2023 Career Trek
Friday, February 17th
Back by popular demand, the global career trek enables all competing students to connect and learn from a select group of international sustainable investing organizations that represent the diversity of career opportunities in the field.
Many challenge participants will pursue careers in sustainable finance, and some may even launch their idea. The career trek is a way to learn from and meet people who have walked the same path.
The career trek focuses on:
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Frameworks for understanding the landscape of firms and careers in sustainable finance
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Illuminating career pathways
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Highlighting key skills that differentiate job seekers
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Creating opportunities for personal connections between student participants and presenting companies
The trek agenda features:
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One 40-minute panel focused on discussion of skills and pathways in sustainable finance careers
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Two 30-minute networking discussions led by early career sustainable finance professionals
Only students who submit prospectuses to the 2023 Challenge will be eligible to participate.
Bhakti Mirchandani
is Managing Director, Responsible Investing at Trinity Church Wall Street. Her responsibilities span Trinity's securities, real estate, and mission investing portfolios. Bhakti is also an adjunct lecturer who teaches her own impact finance class in Columbia’s Masters in Sustainability Management Program, an independent director of Live Oak Crestview Climate Acquisition Corp, co-founder and steering committee member of Institutional Allocators for Diversity Equity and Inclusion (IADEI), a monthly contributor on sustainable investing to Forbes.com, and a New York State Insurance Fund Commissioner. Before joining Trinity Church, Bhakti was Managing Director at FCLTGlobal. She holds an MBA from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Tazia Smith
is Managing Director & Chief Operating Officer at Closed Loop Partners, responsible for institutional investor relations, family office partnerships for the funds and co-investment opportunities at Closed Loop Partners. Prior to CLP, Tazia spent nine years at Deutsche Bank and seven years at Goldman Sachs focused on family offices delivering private direct investment opportunities, global structured lending, and capital market solutions. Tazia holds her Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and a B.A. degree in Environmental Science & Policy from Duke University.
Celine Suarez
is Managing Director and Head of Corporate Sustainability and Reporting in the Global Sustainable Finance Group at Morgan Stanley. Celine drives the firm’s corporate sustainability strategy, disclosure and stakeholder engagement. She also drives the integration of climate change considerations into the Firm’s risk management and disclosure efforts. Before joining Morgan Stanley in 2015, Celine was a sustainability consultant at leading boutique advisory firms, including BSR. She currently is a Board Director for the nonprofit Living Cities, focused on closing racial income and wealth gaps in American cities. She holds an MS in Sustainable Environmental Systems from the Pratt Institute, and a BS in Earth System Science with a minor in Geology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Quyen Tran
is the Director of Impact Investing at BlackRock and Head of Fundamental Equities Sustainable Investing Research. Her research creates BlackRock's core criteria for impact investing across asset classes and best practices in impact measurement. She develops the concepts and leads the authorship of foundational publications, making the case for impact in public equities, the case for outperformance, and the role of impact investing in an asset allocation strategy. She has been appointed Professor of the Practice of Impact Investing at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, is a member of Harvard Business School's Alumni for Impact Initiative, and is a Board Advisor for Bentley University's Sustainable Investment Group. Quyen earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA in philosophy from Mount Holyoke College.
