InvestmentNews ESG & Impact Forum Announces First Speakers and Opens Registration

Media Contact: Theresa Gralinski, Director of Marketing and Communications InvestmentNews
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 847-807-4494

InvestmentNews, in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP), announced the first speakers of, and opened registration to, the inaugural ESG & Impact Forum on Dec. 5, 2019, in New York City at the United Nations Headquarters. The event will kick off with the ESG & Impact Forum Film Festival and cocktail reception the evening of Dec. 4, at Helen Mills Theater.

The agenda will cover the latest trends, concepts and products in ESG, sustainable and impact investing presented by industry thought leaders, including:

1. Steve Distante, CEO, Vanderbilt Financial Group
2. Jon Hale, Head of Sustainability Research, Morningstar
3. Jennifer Kenning, CEO and co-founder, Align Impact
4. Andrew Lee, Head of Sustainable and Impact Investing Americas, UBS Global Wealth Management
5. Robert G. Smith, Chief Investment Officer, Sage Advisory

The ESG & Impact Forum will provide financial advisers, wealth managers, chief investment officers, fund selectors and due diligence officers with strategies for aligning their clients’ social and investing goals. Attendees will also get the opportunity to network and make connections with others in the financial advice industry who are passionate about managing, recommending, advancing or learning about ESG, sustainable and impact investing.
“Aligning social and investing goals is becoming an increasingly important part of the financial advice industry,” said InvestmentNews Editorial Director, Frederick P. Gabriel Jr. “InvestmentNews’ research shows that, overall, usage of ESG investing strategies is up 25%, year over year, and that the trend is particularly important to millennial, female and high-net-worth investors.”

The ESG & Impact Forum Film Festival will premier 10 short documentaries highlighting some of the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which address social and economic challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice.

“InvestmentNews went on a yearlong search for stories of impact to inspire and celebrate the change we hope to see in the world,” said InvestmentNews Director of Multimedia, Matt Ackermann. “Each story will be selected from our exhaustive global search of 500 films submitted from six continents. In the end, the goal is to help financial advisers, and the industry as a whole, truly understand the power of ESG and impact investing.”

“To achieve the goals by 2030, we need all sectors contributing and working together, which is why we are so pleased to be working with InvestmentNews to bring investors to the U.N.,” said UNOP Executive Director, Robert Skinner. Kicking off the ESG & Impact Forum with films featuring investments that make a real difference will inspire the conversations that follow.  The need for impact investing around the SDGs is real, and this event will provide concrete examples of how it’s done and why it matters.”

To register for the 2019 InvestmentNews ESG & Impact Forum or for more information, go to InvestmentNews.com/ESGImpact.

To learn more about the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, go to sustainabledevelopment.un.org.

About InvestmentNews

InvestmentNews is the leading source for news, analysis and information essential to the financial advisory community. Since 1998, our standard of editorial excellence and deep industry knowledge has allowed us to educate, inform and engage the most influential financial advisers. Through our weekly newspaper, website, newsletters, research, live events, videos and webcasts, InvestmentNews provides exclusive and up-to-the-minute news, as well as actionable intelligence, that empowers financial advisers to serve their clients and run their businesses more effectively whenever, however and wherever they need it. InvestmentNews’ headquarters is located in New York, with offices in Chicago and Washington D.C. InvestmentNews is part of London-based Bonhill Group plc.

About the United Nation’s Division for Sustainable Development Goals:

The Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) acts as the secretariat for the SDGs, providing substantive support and capacity-building for the goals and their related thematic issues, including water, energy, climate, oceans, urbanization, transport, science and technology, the Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR), partnerships and Small Island Developing States. DSDG plays a key role in the evaluation of UN systemwide implementation of the 2030 Agenda and on advocacy and outreach activities relating to the SDGs.