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In this episode, Bill interviews Gabe Rissman from your YourStake.
Gabe is the president of YourStake. Gabe’s background in data science comes from studying computational astrophysics at Yale, with his thesis focus on dark matter. He has experience on the ESG Desk of Rockefeller & Co., as well as at the Connecticut Green Bank. Gabe currently sits on the board of the Intentional Endowments Network.
Patrick, the CEO of YourStake, has a background in data science that comes from studying econometrics at Yale, where he focused his thesis work on climate-economic modeling, under Nobel-prize winning Nordhaus. He has published academically in sustainable finance and has experience within renewable energy finance.
- Stake’s founders got started in this space because they care about climate change. Gabe, was looking to make a difference, and realized his student investment club invested in one of these polluting oil companies, Exxon.This ownership stake meant the student club had rights as shareholders to present a Petition at Exxon’s annual shareholder meeting, in Texas.
- Some of the largest polluting companies actively prevent societies from acting, by buying lobbyists, spreading misinformation, and fighting innovation.
- As a stock owner, you are responsible for a share of a company’s activities.
- Below is one of the displays from YourStake.org – a metaphor display. It show, in very tangible terms, the impact of your investments.
- On the positive side, if you own portions of companies that have more women in management or companies that are producing clean energy then you are responsible for some good things happening as a part-owner of those activities.
- YourStake makes a very concrete report on what the impact is over a period of time for a given number of investments.
- If there is an issue that is important to a client, they have access to really dig into it.
- Individuals can see petitions through their financial advisors.
- Advisors use their leverage to push companies.
- Clients and advisors like comparing their existing portfolio or a benchmark to “how can I make it better to an ESG portfolio?”
- The following image shows a display from YourStake comparing two portfolios or two funds. It shows how they compare on various issues.
- Essentially, we are scooting values up the chain so clients can express their values through preferences and advisors can demonstrate the portfolios in alignment with the values.
- The advisor, as the intermediary, has so much power and can create so much value by communicating with the client and communicating with fund managers about what you need to see.
- YourStake has a tool to screen investments based on the values that are most important to a client.
To get more information about YourStake, you can visit: YourStake.org or contact Gabe at: gabe@yourstake.org