This session will bring together higher education stakeholders, professionals that work with institutional investors, and alumni interested in engaging with their alma maters, in a facilitated networking exercise that utilizes inspiring stories to spur individual and collective action through corporate engagement.
When exploring how to finance the just transition, the half trillion dollars in endowment funds invested by the nation’s higher education institutions represent a relatively untapped resource. Within these endowment funds, there is immense opportunity to create impact through shareholder engagement in public equity investments, especially in relation to justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and the interrelated climate crisis.
In this session, you will hear from higher education stakeholders including students, faculty, and endowment staff, as well as industry professionals, as they discuss how, through working with their institution’s endowment, utilizing student-managed investment funds, and participating in extracurricular activities, they are impacting corporate behavior through shareholder engagement.
After each speaker, in less than five minutes, shares an inspiring shareholder engagement case study (including implementing proxy voting guidelines, filing shareholder resolutions, and participating in student curriculum and a challenge focused on engagement), participants will break out into small group discussions to dive into the case study topic of their choice. The speaker on each topic will join the corresponding group discussion, and guide participants through specific questions and discussion prompts.
Participants will come back together for a group report back, and the session will close with both individual and group action planning, ensuring that all attendees leave with concrete next steps and resources to move forward. Additionally, if attendees opt-in, IEN will follow-up after the session to see what progress has been made and how else the Network may be supportive of accelerating corporate engagement work.
