carleton College, cum laude, and an M.S. from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.
austin wilson
Austin Wilson oversees the Environmental Health Program at As You Sow, drawing on diverse experience in sustainable business to advance corporate responsibility, particularly in food and agriculture. He has led shareholder efforts to address antibiotic use policies across the restaurant sector and serves on antibiotics advisory boards for Fortune 1000 companies. Austin previously served as Research Associate and Network Coordinator at the Responsibility Hospitality Institute, helping cities responsibly grow the nighttime economy. He graduated magna cum laude from UC Santa Cruz with undergraduate degrees in Combined Mathematics/Economics and Politics.
aaron john ziulkowski
Aaron manages Boston Trust and Walden’s ESG integration effort, including the development and refinement of integration tools and methodologies utilized by all investment strategies across the firm. He is responsible for assessing the ESG performance of existing and potential portfolio companies, and works on shareholder engagement initiatives related to a wide range of sustainability issues. He is a member of the Securities Research and ESG Research & Engagement Committees, and contributes to traditional securities research. Prior to joining the firm in 2013, Aaron worked at Ceres where he was responsible for multi-stakeholder dialogues with companies in the energy, technology, and transportation sectors. Before joining Ceres, he worked for Pact, Inc., where he was responsible for helping build a program focused on responsible business practices in developing countries. Among other efforts, he helped develop a program addressing conflict minerals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Aaron earned a BA, magna cum laude, from Westmont College and an MA in Latin American Studies from the George Washington University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation, and is a member of the CFA Society Boston and the CFA Institute. Aaron is also a member of the investment committee of the Mennonite Education Agency.