Presenting at Introduction to ESG, Sustainable & Impact Investment One–Day Training
The How & Why of Applying ESG to Corporate Valuations
Hosted by Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College/CUNY on June 15th
Introduction:  For professionals in the capital markets, and in the corporate sector, G&A Institute and Global Change Associates are teamed to present a one-day professional training program, hosted by Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College/CUNY, in midtown Manhattan.  This is an excellent introduction to the application of ESG factors to investment making decisions and corporate valuations.  Find out more at https://intro2esg.eventbrite.com
ESG = the corporate environmental, social or societal and corporate governance factors to be evaluated by the financial analyst, asset owner, asset manager, and others in the capital markets in looking beyond the financial in selecting public companies for “buy/sell/hold” portfolio management decisions. (This is also referred to as “sustainable investing,” “impact investing,” and similar titles by practitioners.)
The outstanding faculty presenting during the one-day course will include experts in ESG / sustainable / impact investing, covering topics such as best practices; data sources; analytical tools; research resources; methodologies; why ESG matters; and realized outcomes using these approaches to analysis and investment management.
MEET ONE OF YOUR COURSE LEADERS
Bahar Gidwani
Co-Founder / Chief Executive Officer, CSRHub
TOPIC: Bridging the Gap: Sustainability vs. Profitability

A conversation with Bahar:
Q:  How is your day-to-day work related to the Intro to ESG, Sustainable & Impact Investment Certificate Program to be presented at Baruch?
[BG] We support around 15,000 CSR professionals, more than half of whom are located outside North America.  Our users include sustainability managers, consultant/accountants/lawyers and investment advisors, academics, not-for-profit organizations, journalists, and activists.  We provide these users with aggregated sustainability ratings on more than 17,000 entities—public companies, private companies, government agencies, and not-for-profits.  Most of our users do not have formal training in sustainability.  They have had to learn the contents of your program through experience (and probably by making a fair number of preventable mistakes!).  I believe it will be helpful for your course participants to get a systematic and comprehensive understanding of ESG metrics.
Q:  What can attendees expect to learn from your session?
[BG]  There has been a perception that corporate sustainability is not directly related to corporate profitability.  We have done research that we believe shows there is a relationship between various aspects of sustainability and important drivers of business success.  We will show some of the reasons we believe these relationships have not yet been fully appreciated — and show where further research could be done in the future.  However, there is no direct evidence that ESG factors drive stock market performance.  I would hope to make this distinction clear.
What advice do you have or opportunity that you see for attendees who complete the Certificate Program?
[BG]  There is no clear career path yet for sustainability professionals.  While people talk about “Chief Sustainability Officer” roles—very few of them exist in the US.  So, sustainability professionals should be open to incorporating the tools they get from the program into general business practice.  Being aware of sustainability opportunities should help them advance their careers towards analyst and portfolio manager positions.  Once in these positions, they should be able to influence others in investment groups to share their interest in sustainability practice and bring its benefits into their organizations.
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CAREER BACKGROUND: BAHAR GIDWANI
Bahar is Chief Executive Officer of CSRHub, co-founded by him in 2007.  The organization provides CSR and sustainability metrics to corporate managers, professionals and researchers.  These metrics are used to manage ESG, employment and community issues.  There are more than 17,000 companies monitored by CSRHub and the “big data” results are sourced from more than 500 organizations.
Before founding CSRHub, Bahar was CEO of Sonobyte Podcasting Voiceover Services; CEO of Index Stock Imagery; and Vice President, Kidder Peabody & Company.
Bahar holds the MBA-Marketing from Harvard Business School (where he was a Baker Scholar); and a B.A.- Astronomy and Physics from Amherst College.  He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designations (securities analysis) from the CFA Institute (Levels I and II); also, the FSA designation from the Financial and Sustainability Initiative organization.  He is trained in Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting.
For more information about the course and how to register, visit: https://intro2esg.eventbrite.com