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The keynote speakers were Prof Michael Barnett (Rutgers Business School – Newark & New Brunswick), Prof Michael Schröder (Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)), and Dr Tessa Hebb (Carleton Centre for Community Innovation – Carleton University). On the first day, Prof Barnett presented “Toward a Better Understanding of How I pays to Be Good”. Then, Dr Hebb talked about the importance of investor engagement during her presentation entitled “Measuring the Impact of Engagement”. The third keynote presentation was from Prof Schröder who kindly talked about one of his most recent working papers “How to Measure the ‘ESG Content’ of Mutual Funds?”.

The 2-day conference also included the presentation of academic papers, covering different areas such as microfinance, carbon disclosure, financial markets, and shareholder engagement. Participants had 20 minutes to present their research followed by 10 minutes of Q&A; the audience raised very interesting questions and comments. Furthermore, the Emerging Scholars’ Roundtable (workshop) was a great opportunity for PhD students to meet with senior academics and peers to discuss their working papers.

Last but not least, the conference had a very exiting debate on climate change and investment strategies. The practitioner panel was integrated by Martina Macpherson (Managing Partner, Okeom Research, Representation UK, SI Partners), Dave Gorman (Director of Social Responsibility and Sustainability, UoE) and Marc Brammer (Independent Sustainability Investment Consultant). During this session, Martina Macpherson, the moderator, highlighted the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and asked to both Mr Gorman and Mr Brammer to share their views and experiences. In general, the discussion centred around climate change mitigation, investment strategies (carbon screening and divestment, integration and engagement) and expected panorama for the next few years.