Good Future

My guest today is Phineas Glover. He’s head of ESG Equity Research for Asia Pacific, at Credit Suisse. He’s a leading source of up to date information on the environmental and social issues that are having material financial impacts on companies. It’s no longer just about earnings, or profit margins; the world’s biggest investors are now playing close attention to issues and themes beyond just the...

On the show today I have Alister Coleman, he’s founder and Managing Partner of Folklore Ventures, they just rebranded, their focus is on helping founders launch exciting new ideas, and shepherding them towards becoming Folklore. Before diving into VC, Alister was a founder himself, doing the hard-yards to launch, build and eventually sell a software business. He knows well the commitment it takes,...

It’s exciting to have reached episode 71 of the Good Future podcast, and, it’s a pleasure to welcome back Andy Kuper, who was a guest in the early days of the show. Andy is of course the founder and CEO of Leapfrog, a global private equity firm focussed squarely on having a positive impact in fast growing economies. The need to divert capital towards high-impact investments has only grown in the w...

Today’s guest is Andrew Gray, he’s Director of ESG and Stewardship at AustralianSuper, which is the country’s largest superannuation fund. And while the fund manages people’s nest-eggs, they have the challenging role of planning long into the future. Sustainability isn’t optional to them, sustainability is about long-term thinking, and avoiding risks, to try and make sure retirement is comfortable...

Amid the corona virus crisis, charities saw a dramatic decrease in donations at a time their services were needed the most. My guest today is Paul Ronalds, he’s the CEO of Save the Children Australia, and he knows this challenge well. He’s long been an advocate for charities to evolve, and adapt to a new funding environment. It’s one reason his organisation has launched a pioneering Impact investm...

How can we influence big, public companies to think more long-term, and be better corporate citizens. Well, today I’m joined by Brynn O’Brien to answer just that question, she is Executive Director of the ACCR, the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility. The ACCR is a research and advocacy organisation that engages with companies on managing a whole range of issues; like climate, labour,...

Today we’re talking about Green Bonds, with Stephen Fitzgerald. Stephen is the founder of Affirmative Investment Management, a specialist firm that manages only impact bonds. Their pure-play approach makes Green Bonds, Social bonds and sustainability bonds available to more investors. Stephen has a lot of insights to share, from the early days of his career at Goldman Sachs to his roles with QBE,...

My guest today is Eric Rice, and in his role as Head of active equities Impact Investing, at Blackrock, he’s working to bring the rigour of impact investing to public markets. Blackrock is the world’s largest fund manager, they have more than $7 trillion of assets under management, so the potential to scale impact is massive. But, there are big questions around whether public companies can be held...

My guest today is Ben Thornley, he’s co-founder and Managing Partner of Tideline, a specialist consultancy for the impact investment industry. Ben works with the firm’s long list of clients to integrate impact and sustainability into various stages of the investment process. And they’ve recently spun-out a stand-alone business called BlueMark, which provides third-party impact verification service...

Matt Whineray is CEO of the New Zealand Super Fund, and the co-chair of the Sustainable Finance Forum. In this conversation we dug into what makes the NZ super and pension system unique, as well as how the organisation integrates sustainability. And, it’s a public fund, it’s a government body, and I wanted to know how the increasingly politicised issues of climate change and pollution are managed...

My guest today is Amit Bouri, he was one of the founders of the Global Impact Investment Network (known as the GIIN) back in 2009. Today, he’s the CEO, and he not only manages this key global institution, but he’s also steered the global direction of the field of impact investment. This was a radical new concept a mere ten years ago, the idea of investors measuring their social impact as closely a...

Jacqueline Novogratz is leading a moral revolution. She left a successful career in banking in New York when she was 25 to head to Rwanda with hopes of launching a microfinance fund. It didn’t go quite as planned, but she persevered. Along the way she worked for the World Bank and for Unicef, she founded leadership programs at the Rockefeller Foundation, and then in 2001 she founded Acumen. A not...

On the show today I have William Wu, he’s portfolio manager at Melior Investment Management, he teaches courses in sustainable investing at UNSW and he advises on boards of purpose-led businesses. Will and I have had some great conversations in the past, and it was a pleasure to take it further today. We discussed how you can have an impact when investing in public markets, how ESG is evolving and...

Michael O’Leary was part of the team that founded BainCapital’s DoubleImpact fund, he’s been flying the flag for the evolution of finance for many years, and he’s published a book it’s called Accountable: The rise of Citizen Capitalism. Michael’s book manages the difficult task of talking about the new world of capitalism without being preachy. He brings together the nature and stories of the worl...

My guest this week is Sir Ronald Cohen. Ronnie has been a venture capitalist, private equity investor, and leader of the global impact investing revolution. He was co-founder and Executive Chairman of Apax Partners, And today, he’s the Chairman of the Global Steering Group on Impact Investing (GSG) which followed the G8 Social Impact Investment Task Force. He’s Chairman and co-Founder of The Portl...

Rachel Etherington is a committed advocate for sustainable investing, she understands impact, ESG and the SDGs, but she’s also enthusiastic. Rachel is a specialist financial advisor at Crestone, she helps her clients manage their wealth inline with their values, but that’s only half the story. She’s on the board of the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, and she’s on the board of Fut...

Michael Traill is one of the founding-heroes of impact investing in Australia. He led a pioneering finance deal in 2009 which bought out the assets of the struggling child-care company ABC Learning. He revived the business as Goodstart Early learning, which remains Australia’s biggest child-care centre group. And a foundational story of impact investing in Australia. Since then the sector has grow...

I have Viktor Shvets on the show today. He not only runs Macquarie Bank’s office in Hong Kong, but he’s also written a book. It’s called “The Great Rupture: Three Empires, Four Turning Points, and the Future of Humanity”, it’s an impressive read, it pulls together history, economics, geo-politics and psychology to try and map how the mis-steps of key empires, in the past, can help us prepare for a...

I have the co-directors of the Yunus Centre at Griffith University on the show today. Ingrid Burkett and Alex Hannant have published a paper called Roadmap to Recovery and Regeneration, it recognises that right now is a pivotal moment for renewal. Ingrid Burkett has a masters in business and she’s a graphic designer. She uses design-thinking to drive innovation and entrepreneurialism across all as...

John Elkington has been at the forefront of environmental research, advocacy and writing since the 70’s. He launched a consulting company called SustainAbility, long before the term had become the buzzword that it is today. He’s a writer, a speaker, and a provocateur. A lot of his work has been in corporate sustainability, helping companies adapt and innovate amid environmental and social change....

There’s plenty of uncertainty in the world right now, but optimism is returning. We’ve got a battered economy, and lots of people out of work, but for impact investors, that’s an opportunity. It’s a chance to build-back better. The Responsible Investment Association of Australasia, aka RIAA, have just released their Benchmarking Impact report for 2020. So I’ve managed to wrangle the CEO, Simon O’C...

Bronwyn King is not a fund manager, she’s a doctor. Nonetheless she’s led a personal crusade to help the finance industry to wise up about the true impacts of investing in smoking. And as of last year her team were responsible for getting a massive $1.3 trillion in pension dollars to be invested under tobacco-free policies. Cigarettes kill millions of people every year. And the unfortunate truth i...

I’ve wanted to have Phil Vernon on the show ever since I started this podcast. Phil was CEO of Australian Ethical investments for ten years before he stood-down last year. Australian Ethical has been hugely influential in the responsible investment industry, through leading the discussion on how to invest ethically, while also offering a superannuation option that makes you money for your retireme...

Remy Briand is head of ESG at MSCI. It’s one of the world’s leading stock market index providers and they assess more than 7,500 companies on their ESG performance. Remy lives in Geneva and he’s an outspoken advocate for the importance of considering environmental, social and governance factors when making investment decisions. In the world of responsible investing, there’s one data point that’s q...

Roger Montgomery is one of Australia’s leading fund managers, he’s an author, a regular economic commentator and he’s been watching the corona virus situation unfold… long before it hit the headlines. He’s the founder and CEO of Montgomery Investment Management, he manages money for individuals and families, and it’s great to get a chance to speak to him as we watch financial markets go through a...