Pursuing Financial Sustainability

Andrew Karolyi is the Charles Field Knight Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. He is a Professor of Finance and International Business as well as holder of the Harold Bierman Jr. Distinguished Professorship in the Johnson Graduate School of Management. Dr. Karolyi is also a Professor of Economics in Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences.

A scholar in the area of investment management, with a specialization in the study of international financial markets, Dr. Karolyi has published extensively in journals in finance and economics, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. He has also published several books and monographs, and his research is featured in print and electronic media such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, Time, New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and CNBC. Dr. Karolyi recently completed a four-year term as executive editor of the Review of Financial Studies, one of the top-tier journals in finance. He has also served as an associate editor for a variety of journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Review of Finance, and the Pacific Basin Finance Journal.

Dr. Karolyi is a recipient of the Michael Jensen Prize for Corporate Finance and Organizations (2017), the Fama/DFA Prize for Capital Markets and Asset Pricing (2005), the William F. Sharpe Award for Scholarship in Finance (2001), the Journal of Empirical Finance’s Biennial Best Paper Prize (2006), and Johnson School’s Prize for Excellence in Research (2010). Dr. Karolyi leads various executive education programs in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, and he is actively involved in consulting with corporations, banks, investment firms, stock exchanges, and law firms. He is president-elect/program chair of the Western Finance Association, has served as a director of the American Finance Association, and is past chairperson of the board of trustees and past president of the Financial Management Association International. Dr. Karolyi received his B.A. (Honors) in Economics from McGill University and worked at the Bank of Canada for several years in its research department. He subsequently earned his MBA and Ph.D. degrees in Finance at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago.

Jay Pierrepont is the President of Asset Management at Equilibrium. An accomplished practitioner of institutional capital raising, fund management, and agricultural and infrastructure investing, Jay is responsible for Equilibrium’s investment strategies and operations, creating a platform of sustainable investment strategies in sectors impacted by resource constraints and sustainability, and developing products linked to global capital markets. He also serves on the management and investment committees for Equilibrium’s proprietary strategies, Controlled Environment Food Fund, LLC and the Wastewater Opportunity Fund, LLC, which are vertically integrated investor-operators in the primary areas of food, water, wastewater, distributed energy, and anaerobic biodigesters. Before joining Equilibrium, Jay helped found Pantheon, one of the first global private equity and real asset funds. Jay has a BS from Cornell University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

John Tobin-de la Puente is a Professor of Practice at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. He is also Director of the CEMS international MBA program as well as the Director of the Grand Challenges at Dyson program. Professor Tobin is an ecologist and attorney with over two decades of private sector experience, having worked in the international finance industry for much of his career.

Following a decade of corporate legal practice in the area of emerging markets finance, while actively providing counsel on environmental conservation matters on a pro bono basis, Professor Tobin turned his full attention toward the growing area of corporate sustainability, becoming Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainability at Credit Suisse. In this position, he pioneered a variety of initiatives and policies aimed at setting the finance industry on a more sustainable course.

In 2016, Professor Tobin transitioned into a faculty position at Cornell University, where he teaches corporate sustainability, environmental and social risk management, impact investing, environmental finance, and related topics to undergraduates and graduate students in business and public affairs. His research focuses on the use of financial tools to generate positive outcomes in the areas of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation.

In addition, Professor Tobin actively engages with industry and civil society to develop financial solutions to sustainability problems, including as co-founder of the Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation (CPIC). Professor Tobin has extensive leadership and governance experience in not-for-profit entities at the board level, particularly in the areas of environment, science, and education.

Vicki Bogan is Associate Professor of Finance in the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University.  She is the Founder and Director of Cornell’s Institute for Behavioral and Household Finance, which studies investment decision-making behavior with the goal of shedding light on how to better model observed financial behavior and inform policies and regulation related to consumer finance. Dr. Bogan is also a founding co-editor of the journal Financial Planning Review. Her current research focuses on household finance, behavioral finance, and applied microeconomics, with a particular focus on questions at the intersection of household financial decision making and health issues. Dr. Bogan has a Ph.D. in economics from Brown University, an MBA in finance and strategic management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and an Sc.B. in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Brown University. She is the recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and a two-time recipient of the Cornell Outstanding Educator Award.