During a career spanning three decades, Amit Bando has conducted economic analyses and business case assessments while leading global initiatives on clean energy and climate change, green finance, water security, forestry/natural resource and land use management. A proven leader in motivating talented and diverse staff in multicultural environments, he also specializes in evaluation and policy design to provide results-focused, human centered, science-based and market-driven solutions for sustainable impact. Amit has pioneered the use of economic instruments for environmental protection and helped Fortune 100 firms understand development-finance issues.

Amit has developed new analytical techniques to evaluate projects for the UN IPCC and designed 30+ clean energy projects across 25 nations. Using the Equator Principles, in consultation with locally affected communities, he has secured funds from commercial banks and investors in the cement, pulp & paper, steel, sugar and textile sectors to focus on social/community standards and responsibility that include robust standards for indigenous peoples and labor groups. The Equator Principles have helped spur the development of responsible environmental and social management practices in the financial sector and banking industry. Working for USAID, NASA and other U.S. Government agencies, he has provided expert analysis related to minority, women and under-represented populations by advising on program design and implementation plans while also coordinating ministerial-level decisions on sector-specific energy policies, regulations and standards to promote financing of clean energy and energy efficiency initiatives for G-20 and more than 40 other nations.

Amit was a Senior Advisor in the Office of General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Commerce. He has worked for Winrock International, the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation, the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) as well as for the Asian Development Bank and The World Bank. A popular speaker at global forums, he has authored several publications including the widely used Economic Evaluation of Environmental Impacts.

Read article: Investors Leverage Shareholder Proposals for Just Transition Impact

Rob is Senior Director of Shareholder Engagement at Ceres, where he works with investors and companies on climate change, sustainability and governance issues, as well as various projects for the Ceres Investor Network on Climate Risk and Sustainability.

Prior to Ceres, Rob served as a board member and Vice President of Green Century Capital Management and as a staff member of U.S. EPA's Green Lights and Energy Star Programs. He has also worked in commercial lending, as an environmental consultant, and for a start-up hazardous waste recycling firm.

Rob has a degree in environmental studies from Brown University and a Masters in Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Read article: Investors Leverage Shareholder Proposals for Just Transition Impact

Samantha (Sam) Burke is a Senior ESG Analyst at Boston Trust Walden. In her role, Sam is responsible for evaluating current and potential portfolio investments and engaging companies to advance sustainable business practices.

Sam began her career in 2015 and joined Boston Trust Walden in 2020. Previously she worked at Ceres supporting the incubation and vetting of new project ideas, as well as measuring and evaluating progress towards advancing climate, governance, and equitable workplace goals. Prior to Ceres, Sam worked at Ernst & Young in the Financial Risk Advisory practice. Sam earned a BBA from the College of William & Mary and an MS in Applied Economics from Boston College. She holds the Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA) Credential.

Read article: Small Cap Companies have a role to play on Climate

Dan Carroll is the Center’s Vice President for Programs. Prior to joining the Center, Dan spent six years on Capitol Hill, advising a senior House member on campaign finance issues, the judiciary, and tax policy. Dan also tracked judicial nominations, researched and analyzed federal appellate court decisions, and created advocacy materials for a national non-profit advocacy organization, and served in the chambers of a federal magistrate judge. He earned a degree in Public Policy from Hamilton College and a J.D. from William & Mary Law School, where he was a fellow at the Institute of Bill of Rights Law.

Read article: A Code for Corporate Political Spending Disclosure

Parker is an early-career climate professional who is passionate about the intersections of climate science, data analysis, and corporate decarbonization. Parker previously worked at the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), where his research informed SBTi pathways for the energy and industrial processes sector and the oil and gas industry. Parker graduated in May of 2022 with a BS in Geology from Bates College, where he studied climate change in coastal environments.

Read article: Do Oil and Gas Industry Divestments Result in Emissions Increases?

Jessica Dheere is advocacy director at Open MIC, which leverages shareholder engagement and other finance-focused strategies to foster greater corporate accountability in the development and use of digital technologies. Previously, she was director of Ranking Digital Rights, known for the Big Tech and Telco Giants scorecards. She is also founder and former executive director at SMEX, a Beirut-based, pan-Arab organization that advances digital rights in the West Asia/North Africa region. In 2018-19, she was a research fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, where she launched the CYRILLA Collaborative, a global initiative to map, analyze, and visualize the emergence and evolution of national legal frameworks for digital rights. She graduated from Princeton University and has an M.A. in media studies from the New School in New York City. In 2014, she was one of Middlebury Language School’s Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace.

Read article: Assessing Risks of AI Misinformation and Disinformation

Jared Fernandez is the Proxy Voting Manager and a Senior ESG Analyst at Boston Trust Walden. In his role as a Senior ESG Analyst, Jared is responsible for evaluating current and potential portfolio investments and engaging companies to advance sustainable business practices. As manager of proxy voting, Jared ensures the firm votes proxies consistent with Boston Trust Walden policies.

Jared began his career in sustainable investing in 2018 and joined Boston Trust Walden in 2019. Previously, he worked at Green Century Capital management as a Shareholder Advocate. Jared earned a BA from the University of Maryland and an MA in Food Systems from New York University. He holds the Fundamentals of Sustainable Accounting (FSA) Credential.

Read article: Small Cap Companies have a role to play on Climate

Bruce F. Freed is president and co-founder of the Center for Political Accountability, a Washington, D.C. based NGO whose mission is to bring transparency and accountability to corporate political spending. Founded in 2003, CPA is successfully reshaping how companies engage in political spending.

Under his leadership, CPA produces the annual CPA-Zicklin Index that benchmarks the S&P 500 on their political disclosure and accountability policies and practices and TrackYourCompany.org, a searchable, sortable database on company political spending. He helped develop CPA’s innovative strategy of using corporate governance to address the risks companies face from political spending. As a result of CPA’s efforts, political disclosure and accountability is recognized as the norm.

He draws on his long experience in journalism and on Capitol Hill. Bruce speaks widely and co-authored major CPA reports including Collision Course, the first examination of the heightened risks to companies of conflicted political spending.

Read article: A Code for Corporate Political Spending Disclosure

Michael Frerichs is the Illinois State Treasurer. He is the state’s Chief Investment and Banking Officer. His office manages approximately $56 billion, including state funds, college savings and retirement plans, and pooled money on behalf of local and state governments. He also serves as a Trustee on the Illinois State Board of Investment, which manages approximately $28 billion in pension assets on behalf of over 230,000 beneficiaries.

Read article: Sustainable Investing Is Just Common Sense. Don’t Believe the Demagogues

Danielle Fugere is President and Chief Counsel at As You Sow. She brings a wealth of experience in achieving broad and lasting change and in-depth knowledge of clean energy, conservation policy, toxic enforcement, and team building. Danielle served most recently as Executive Director of the Environmental Law Foundation. Prior, she was Legal Director and Regional Program Director for national nonprofit Friends of the Earth, where she spearheaded innovative legal strategies to reduce global warming pollution and directed campaigns to reduce pollution and promote sustainable alternative energies and fuels. Through her work, Danielle has been instrumental in securing compliance with environmental laws and industry conversions to environmentally sound technologies, including a settlement with the City and County of Los Angeles resulting in a $2.1 billion sewer system upgrade. Danielle was recognized with the WaterKeeper’s Environmental Achievement Award in 2000 for her outstanding achievements protecting California waters from pollution and compelling polluters to assume the costs of environmental degradation. She holds a JD from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and a BA in Political Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Read article: Prudent Climate Action by Shareholders is Legal and Necessary Despite Anti-ESG Rhetoric

Michael Garland is Assistant Comptroller for Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment for New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. The Comptroller serves as investment advisor, custodian and a trustee to the New York City Pension Funds, which have approximately $240 billion in assets under management and a long history of active ownership on issues of corporate governance and sustainability.

Michael and his team are responsible for developing and implementing the Funds’ active ownership programs for public equities, including voting proxies at approximately 11,000 portfolio companies around the world; engaging portfolio companies on their environmental, social and governance policies and practices; and advocating for regulatory reforms to protect investors and promote sustainable capital markets. Michael spearheaded shareholder initiatives that helped to establish proxy access as a fundamental right at hundreds of U.S. companies, and that established EEO-1 Report disclosure as a standard for disclosing workforce racial and ethnic demographics among the largest U.S. companies.

Michael serves on the Grant & Eisenhofer ESG Institute Oversight Board and previously served as Public Fund Co-Chair on the Council of Institutional Investors’ Board of Directors. He also serves as Comptroller Lander’s designated representative to the board of directors of CERES, a non-profit that works with investors, companies, and capital market influencers to take stronger action on the world’s biggest sustainability challenges.

Read article: Clean Energy Ratio Helps Meet Net Zero Goals

John Keenan is a Corporate Governance Analyst for Capital Strategies for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which is the largest union in the AFL-CIO representing state and local government, health care and child care workers. John serves on the board of the Council of Institutional Investors, where he previously co-chaired the its Shareholder Advocacy Committee. Before joining AFSCME, he was a proxy voting analyst at Institutional Shareholder Services and also a paralegal in Washington, DC. He is a graduate of Brown University. 

Read article: Corporate Lobbying Disclosure is Material Investor information

Nadia has been Director of Corporate Engagement at Planned Parenthood Action Fund since 2019. Prior, she spent her career across the private, public and non-profit sectors committed to building public-private partnerships and business-driven solutions that promote inclusive, socio-economic growth, gender equality and sustainable development. She spent five years at Goldman Sachs, selling socially and environmentally responsible investment strategies to cross-asset clients, and managing global corporate engagement projects for both the CEO's Office and Executive Office's 10,000 Women program across 30+ countries. Subsequently, Nadia spent seven years working in the international public and non-profit sectors, building cross-sector coalitions and promoting sustainable development solutions at the International Labour Organization, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, The B Team and Vital Voices. She has studied at Dartmouth College, Sciences Po, and Oxford University, and was a Fulbright Scholar in France.

Read article: Support for Inclusive, Healthy Work Force Leads to Business Growth

Elizabeth’s work focuses on the financial risks of climate change and pushing for corporate action and responsibility. Her research centers banks, insurance, and climate change induced water and biodiversity risk. She has experience in grassroots climate and environmental justice organizing. Elizabeth is an AmeriCorps alumna and holds a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology with a focus in U.S. Health and Inequalities from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Read article: Deep Sea Mining Poses Risks to Biodiversity, Climate and Investors

Michael Levin is a respected investor, corporate executive, and management consultant, with almost thirty years’ experience in investing, corporate finance, strategy, and risk management.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Comarco, Inc. (Board Chair and Audit Committee chair) and AG&E Holdings, Inc.

Michael is expert in all aspects of equity turnaround, and as an activist investor. This includes practical business strategy, financial structuring, and SEC matters. As a management consultant and finance executive he has worked on numerous turnaround cases in a range of industries. Throughout his business career his efforts increased the value of equity investments many times.

He attended the University of Chicago and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics. His consulting career includes leadership positions at Towers Perrin and Deloitte. He has also held finance executive positions at CNH and Nicor.

Read article: The Mandatory Board Director Say-On-Pay Bylaw By-Law Amendment

Sanford Lewis is an environmental attorney with 35 years of experience in environmental law and policy. His clients include institutional investors, social investment firms and nonprofit organizations. His practice is focused on shareholder proposals, shareholder rights and improving corporate environmental and social disclosure requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Lewis is the Director and General Counsel of the Shareholder Rights Group http://ShareholderRightsGroup.com and was co-author of “Fooling Investors and Fooling Themselves: How Aggressive Corporate Accounting and Asset Management Tactics Can Lead to Environmental Accounting Fraud.” He is also a documentary filmmaker. Mr. Lewis has a BS in Environmental Studies and Urban Communications from Cook College, Rutgers University, and a JD from the University of Michigan Law School.

Read article: 2024 Update on Shareholder Rights Legal and Policy Developments

Jillianne Lyon is a Senior Program Associate at Investor Advocates for Social Justice (IASJ). She leads IASJ’s Climate + Dignity shareholder advocacy campaign, as well as co-leading campaigns on racial equity and peace & demilitarization. Jillianne has a strong background in corporate accountability and climate justice from various professional and academic experiences in refugee resettlement, public policy, and human rights research. She holds a B.A. from the University of Connecticut in Human Rights and Political Science.

Read article: There is No ‘Just Transition’ Without Environmental Justice

Conrad MacKerron has more than a decade of experience managing corporate dialogues and shareholder advocacy initiatives on cutting-edge social and environmental issues. Conrad founded the As You Sow Corporate Social Responsibility Program in 1997.

He is former senior social researcher at Piper Jaffray Philanthropic & Social Investment Consulting, and Social Research Director at Progressive Asset Management (both social investment firms). He also served as Senior Analyst, Energy and Environment, at the Investor Responsibility Research Center (now part of RiskMetrics Group).

Formerly a journalist, he was Washington Bureau Chief for Chemical Week and a writer for BNA’s Environment Reporter. He is author of Business in the Rainforests: Corporations, Deforestation and Sustainability (IRRC, 1993) and Unlocking the Power of the Proxy (2004). Conrad served on the board of the Social Investment Forum (SIF), and was chair of the steering committee for its Advocacy and Public Policy Program. He also served on the As You Sow Board of Directors from 1993 until 2005. In 2007, he received the SRI Service Award from SIF for “outstanding contributions to the SRI community.” He holds a Masters Degree in Journalism and Public Affairs from The American University.

Read article: Pressing the Tobacco Industry to Clean Up Its Plastic Cigarette Waste

After decades trying to regulate industry as an executive at Cal/EPA, Jim McRitchie “retired.” Since 1995, through CorpGov.net, he has helped make companies more responsible and democratic, primarily by filing hundreds of shareholder proposals. A decade ago, McRitchie and John Chevedden successfully fought off several lawsuits when companies chose to sue them in court rather than seek no-action letters from the SEC. Along with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and As You Sow, McRitchie is suing the SEC to overturn Trump-era rules that weaken the voice of retail shareholders. With the help of The Shareholder Commons, he is also suing directors of Meta Platforms for breaching their fiduciary duty to diversified shareholders. McRitchie has testified before the SEC and other government bodies and is a frequent commentator on corporate governance in the financial press.

Read article: Proxy Voting Could Bridge the Red and Blue Divide

Luke Morgan is an attorney with As You Sow. Prior to joining As You Sow, he clerked for the United States District Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and worked in the General Counsel’s office at the North Carolina Department of Justice. He has published multiple law review articles focusing on constitutional doctrine and the First and Second Amendments. Luke attended Duke Law School.

Read article: SCOTUS Decision Could Scuttle Regulatory Agencies and Shareholder Rights

Diana’s work focuses on cutting corporate greenhouse gas emissions and evaluating companies' environmental progress through a climate scorecard.

Diana's previous work includes studying wildlife management and conservation techniques in central Kenya and raptor migration and conservation at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, PA. Diana holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from American University.

Read article: Unraveling offsetting and avoided emissions

Abigail engages companies to establish science aligned strategies that address climate related risks and opportunities.

Previously Abigail worked as an advisor for companies in the United States and Europe on sustainability strategies. She has developed science aligned decarbonization roadmaps for leading companies, and has worked on cross-industry platforms accelerating collective action for Net Zero and Food System Transformation.

Abigail holds BAs in Economics and Science, Technology & Society, and a MSc in Environmental Policy from the London School of Economics.

Read article: Linking Emission Reductions to Executive Pay

Michael Passoff is the founder and CEO of Proxy Impact, a shareholder advocacy and proxy voting service for sustainable and responsible investors (SRIs). Michael has over 20 years of experience in corporate social responsibility, shareholder advocacy, and philanthropy. For more than a decade Michael served as the Senior Program Director for the As You Sow Foundation’s Corporate Social Responsibility Program. In 2005 he founded the Proxy Preview to alert foundations, SRIs, pension funds, labor, and faith-based communities to upcoming shareholder resolutions that are relevant to their mission. Michael has led and participated in more than 300 shareholder dialogues and resolutions on environmental, social and governance issues. His shareholder advocacy work led him to be named as one of 2009’s “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics” by Ethisphere Magazine and he also received the Climate Change Business Journal award for a shareholder campaign that prompted greenhouse gas emission reductions and renewable energy development at public utilities.

Read article: Big Tech Fails to Protect Children Online

With over 15 years of experience in the field of sustainable investing, Marcela is passionate about using her skills and knowledge to create positive social and environmental impacts through active investing and advocacy. As the Director of Sustainable Investing at Zevin Asset Management, she leads the firm's engagement strategy and initiatives, challenging companies to adopt responsible policies and practices, and collaborating with diverse stakeholders to advance sustainability goals and outcomes.

Marcela also leverages her expertise and network to serve on various boards and committees, such as the New York Foundation, the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management, and the Racial Justice Investing Coalition. She is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist, sharing her insights and perspectives on the evolving principles and practices of sustainable investing. Marcela holds an MBA in Sustainable Development from Brandeis University and is proficient in sustainability reporting, water, and climate change issues.

Read article: The Need For A Living Wage Policy

Meri Podzic is the CEO of As You Know, where she applies her international expertise to drive the company's vision forward. With a career spanning significant global institutions, including the World Bank, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Press Institute (IPI), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Meri has been focused on shaping strategic communications and sustainable strategies.

As the co-founder of Claim.Impact, she champions gender equality and cultivates strategic partnerships that foster inclusive growth. Her leadership is informed by a rich tapestry of cultural insights from her native Bosnia and Herzegovina, enhancing her approach to global challenges.

Meri resides in Vienna, Austria, with her family for the last decade, valuing the city's rich cultural scene and its community life as she continues her international work.

Read article: The European Union Driving Sustainability and Actionable ESG Data Forward

Kelly is a climate activist with passion for corporate accountability. As a member of As You Sow’s Energy Team, her work focuses on engaging companies within the banking, insurance, and agriculture industries on their greenhouse gas emissions and reduction targets.

Previously, Kelly worked as an ESG analyst for a private wealth management firm where she helped develop the firm’s first environmental fund.

Kelly holds a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Read article: Will New Wave of Natural Gas Plants Be Stranded Assets?

Matthew Prescott is President and Chief Operating Officer of The Accountability Board. He has been a shareholder advocate for the last two decades, with his work concentrating largely on the nexus between the ethical and risk implications of food and agricultural production. He is also the author of the climate-focused book Food is the Solution, which features essays and endorsements by Chef Wolfgang Puck, Sir Paul McCartney, Academy Award winners James Cameron and Jesse Eisenberg, and many others. His work over the last twenty years has led to sweeping changes at many of the largest publicly traded corporations.

Read article: Good Corporate Governance Requires Active Board Monitoring of ESG Risks

Since 2003, Cathy Rowan has been the Director of Socially Responsible Investments for Trinity Health, a large Catholic health care system in the United States and a member of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). A former ICCR Board member, Cathy engages companies on Trinity Health’s behalf on health equity, food and nutrition, tobacco control, environmental health and gun violence issues.   She also serves as a corporate responsibility consultant for the Maryknoll Sisters, a congregation of women religious who serve in 18 places around the world, representing them in shareholder engagements on global health, climate change, responsible lending, water and eliminating child sexual exploitation online. Her involvement in impact investing also includes growing Trinity Health’s community investment program, and leadership on the boards of Mercy Investment Services, Oikocredit USA, and the Leviticus 25:23 Alternative Fund.

From 1987-2002, Cathy was a Maryknoll Lay Missioner, living in Sao Paulo, Brazil for six of those years with her husband and two children, and working with a human rights team, women’s groups and a child nutrition program.

Read article: Big Pharma Patent Extension Abuse Threatens Healthcare and Human Rights

Annie Sanders is Green Century's Director of Shareholder Advocacy, leveraging the Funds’ and the firm’s clout as a shareholder to drive companies to adopt more environmentally sustainable policies and practices. Prior to joining Green Century, she served as Executive Director of Green Corps, where she worked for 16 years advancing campaigns to protect our climate, expand clean energy, promote land conservation and protect wildlife. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Chicago.

Read article: Companies Need to Address Existential and Financial Risk of Biodiversity

Jon is President and Director of the Singing Field Foundation, a small foundation staffed by family volunteers. The foundation distributes $250,000 annually in small grants to environmental, health, animal welfare and arts/culture organizations.

The foundation practices mission-related investing: “active ownership,” including proxy voting, participation in shareholder initiatives, and investments screened for values alignment. We were among the first 17 foundations that came together to launch Divest-Invest Philanthropy in 2014. Jon has been an active participant in several Confluence Philanthropy working groups.

On the national staff of Clean Water Action, Jon develops corporate partnerships, manages legacy gifts, and is a senior communications team member. Jon is on the boards of Earth Share (DC) and the Lebanon Opera House (NH). Singing Field Foundation is a member of the Environmental Grantmakers Association, Confluence Philanthropy and the Health and Environmental Funders Network, and active in the American Sustainable Business Network, Social Venture Circle, and Investors Circle.

Read article: A Funder's Journey to Shareholder Advocacy and Active Ownership

For anyone remotely connected to responsible investing or corporate responsibility Tim Smith requires little to no introduction. He is one of ICCR’s founding staff members and has been a leader in our field for over five decades.

Tim currently serves as ICCR’s Senior Policy Advisor, where he supports ICCR’s work around responsible political engagement, deepening engagements with asset managers, and responding to the pushback on ESG, as well as serving as a mentor for ICCR members and staff.

Tim served as ICCR staff for 30 years including 24 years as its Executive Director. In 2000, Tim joined Boston Trust Walden where he led the organization’s shareholder engagement efforts for 22 years. In 2007, 2012, and 2013, Tim was named one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics” by Ethisphere Institute. In 2010, he received the Bavaria Award for Impact at the third annual Joan Bavaria Awards for Building Sustainability into the Capital Markets. In 2011 and 2012, he was named one of the most influential people in corporate governance by the National Association of Corporate Directors, and in 2016 Tim received ICCR’s Legacy Award for his enduring record of demonstrated influence on corporate policies.

Tim has served on multiple boards and chaired advisory councils for several different institutions. He currently serves as chair for Shared Interest, which mobilizes economic resources for communities in Southern Africa.

Tim earned a BA from the University of Toronto and Masters of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary.

Read article: NAM's SEC Lawsuit Undermines Shareholder Rights

Jaylen Spann is a Lead Research Associate at Whistle Stop Capital, a consultancy which helps investors assess, and address, social and environmental concerns within their portfolios. Jaylen's work focuses on analyzing how different social and environmental issues are expressed within client portfolios, determining how these issues may impact corporate performance, and working directly with companies to encourage improved practices. Past initiatives include conducting portfolio assessments for advisors and foundations, building impact reports, and benchmarking 1000 companies on their workplace equity data transparency. Her shareholder engagement work with client-held companies has led to changes in corporate data disclosure, improved employment policies and broader access to health

Read article: Diverse Workforce Outperforms on Eight Key Financial Measures

Heidi Welsh, the founding executive director of the Sustainable Investments Institute (Si2), has analyzed corporate responsibility issues for more than 30 years.  Starting at the Investor Responsibility Research Center in 1987, she authored annual assessments of shareholder advocacy and also monitored corporate compliance with the MacBride principles for fair employment in Northern Ireland for 16 years.  She later headed sustainability research within a unit of what is now MSCI and consulted on Global Reporting Initiative guidelines.  Welsh is the lead author of three Si2 studies about corporate political activity governance and spending.  She received her B.A. from Carleton College, cum laude, and an M.S. from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.

Read article: Corporate State Lobbying Remains a Black Hole

A contributing researcher and analyst since Si2's inception, Robin Young oversees Si2's research efforts in all areas of corporate political activity and related shareholder proposals and co-authored its two studies on corporate political spending. In addition, he covers all research for executive compensation, mortgage and banking issues as well as contributing to research and reporting on environmental and sustainability proposals. Previously, he was a senior analyst for IRRC, ISS and RiskMetrics from 2005 to 2009. There he covered a wide range of corporate governance issues, including evaluation of company specific compensation plans, management and shareholder sponsored corporate governance issues with special emphasis on mergers, acquisitions and recapitalizations, as well as management and shareholder proposals related to executive compensation. While at IRRC and ISS he also helped collect and verify evergreen and overall dilution data and was a contributing writer to several dilution studies. He helped manage overseas teams and perform quality control checks on data collected by these divisions, as well as helping to maintain and manage the organizations' databases of shareholder proposals. He also worked for RiskMetrics' ESG group, covering political contributions and predatory lending. In addition to writing background materials and company analyses on these topics, he contributed to custom consulting projects, providing research for several clients and helping to develop cases for them on corporate engagement. Before coming to IRRC, Young also worked as loan officer and team leader for several mortgage businesses. He holds B.A. in political science from Colorado College.

Read article: Corporate State Lobbying Remains a Black Hole

As ICCR’s Chief Executive Officer since January 2016, Josh Zinner oversees programs and operations for the organization, and is the lead external organizational representative. Josh has more than 25 years’ experience as a non-profit leader, coalition-builder and policy advocate. Josh is also a long-time public interest lawyer who has spent his career working to promote social and economic justice and corporate accountability. For the eight years prior to coming to ICCR, Josh co-directed the New Economy Project, an organization that works with community groups on economic justice issues and is at the forefront both locally and nationally in the fight against discriminatory financial practices.

Among earlier roles, Josh founded and ran the Foreclosure Prevention Project at South Brooklyn Legal Services for more than a decade. He helped to build and lead an influential statewide coalition of over 160 organizational members, New Yorkers for Responsible Lending, which fielded successful campaigns to achieve groundbreaking legislation and regulation to curb financial abuses. Previously, he worked with Oxfam America on private sector campaigns including access to medicines work; as a housing lawyer with low-income seniors; and as a social worker for five years working with adjudicated youth, street children, and homeless adults. Before it was disbanded in June of 2018, Josh was a member of the Community Advisory Board of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Read article: NAM's SEC Lawsuit Undermines Shareholder Rights