YouSaid · the spoken record

Liqian Ma

lines on the record: 86
first: 2020-06-11
most recent: 2020-06-11
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Many, but I would say that I have learned to be More mindful of the decisions that I make and be able to fully articulate and communicate the full motivation and rationale of those decisions. Whereas I think earlier in my life, in my career, I would trust my judgment and go with my gut feeling in making a decision and not be able to communicate why I made that decision very clearly, whether it's a personal family or professional decision. And I think over time just trying to be more mindful and aware of all the different layers that go into making a decision, big or small, and be able to communicate that to people I care about who might be affected by that decision.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, when I was little, I was very shy. I still am pretty shy. My parents would always push me to go up to strangers and ask for directions, for example, if we're out on a trip and we can't find our way. This is before the age of Google Maps, obviously. And I was always hesitant, but they always made a point of getting me outside my comfort zone and asking for help. Think that stayed with me because over the course of my career, I have not been shy or hesitant to seek mentorship and seek help whenever I needed it. And I've been so fortunate to have had so many great colleagues, both current and former, who have guided me along the way, shared best practices and lessons learned. And I think it's a big part of why I'm in the very fortunate position of Cambridge Associates heading up our impact investing research efforts.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Aside from listening to this very good show, I would say it's actually parenting. I have a four year old son, and I'm not talking about the moments where you're kind of playing with him and tuned out, you know what I'm talking about with kids. But it's really active parenting where you're listening, you're being patient, you're trying to be a better teacher. I think you learn a lot about yourself in the process. And again, learn how to be a better person and better listener.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Generated any negative externalities, it's really important to recognize it and help clean it up. And I think investors have to hold the companies accountable because it affects everyone at the system's level. And owing to mistakes, right? I think everyone from the allocator perspective knows that you want managers to be transparent about their mistakes and own up to the failures as well as take credit for the successes. And I think it's not doing anyone a service when they're hiding their mistakes and just touting their successes.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Say it's the same, not cleaning up after your own mess and not owning up to your mistakes. Look, I think really trying to relate this to our earlier discussion, right? So much of the sustainability and impact arena is around recognizing externalities, both positive and negative. And for the market operators and players who have”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would say two things, and they're related not cleaning up after your own mess and not taking ownership of your mess or mistakes. So really try to enforce this sometimes successfully, sometimes very unsuccessfully at home with my four-year-old.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So before the age of parenting and pandemics, I would actually in a choir for a number of years, both in college as well as after grad school. And I just love the community aspect of it and making music, harmonies, a classical choir, and just being elevated even for an hour or two hours every week with people who are all there to sharing each other's company and the community. Of course, apparently CN acquires one of the most risky activities in a COVID pandemic. So that's not happening these days. But it is really one of my favorite activities. And that's actually how I met my wife with singing in a college choir.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There will be challenges, of course, and I think that every few month we see another manager kind of flip the switch and become more receptive. You're absolutely right, Ted, that the whole industry is still learning this craft and institutionalizing these practices in a way that makes sense for the long term. We at Cambridge do take the long-term view and we know that we have a position to market to help the whole industry institutionalize and move up the curve.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And particularly the non branded managers, how do you handle a situation where there's a manager that's just so good that clients want to have their money with them, even though you know they are just not going to entertain this conversation as far as the eye can see?”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Certainly, there are instances where that happens, and we have to be persistent, right? We have to make the argument again and again that there are areas in the market, areas in certain sectors and areas in prudent governance that do matter, that you have to apply and integrate. And over time, we can be a broken record on these things, but we will be persistent and we will ask for information and we will, again, ask for improvement on not just the policies, but the integration of the policies into day-to-day decision-making. And that is not just with the self-branded and self-defined sustainability or ESG managers, but with all managers, as I said before.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And what happens when there's a super high performing manager? By all metrics, everyone would agree maybe they're even closed or close to closed. And it's pretty clear that they just don't care about the sustainable lens.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We have a cross team approach where we have to look at managers holistically and certainly there are managers And we really have to actively engage both internally and externally. And some managers who may a few years ago have been willing to have those conversations now are very willing to listen to us and hear us out. And again, because it ties back into prudent long-term risk management and value creation. And I think there has been a lot of progress that has been made over the last few years in terms of really applying the lens material risk factors and opportunity areas that can drive alpha.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And if you're really trying to make somewhat of a long-term transformative change, where does the kind of rubber meet the road when one of the people on the Cambridge team, broadly, is supporting a manager that through your lens you would say they're really falling short on the sustainable investment principles that you behold.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Certainly, some managers are not just ready, not quite ready to have that conversation. And so they will sometimes say, oh, we don't think about that or we think about it in a different way. And again, it's two-week conversation. And as allocators, you have to push the materiality piece and how this impacts, for example, your revenues or your cost structure or your broader kind of stakeholder effects. So again, tying it to the financials, tying it to the economics, the fundamental economics statements are really important when you're having these conversations because otherwise we're going back to that greenwashing topic again. And it's not just about the window dressing and putting on some reports and metrics. It is about the protection and the creation of value over the long term.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have to do it systematically, and part of it is in your quarterly or biannual conversations that you have anyway with managers. And sometimes these issues come up in a portfolio with, for example, workplace safety issues, governance issues, certainly carbon footprint is always a conversation that people are having in the context of this environment and world faced with climate change and transition risk. So I think there are natural places to have those conversations in your regular dialogue, but you do need to be intentional and proactive as well. And sometimes managers will be very receptive to, again, having those conversations in between your regular touch points, especially if you are reaching out and saying, hey, I saw that you vested in this position. Let's talk about it. Let's think through how you got to that thesis and got to that position.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For allocators to be engaging with all of their managers on sustainability, on ESG integration, on team diversity, and especially for public equity firms, how their practices and policies are reflected in their actual day-to-day implementation, for example, with proxy voting records, are they consistent with what they said they would do, and to be mindful of not just the transparency, but the continuous improvement of all these areas. And I think there is a two-way conversation many times, and managers will often ask us for our advice and best practices as they are getting up to speed on sustainability in ESG integration. So I think it is our responsibility as allocators to just have those conversations and engage with them so that the whole industry develops in a prudent manner.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, absolutely. We are seeing the mainstreaming effect of this whole area from sustainability to ESG integration to impact investing. And I'll just give you an example because we are allocators. We have a unique and differentiated position to engage with all managers, not just those who self-identify as ESG or sustainability managers, but any type of manager who are working on their ESG integration efforts to apply this, what I called earlier, this kind of wide angle lens to their investment approach. And if they're not doing so intentionally already, we are in the position to advocate and engage with them on these practices, just like with certain managers that are engaging with their portfolio companies on more sustainable operating and governance practices. We think that there is a strong opportunity”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Investing everything is interconnected, and you have to be able to intentionally craft strategies that solve for all of those interdependencies. So then you have to look at workforce development and retraining. You can't solve every problem with one investment. You have to be very systematic and thoughtful.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We have to view everything in a systems lens. And to my earlier point about supply chain resilience, you may have opportunities that you are quite excited by in the, let's say, warehouse automation theme or fulfillment of deliveries and logistics that could increase your energy efficiency in the supply chain could actually decrease health risk because it takes humans out of the chain or more so but then it just means fewer labors right and you have you're accelerating the transition for automation and technological disruption and that's obviously affecting labor markets so when you're investing in a portfolio of these themes you have to also connect the dots of how one area may affect another and look in”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And whenever we think about risk, there's always the risks that you don't think of, certainly the health crisis is something nobody's thought of. What are some of the things that you've thought of as risks that you think someone outside of the space might not appreciate?”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There, you have to be very selective in what are the enduring technologies and models that still align with this theme but are not going to get, you wrote it away by the heavy competition.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, as with any investment, you have to focus on the team, their ability to execute on their strategy. Do they really add value? Do they really know the ins and outs of the industries that they're investing in? And then secondly, I would say the risk around market adoption and the broader economic piece, you have to factor in cyclicality when you're looking into sectors such as food and agribusiness, right? There are certain parts of the supply chain there that are less cyclical, perhaps the staples, whereas others like in perhaps branded sustainable consumer products, it may be more subject to the wins of the consumer and have pricing competition from newer players. And you have to focus on the supply and demand of capital, right? There may be a lot of money coming in to alternative proteins at the moment because of the recent successes of certain companies in that space. And while we still see the long-term structural opportunity.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A hardware system of EV charging stations and renewable projects to manage the flow, it's still a software business that is serving a very stable customer base, a utility. And that's recurring revenue. And it's actually done quite well with those types of businesses. And in general, I think the cost of computational power, the cost of storage from a data perspective, right? All of those technological gains and efficiencies have led to, I would say, more favorable substrate for entrepreneurs operating these sectors today to build real businesses that can sustain themselves both from an impact perspective but also from a financial perspective.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“2013, where if you look at the IRRs and the TVPIs of these cleantech sectors since that period, they've actually held up really well both on an absolute basis as well as on a relative basis compared to our global venture and private equity universe. And I think what's reflected in those improved numbers is, well, one, solar and wind costs have come down dramatically over the past decade. I think for wind, it's about 70% over the last decade. For solar, it's about 90% cost decline. So your inputs and your components have just gotten a lot cheaper. You can build projects much more cheaper and the economics of those projects are more favorable. But also, I think on the value chain side, there are just some really interesting and innovative business models that are being applied to these sectors. Some of the examples I shared earlier, taking software to embed into”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Didn't quite appreciate the capital intensity, the commodity risks of the sector, and were pursuing opportunities that were really outside their sweet spot, stage and sector expertise. And of course, that led to underperformance. And it was coupled by both the macroeconomic shock during the time, but also the shale revolution and the cheaper natural gas prices that competed with alternative fuels. So it was a confluence of different events, of different factors that led to disappointing returns in the mid to late 2000s. But what we have seen since really 2012-2013, and we tracked this data at the company level in our database of venture and private equity-backed clean tech companies, they've actually rebounded quite significantly since”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So on the clean tech story and experience, we all know that leading up to the financial crisis, there was a boom and bust of clean tech that a lot of investors and allocators experienced. There's still a lot of pain and scar tissue from that experience. And a lot of times we have clients who bring that up and say, this is why we haven't leaned into the sector more because we've all learned really painful lessons from that time period. And just to distill it down, I think what happened there was there was certainly a lot of overhype, capital flowing in, especially by firms who may not have really developed the deep expertise on the sector. They may have developed expertise in semiconductors or software, but seeing this opportunity at the time, I think their skill sets, especially some of the venture cap early stage venture capital investors.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So much of this space just feels good to talk about. It feels like we're going to move in a great direction. But there's always investment risk. And I wonder if you could start by talking about the most notable investment risk in this space, which was sort of the cleantech movement back, I don't know, 10 years ago now. And what happened with that?”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Go through this transition. But I think if you're intentional as an investor and looking for, again, innovative models to deliver the training, the skill sets, but also to place the retrained workers into the global economy, I think those are some compelling and promising areas to be looking into.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's hard to imagine what the world looks like after we get through this really challenging period. We need to get tens of millions of Americans back to work and not just back to work earning a paycheck, but also doing work that is, again, fitting of their skill sets and fitting the demands of the modern economy. And that transition will likely take some time, right? You need to be able to retrain and reskill millions of American workers and obviously those outside the US as well to jobs that are, let's say, in the technology sector, in the healthcare sector, in broader services sectors that still have demand and long-term relevance. So I think there will be some short-term pain as we”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When we cross over into the social, and you mentioned this sort of socioeconomic gap, this widening inequality, retraining education, workforce, we are coming through this dramatic sudden stop in the economy. Where do you think there will be investment returns that come out of this need to balance out the inequality in the country?”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“One area that we're seeing is a lot of folks that focus on EVs and EV charging, which I think is certainly an area to look at. It's a market that's going down in terms of cost and pricing as more players come in. So I think what's more interesting in that area is the software systems that can integrate more EV charging capacity with the grid and taking on the intermittent renewable resources that will be coming online and managing the flow of electrons between the electrogrid and then the more intermittent renewable power sources and EV charging sources. I think there's some real value there to be able to connect those systems such that we have a more resilient grid system and also a more sustainable energy supply chain.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And how about on the transition side? So, you know, we hear a lot. Obviously, we started talking about coal into clean fuels. Where have been the most interesting investment opportunities in transition?”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so physical side of climate change, we're looking at distributed infrastructure, whether it's obviously renewable infrastructure, distributed food production in the form of advanced greenhouses, for example, where you have, again, less dependency. We're seeing some really interesting opportunities in water technologies as you see the Flint, Michigan disaster, you see kind of the scarcity of water in emerging markets economies. So technologies and business models that can really reduce the pain points of producing and delivering water to those in need of it.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If we drill down on each of those, so let's just start on the environmental side you mentioned the sort of the physical and the transition assets. And I guess some of the supply chain disruption can fit into that. But where do you see the most exciting or interesting opportunities? Let's just start on the physical side.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are more resilient as a society and as an economy. And similarly, when you think about all the labor disruption that is happening right now, but also over the longer time period with globalization, with technological disruption, you need to think about how do you reskill and upskill the laborers and workers who are now unemployed or who are underemployed relative to their potential. And I think there are real opportunities there in the education and workforce development area to help those stakeholders again move up the skills curve and be more in demand for their work in the global economy of the 21st century. So those are a couple of areas that I'm really excited about in the current environment.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Acute social inequality that's just going to lead to reduced social cohesion. You have more social unrest and that's really value eroding for everyone in the system. And so what this current crisis is informing me is that, okay, let's take supply chain disruptions that we're seeing across the global economy right now. How do you find opportunities that layer in more resilience on our supply chains right there's so many interdependencies the way we operate in the global economy that I think there are innovative models of distributed infrastructure manufacturing real-time more flexible manufacturing whether it's 3D printing for example or flexible capacity manufacturing to de-risk obviously you can't de-risk the whole system but in certain parts of the supply chain de-risk so that you”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so I think what this current and tragic health crisis is Teaching me and informing me is that we really need to think about long term resilient portfolios in all its dimensions, need to think about building climate resilient portfolios against physical and transition risks from climate change. You need to build socially resilient portfolios, meaning if we have widespread and”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Engaging with the managers to understand, number one, but also then to address and mitigate number two. And how you mitigate is a combination of leading into the managers who are more thoughtful about these risk factors and embedding these risk factors into their decision making. You can certainly, like what we talked about screen away areas that you think are really fundamentally disrupted and at risk. Some clients are adopting that strategy. And I think more importantly on the offensive side, you can really lean into proactive solutions, whether it's environmental energy efficiency, water, agriculture efficiency, technologies, sustainable real assets to find those opportunities that can help the transition to a lower carbon economy. And a lot of those opportunities are asset-based. And some of those opportunities are more innovation and business model driven.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let's just take climate change for an example. If you take a holistic view, climate change is a systemic risk to portfolios, to our society, to the planet. And you have to look at the downside risks of climate change, whether it's the physical risk, extreme weather directly impacting our infrastructure, our real estate. It could certainly disrupt our supply chains over time. And it could certainly introduce more health risks as vector-borne diseases spread because of climate change. And one way to think about this holistically is think about defense and offense against climate change. On the defensive side, understanding where those risks might appear in a portfolio, whether it's in your real estate portfolio, whether it's in your private equity portfolio or public equity portfolio and really engage.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then you layer in more of the corporate equity type of investments like early stage venture capital, growth equity, where you have more upside potential in capturing technological or business model innovations around, let's say, energy systems, transportation systems, food systems, and water systems. And again, it's having a diversified approach and knowing what each manager or investment, what their role is in the portfolio, I think it's really key. So I think that's the way we see in terms of portfolio construction. And then you go in into each asset class and you find the most talented, most specialized and thoughtful managers that can execute against that strategy, whether it's one that's looking across the food and agribusiness value chain or one that's purely Focused on expansion stage education, for example.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, absolutely. So I'll just give you an example. We work with the foundation that has a climate change mitigation and resource efficiency mandate. And we've been able to help them build a diversified portfolio in the private markets that gives you exposure to broad sustainable real assets, so infrastructure, cash flowing assets that are within the sustainability renawable infrastructure, EV charging infrastructure, certainly sustainable timber and agriculture, sustainable water assets, et cetera. So I think there's a lot of good balance in that part of the portfolio because these are, again, cash flowing. These are typically resilient against macro shocks because your counterparties are utilities, investment grade corporates. So I think typically more stable in terms of profile.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We walk through asset classes. So we've talked a little bit about public equity, and then private equity is broad. So where do you see these opportunities? Is it venture capital, traditional private equity, real assets?”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, again, going back to the wider aperture point that I made earlier. I think if you have a belief that certain part of the market is going to be fundamentally disrupted from an economic sense because of real economic and business transitions because the cost of renewables and alternatives have come down, obviously you have natural gas disrupting the market for coal and you have policies that have led to an energy transition as well globally. Taking that fundamental economic view, I think is the more long-term and sound approach to navigating where you play in your portfolio, whether it's screening out certain things intentionally or leaning into other areas, growth-oriented areas of the market. So I think it is a tool, certainly, the negative screening, but it is certainly not a complete tool. And you have to come”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Andor take those networks and learnings and apply them to everything you do when you're assessing portfolio construction and manager selection. And I think that latter piece is less concrete, perhaps, but it's also really important because it's about mindset. It's about framing the issues in a way that hopefully drives long-term returns.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is one starting point, certainly, for several of our clients who have started with a carve-out allocation to impact investing where it's focused on certain themes, or it's just a general allocation to broad sustainability impact sectors. And of course, the risk to that is you never expand it because the committee or the organization feels like they've done something and that's sufficient, but you always have to push the envelope and ask the question, okay, what have we done here in this portfolio that has worked? And let's do more of that and expand that to the broader portfolio because I do think there are many relevant lessons. that can be drawn for the broader portfolio. And again, over time, graduate some of those managers into the broader portfolio.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Does it start with a almost like a bucket? I don't know if you call it an asset class, but a portion of a public equity portfolio, a portion of a private equity portfolio that is either thematic based or impact-based, dedicated to these strategies, is that the starting point that typically happens”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's an ongoing journey, and you have to have the end goal in sight, which is, okay, you're integrating sustainability into the whole portfolio across all asset classes. Some asset classes may be harder to implement, like in hedge funds, where, frankly, we're not seeing as many offerings to date, but we're seeing some new products being formed and we're going to assess those. You have to know that you start somewhere, you build upon it, and over time, you know that you're getting to a place where you can substantially measure and report on the ESG characteristics and the impact that your portfolio is having on the broader system. So I don't think it's a time period specific objective. I would say it's ongoing, it's in perpetuity, and you always have to adapt and iterate. You go”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, so you've started with a mission, we've identified a manager along the way, gone through the diligence process, hopefully screened out some of these greenwashers. And you mentioned, well, you start with a manager, find a great manager, and then another one, and the next thing you know, you have something. So over time, how do your clients fully integrate a longer-term strategy into their portfolios?”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because of certain risk factors around environmental liabilities or workplace safety issues, for example, or certain governance risks, I think those are, again, really important questions that you have to ask for understanding how seriously a manager is practicing their ESG policy.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We, of course, ask managers if they have an ESG policy, how do they embed that policy into their process. But I think what's really more relevant when you're engaging with these managers is, okay, let's go through your portfolio and let's go through your holdings, right? How did you arrive at these decisions given you have this ESG policy? And sometimes you can call out some more blatant outliers where it's not really consistent with their policy. And you have to probe them on why that is. And their rationale may be satisfactory, may not, but that's, I think, part of the process as an allocator is, again, understanding and pushing these managers on their ESG considerations. And I think getting through those case studies, okay, why they invested in company for various ESG characteristics? And importantly, why they didn't invest in a certain company.”
2020-06-11 · Capital Allocators · Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source