Date: 11th March 2025 Time: 6:30 - 8:00pm GMT
Venue: LSE
Introductions: Lord Nicholas Stern (Grantham Research Institute & LSE Economics) and Amil Dasgupta (LSE Finance & Financial Markets Group)
Keynote Speaker: Dirk Jenter (LSE Finance & Financial Markets Group)
Panellists: Katherine Davidson (Baillie Gifford) and Ben Yeoh (RBC Global Asset Management)
Chair: Tom Gosling (Financial Markets Group & LSE Law School)
Financing a Sustainable Future
LSE’s Global School of Sustainability Announces Launch of an Initiative in Sustainable Finance
This event is the launch of an Initiative in Sustainable Finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science, introduced by Professor Lord Nicholas Stern and Professor Amil Dasgupta, which is being established under the new LSE Global School of Sustainability.
To celebrate the launch there will be a keynote lecture from Dirk Jenter, Professor of Finance at LSE, on the paper Sustainable Investing: Evidence from the Field, which won the UN PRI Best Academic Paper award 2024. A practitioner discussion of the paper and audience Q&A will be facilitated by Tom Gosling, Professor in Practice and the recently appointed Director of the Initiative.
Photographs and a video recording of this event will be available shortly.
About the Global School of Sustainability and the theme 'Creating sustainable finance and business’ at LSE
A transformative donation by alumnus Lei Zhang is supporting LSE to establish a Global School of Sustainability. This will draw together capability from across LSE to become a centre of expertise, informing policy, helping to rapidly and equitably create the economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protections crucial to ensuring a sustainable future, while convening global experts and training the future generation of leaders. You can read more about the Global School of Sustainability here.
One objective of the Global School of Sustainability is to pioneer innovative research addressing five key challenges for policymakers: generating sustainable growth and development; creating sustainable finance and business; mobilising political, legal and governance systems; transforming behaviours; and protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity. By establishing an Initiative in Sustainable Finance, LSE is mobilising the School’s capability around the second of these themes.
Amil Dasgupta is Professor of Finance and Director of the Financial Markets Group at LSE. He is Academic Director of the Sustainable Finance Initiative within the Global School of Sustainability. Amil has a distinguished research track record in the areas of financial markets, institutional investors, and corporate governance and regularly publishes in top academic journals. He is a Research Member at the European Corporate Governance Institute, research advisor to the Reserve Bank of India, and academic visitor to the Bank of England.
Katherine Davidson is an investment manager for the Baillie Gifford Sustainable Growth strategy and contributes to the firm’s sustainability activities more broadly. Prior to that she was a portfolio manager in global equities at Schroders for 14 years, where she played a key role in establishing that firm’s sustainability strategy and fund range. Since moving to Scotland, Katherine has been burnishing her sustainability credentials by refurbishing a 200yr-old house to modern energy standards.
Tom Gosling is Professor in Practice at Financial Markets Group and Director of the Sustainable Finance theme within the Global School of Sustainability. He is also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the LSE Law School, an Executive Fellow at the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and an Executive Fellow at London Business School. Tom retired from the PwC partnership in June 2020 to pursue a portfolio career and I use my academic and business experience to pursue this aim.
Dirk Jenter is a Professor of Finance at the London School of Economics and was previously on the faculty of Stanford University and MIT. He is a CEPR Research Fellow and ECGI Research Member. Professor Jenter's research focuses on selecting and compensating top executives, corporate governance, mergers & acquisitions, and all interactions of firms with capital markets. His work has been published in top academic journals and has been featured in the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Financial Executive Magazine, Smart Money, and on CNN.
Professor Lord Nicholas Stern is the IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute and the Global School of Sustainability and Head of the India Observatory at the at LSE. He was the President of the British Academy (2013 – 2017) and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014. He was Chief Economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1994-1999, and Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank, 2000-2003. He was knighted for services to economics in 2004 and appointed Companion of Honour for services to economics, international relations and tackling climate change in 2017. He has published more than 15 books and 100 articles and his most recent book is “Why are We Waiting? The Logic, Urgency and Promise of Tackling Climate Change”.
Ben Yeoh is a senior portfolio manager in Global Equities at RBC Global Asset Management, where he is both a healthcare and sustainability expert. He also chairs the Royal London Asset Management Responsible Investment Committee and wrote the course and textbook for the CFA ESG Certificate. Ben is also a playwright, performance artist, and prolific arranger of social networking opportunities.
