I spent the first part of 2019 interviewing different industry leaders about whether indexing and impact investing can coexist. Kristin Hull, CEO of Nia Impact Capital read the series and shared her thoughts with me. I asked her if I could interview her for my readers. Enjoy!

When I first heard about OpenInvest a few years ago, I was intrigued by their combination of a digital platform for customizing portfolios to investors’ unique ESG desires while also letting those investors vote their shares via their smartphones. Since they are based in San Francisco, I went to meet them in person. It’s been a pleasure getting to know Josh Levin, Co-Founder of OpenInvest over the past few years. Just as fun has been watching them open up their platform to RIAs so that advisors could take advantage of the values customization technology. Though we agree on almost all of the big picture items, we don’t always agree on the details. I hope you enjoy this spirited conversation as much as I did.

I sat down to chat with Geeta Aiyer, President & Founder of Boston Common, a recognized leader in the impact investing space (rated A+ for governance and strategy by PRI), and one of my personal impact investing heroes. This interview is part of an ongoing series on the topic of whether index investing in public equities can be impactful.

This year, I’ve been exploring the intersection of indexing and impactful investing in public equities. Can we have our cake and eat it too? I wrote my thoughts here and interviewed Jon Streur, Calvert CEO. After I saw that Garvin Jabusch, CIO of Green Alpha, wrote about a similar topic in this Financial Times piece, I sat down to get his thoughts to share with my Connected Investing readers.

Years ago, I was attending the SRI Conference. I hosted a small reception in my hotel room. To keep in their good graces, I invited the conference guests staying adjacent to my hotel room to join in the festivities. One of those guests was Leslie Samuelrich, President of Green Century Capital Management. We had never met before, but she came right over, and we’ve been friends since. Recently, I was able to interview her about one of her recent impact success stories. I hope you enjoy hearing the story as much as I did.

Earlier this month I featured some of my favorite impact investing “a-ha” moments from impact investing interviews I’ve written. Some of my Connected Investing readers shared their “a-ha” moments with me and I’m sharing a few here, with their permission.

Whenever I have the pleasure of interviewing an impact investing leader, I love to ask if they have an “a-ha moment” that led them to impact, ESG or SRI investing. It's one of my favorite things to ask, and it's one of the things my readers tell me they most enjoy. Below are some of the highlights, with links back to their interviews.

Can an Index have Impact? John Streur, CEO of Calvert says it absolutely can.

Pat Miguel Tomaino is the director of socially responsible investing at Zevin Asset Management and is a leader in using shareholder advocacy to advance racial and gender justice initiatives.

We met recently at an impact investing event in Philadelphia and I’m excited to include his recent impact investing success story in my series of interviews.

Over the past year a number of people have asked me, “do you know Cat Berman?” and I didn’t know her…until recently. I ran into her at a conference in March and, as predicted by our mutual acquaintances, we hit it off immediately. Catherine, “Cat” Berman is the co-founder, and CEO of CNote, an impact savings platform. Today I’m thrilled to share an impact success story from CNote. Read on for this inspirational story of a product from a cancer patient turned inventor.

It was my pleasure to chat with Betsy Moszeter, COO of Green Alpha. The impact story from this interview is an alternative energy play. Read on to see the interesting ways that this forward looking manufacturing company has been able to use their technology for more than just wind energy. Also, you’ll get to hear more about Betsy, her path to impact investing, her thoughts on stock buybacks, and her favorite hike.

Kristin Hull is the Founder, CEO, and CIO of Nia Impact Capital. She and I have known each other through the impact investing field for many years; but it wasn’t until I sat down with her for this interview that I got to know more of her fascinating personal story. Read on for that as well as an interesting success story about one of her favorite solution-based investments.

Research has shown that corporate policies that foster inclusive workplaces by supporting LGBT employees lead to more positive business outcomes, lower staff turnover, and increased job satisfaction and productivity. Read how Brianna Murphy of Trillium used the shareholder engagement process to push for LGBT workplace protections at JB Hunt.

Recently, I got to pay a visit to a long time friend and mentor of mine, Gloria Nelund, Chairman & CEO of TriLinc Global. Gloria is a leader and innovator in the impact investing space so I was thrilled to talk to her about the impact investing "a-ha" moment she had partway through her career as well as the details of a recent international lending success she's particularly proud of.

Last month I caught up with Matthew Blume, the Director of ESG Research and Shareholder Advocacy at Appleseed Capital. I wanted to chat with him about the idea of shorting stocks of “bad actor” companies, an idea that logically follows from some of the impact investing theories, but is not frequently utilized.

Impact Investing Success Story: Estée Lauder and Investing in Gender Equality | In conversation with Joe Keefe of Pax World Funds

Last week I spoke with Joe Keefe, Impact Investing leader, and President & CEO of Pax World Funds. We talked about where he sees impact investments driving change, and he shared a recent favorite impact investing success story.