Peter Kellner has been for over 25 years involved as an investor and thought leader in the sustainability and entrepreneurial spaces. Starting out in Venture Capital, he has been an investor and early adopter in FinTech and Data Science.
Advised by Harvard's George Serafeim, Yale's Dan Esty, social entrepreneur and Ashoka founder Bill Drayton and a team led by MIT trained machine learning specialist Dr. Erik Allen, Kellner developed with his CIO Decio Nascimento a ESG Multi Asset Strategy which has vastly outperformed industry benchmarks (to the point of being positive in October and December 2018).
Professor George Serafeim from Harvard Business School showed in his seminal study "First Evidence of Materiality" that companies that outperform in material ESG generate a 6% annualized alpha compared to companies that underperform in those factors. Proving academia right, Richmond Global Compass portfolio has been live since June 2017 and significantly outperformed the markets and was up +9.99% net in 2018 and up +21.37% since inception in mid-2017, as reported by Opalesque.
The strategy is unique as it integrates ESG into a true multi asset portfolio and includes a global macro overlay which informs asset allocation, geography and sector, complemented by bottom-up fundamental analysis that informs individual security selection. The portfolio is managed by Decio Nascimento, CIO and former right hand of Luis Stuhlberger, “Brazil’s 15,000% Hedge-Fund Legend” (Bloomberg).
Empiricism over Self Reporting
The strategy focuses on applying material ESG indicators alongside fundamental research to increase alpha and mitigate risks. Machine Learning techniques are utilized to help identify material ESG metrics and improve the poor quality existing datasets. The materiality approach to ESG augments fundamental analysis by considering non-financial metrics that impact the bottom line and are often overlooked by analysts, bringing – for the first time – empiricism and measurability to ESG investing.
This new Opalesque.TV BACKSTAGE video introduces Peter Kellner, his expert team and his groundbreaking strategy. He also talks about:
- Living a purposeful life
- How to use technology to address the shortcomings of today’s ESG indices in public and private markets
- Portfolio construction in an ESG multi asset portfolio. The Compass Materiality Dashboard: A “stunning” breakthrough in ESG investing. Asymmetric trades
- Demarcating Impact Investing versus ESG
- Augmenting returns and social good with ESG. Taking on the global capital markets to affect change
- Outlook: Integration of ESG into financial analysis will be normal
- No capacity limits & no fear of crowding: Why ESG is “a gift” & why there’s no Alpha Decay in ESG.
Peter Kellner founded Richmond Global Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in disruptive technologies globally. Mr. Kellner also co-founded Endeavor Global in 1996, an NGO with a 33-country network that aims to identify and cultivate the highest impacting entrepreneurs in the world. After university, as a Fulbright Scholar to Hungary, Mr. Kellner founded the Environmental Management & Law Association (EMLA), one of Central Europe’s most influential NGOs in environmental policy. This NGO was originally backed by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Today, it is backed by the European Union, Norway Grants, and others.
Mr. Kellner is a director of several technology companies. He has invested and lived in five different continents over the past 20 years, seeding some of the largest platform technology companies from Brazil to China. Mr. Kellner is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), Council on Foreign Relations, Pacific Council for International Policy, and International Institute for Strategic Studies. He has served on the board of Endeavor Global, Endeavor Chile, Endeavor Jordan, Endeavor Miami, and Endeavor Louisville, and is a trustee of the Allen-Stevenson School in New York. Mr. Kellner is also a Crown Fellow at The Aspen Institute, and Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum. Mr. Kellner received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Mr. Kellner lectured in Princeton’s Engineering Department on entrepreneurship for 13 years and provided the funding to create the University’s E-Lab for student entrepreneurship.
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Peter Kellner has been for over 25 years involved as an investor and thought leader in the sustainability and entrepreneurial spaces. Starting out in Venture Capital, he has been an investor and early adopter in FinTech and Data Science.
Advised by Harvard's George Serafeim, Yale's Dan Esty, social entrepreneur and Ashoka founder Bill Drayton and a team led by MIT trained machine learning specialist Dr. Erik Allen, Kellner developed with his CIO Decio Nascimento a ESG Multi Asset Strategy which has vastly outperformed industry benchmarks (to the ...more