Our mission
The timing of a new firm
The Inflection Point team
Our investment thesis
Our sustainability research process
Key differentiators
Market drivers
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Our mission |
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The Inflection Point Capital Management team |
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Dr Matthew J. Kiernan Dr Kiernan is founder and Chief Executive of Inflection Point Capital Management. In 1992, he had founded Innovest Strategic Value Advisors (“Innovest”), the #1-rated firm in the world in sustainable investment research, where he also served as Chief Executive. While leading Innovest, Dr Kiernan was instrumental in both the design and implementation of a number of innovative, “sustainability-enhanced” investment products – across a number of different asset classes and geographies. Those products included a number of world “firsts”, including: emerging markets sustainability fund, climate risk-adjusted bond index, “green” listed REIT index. Clients of Innovest included leading international institutional investors, including CalPERS, CalSTRS, APG, USS, PGGM, and the Norwegian Government Pension Fund. He holds a Master’s in Environmental Studies, and earned a PhD in Strategic Environmental Management from the London School of Economics in 1982. After co-founding a strategy consulting firm which he later sold to KPMG Peat Marwick, Dr Kiernan became a senior partner there. From 1990 to 1992, he was director of the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Geneva, and acted as a senior advisor to Secretary General of the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. He has taught sustainable finance in executive programs at the Wharton School, Columbia, Stanford, London Business School, and Oxford, and is currently a guest faculty member at Cambridge University, in HRH The Prince of Wales’ executive program in sustainability. In 2007, he was given a special executive award by the United Nations Environment Program’s Finance Initiative, for innovations and contributions in the field of carbon finance. He is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Environmental Investing, and of the advisory board of the Responsible Investment Academy in Sydney. His new book, Investing in a Sustainable World, is distributed internationally by McGraw-Hill. |
Investment team |
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Mr Andy White Mr White was previously with Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, where he also served as global Managing Director of Research. In that capacity, he was instrumental in building and leading the research team which was consistently as rated #1 in the world. During his six years at Innovest, he also led in the creation of a number of new investment products and tools, working with such leading asset managers as HSBC, RCM Allianz Dresdner, and Hermes. In addition, he led several ground-breaking advisory assignments, including the one which created the Access to Medicines Index of global pharmaceutical companies. He also was instrumental in creating an industry-leading analytical tool for assessing companies’ performance in implementing the UN Global Compact. Prior to joining Innovest, he served as Managing Director at Core Ratings (a sister company to Fitch) and at PIRC, where he specialized in corporate governance. Earlier in his career, he had worked in industry for two major, publicly-traded companies: Cape PLC in the UK, and BASF AG in Germany. He holds a Master’s degree in environmental management, with a first degree in business. Mr Trevor Stephenson, CFA Mr Stephenson is a portfolio manager, and hedge fund designer, as well as a quantitative and risk analyst. Before joining IPCM six months ago, he had spent four years on the proprietary trading desk at RBC Capital Markets. In that position, he designed and managed quantitative long/short portfolios with the firm’s own capital. Prior to that, he had spent an additional four years at RBC Capital designing and implementing real-time derivatives pricing models covering interest-rate swaps, foreign exchange, treasury, and money market instruments. Previously, he had worked at Scotia Capital Markets, where he performed equity valuation, as well as at the major pension fund BIMCOR (Bell Investment Management), where he invested short-term pension portfolios in the fixed-income group. Mr Stephenson is a graduate of Queen’s University in Canada, and has been a CFA Charter holder for a decade. Ms Heather Langsner Prior to joining Inflection Point Capital Management, Ms Langsner served as global Managing Director of Research at Innovest. Prior to accepting that leadership and strategic role, she had served as a senior analyst for the Diversified, Specialty and Commodity chemicals sectors, Industrial Conglomerates, Aerospace/Defense and Semiconductors. She has made notable investment recommendations both short and long and drafted a clean-tech oriented nanotechnology index in 2005 which was recognized in an award ceremony held by the Foresight Institute, The Enhanced Analytics Initiative and Citigroup. As Managing Director of Research, Ms Langsner conducted all backtesting and statistical analysis projects on Innovest’s sustainability and financial data, developed new products, and oversaw a team of over fifty analysts. Prior to her work at Innovest, Ms Langsner’s consulting work consisted of two years of technical due diligence for major environmental insurance recovery arbitrations with Lloyds of London, as well as the completion of an industrial ecology protocol commissioned by Dubai Holdings on a multi-industry production center in the United Arab Emirates. Ms Langsner holds a dual MSc in Industrial Engineering and Environmental Science & Policy from Columbia University, and has also completed graduate work in Environmental Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. She has been a guest speaker at the National Academy of Sciences and the United Nations, and is a CFA candidate. Mr David Pitt-Watson Mr Pitt-Watson is the former CEO of Hermes Focus Asset Management (HFAM), the largest group of shareholder stewardship and activist funds in Europe. HFAM had over $5 billion in assets under management, which significantly out-performed the market. HFAM has been globally recognized as a leader in the fields of responsible investment, corporate accountability, and shareholder engagement, and has catalyzed significant performance improvements in a number of major European companies. He was also the principal author of the Hermes Principles, an internationally influential code of conduct for superior corporate governance. Prior to joining Hermes, Mr Pitt-Watson’s early career was spent at leading UK private equity firm 3i, and at McKinsey. After that, he was a co-founder of Braxton Associates, which subsequently joined Deloitte, where he served as a partner for twelve years, and led the UK strategy consulting practice. He is a graduate of Queens College at Oxford University, and also holds both MBA and MA degrees from Stanford University. He is also co-author of the influential book The New Capitalists, which was published by Harvard Business School, and has served as a senior, cabinet-level advisor to the UK government on a number of capital markets and corporate governance issues over the last several years. Mr Gordon Noble, F Fin BEcB. Econ., Dip. Applied Finance and Investment Former Senior Analyst with Innovest, where he focused on analyzing both companies and cross-cutting thematic issues in the Asia Pacific region. Mr Noble spent 3 years with Innovest. Previous experience with a leading Australian superannuation fund, the UN Principles for Responsible Investment secretariat, and National Australia Bank. He was also the principal advisor to the newly-created Responsible Investment Academy in Sydney. He holds Bachelor of Economics, Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment, Fellow FINSIA (formerly Securities Institute of Australia). Mr Bill Hartnett Prior to joining Inflection Point Capital Management, Mr Hartnett served for five years as Managing Director for Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, where he directed the firm’s efforts in Asia Pacific. Mr Hartnett was also instrumental in the design and development of several innovative, “sustainability-enhanced” investment products and strategies, which Innovest then implemented in concert with asset management partners including ING And Lazard. He also built and led a 6-person team of analysts to provide research on ASX companies. From 2000 to 2003 he developed and was the Manager of the Challenger Socially Responsive Investment Fund (SRI Fund). The fund won the inaugural “Ethical Fund of the Year 2001”. From 1994 to 2000 Mr Hartnett worked at Westpac Bank in corporate banking, strategy and funds management roles before specialising in the sustainable investment field. In 1999-2000 he worked on the product management and communication for the Westpac (now BT) Australian Eco Share Fund. Mr Hartnett’s academic qualifications include a Masters of Environmental Management from University of NSW (2004 for which he was awarded the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand Prize) and a Bachelor of Economic Degree (with double major in economics and sociology) from Macquarie University (1992). Mr Christian Meade, MBA Former senior analyst with Innovest; 4 years experience there. His work was focused on emerging markets companies, with a particular focus on Latin America. He was also a key member of the research and design team for one of Innovest’s most innovative prospects: the construction of an enhanced beta index in Latin America, with a particular focus on companies which excelled in their operations at the “Base of the Pyramid”. His sector work was focused on the oil and gas and listed real estate sectors. A trained lawyer, Mr Meade also developed environmental legislation for the Senate of Mexico, his native country. A Fulbright Scholar, Mr Meade has published a book and numerous articles on sustainability and legal issues. He holds a law degree from the Institute Technologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM), and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, with a specialization in Business and Sustainability. Mr Bijan Foroodian, CFA Immediately prior to joining Inflection Point Capital Management, Mr Foroodian was an independent risk management and quantitative equities consultant. Prior to that, he served with our predecessor firm Innovest for four years, acting as Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director. In those capacities, he was instrumental in developing equity valuation models which synthesized traditional fundamental and quantitative inputs with sustainability factors. He was also responsible for the design, construction, and day to day management of a number of innovative investment products and strategies on which Innovest served as sub-advisor to partners including SSgA, UBS, ING, and others. Those products covered a variety of both geographies and asset classes. Before joining Innovest, Mr Foroodian had worked at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein as Vice-President of quantitative research, in both London and Tokyo. He had previously been an analyst in the quantitative group at Barclays Global Investors, in San Francisco, as well as serving as head of portfolio analytics at MacKenzie Financial, a member of Investors Group in Canada. He holds a degree in engineering and economics from Oxford University, and an MBA from the University of London. He is also a CFA charter holder.
The Chairman’s Council of Global Advisors President, Green Strategies, Inc. Professor of Finance and Investment, University of Maastricht (Netherlands) Former Executive Director, Association for Sustainable & Responsible Investment, Asia (Hong Kong) Former Managing Director & Deputy Head of Asian Equity Research, Citigroup; Former executive, Man Group and State Street Global Advisors. Director, Environmental Affairs, The Mother Nature Network Founder and Executive Chairman, Globescan, a public opinion, stakeholder, and market survey firm which has been tracking public attitudes regarding sustainability issues in over 50 countries worldwide, for two decades Former Executive V.P. and Group Head of Risk Management, ABN AMRO Bank. Ms Louise O’Halloran, Australia Executive Director, Responsible Investment Association of Australasia Former general counsel, BIMCOR (largest corporate pension fund in Canada) Chief sustainability and climate change advisor to Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. Counsel, Climate and Environmental Law Group, Skadden Arps Finance Committee, Christopher Reynolds Foundation Director, Mission Point Capital Partners CEO, the Globe Foundation ............ |
The Chairman’s Council of Global Advisors |
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