Marquette Business Continues to Lead in Sustainable Finance and Investment Education (Marquette Business)

https://medium.com/@MUBusiness/marquette-business-continues-to-lead-in-sustainable-finance-and-investment-education-c5280cc7345b

“Sustainable finance and investing are taking off- and the world’s top business schools are climbing on board” — Wall Street Journal, 6/10/2019

An article in the Wall Street Journal recently declared that sustainable finance and investment education is making its way into higher education curriculum. But at Marquette, that change happened over a decade ago.

In the 2005-2006 academic year, Dr. Sarah Peck developed and taught the course Investment Ethics. Dedicated to understanding the central role that ethical concepts and consequences play in the practice of finance and specifically investments,this course was one of the first of its kind across the country. Taken up and taught by Dr. David Krause, director of the Applied Investment Management program thereafter, the course eventually landed in the capable hands of Dr. Christopher Merker, Instructor of Practice for Marquette University who has taught the course since 2009.

The Dawn of Asset Owner Governance Measurement

Well, it’s here. After five years of research, over five thousand documents of public pension plan meeting minutes analyzed and culled for data, over 2,500 legal cases examined, hundreds of human hours spent researching, analyzing and modeling, 43 hours of course work, four research analysts working part-time over 2.5 years, one review committee of six experts from governance, finance, law, psychology, economics and philosophy, we did it. We can now measure the governance of asset owners (pensions, endowments, foundations and other dedicated funds). What’s more is not only can we measure governance, but we can relate this to – and even, in part, predict – investment returns, bond yield spreads and funding ratios, specifically as it relates to pensions.

In many ways, our industry is at an inflection point. We will either adapt successfully or become less relevant. As we seek to fulfill our mission of leading the investment profession, we have an opportunity to demonstrate to the broader investment community our understanding of the key issues and help shape the dialogue going forward. – Paul Smith, CEO, CFA Institute

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