Amr Addas developed the newest Goodman course
With the addition of GIIM 655: Socially Responsible and Sustainable Investment to the MBA with Complete CFA Integration curriculum, students in the program are developing skills in one of the fastest growing areas of finance.
According to Amr Addas, the course’s developer, lecturer and driving force, “This new knowledge will not only dramatically improve students’ job opportunities, but it will also allow them to be part of a transformative moment in the evolution of the investment industry at a time when other programs are not teaching this yet.”
He explains that the course reflects the shift from values- based to value--based investment. The approach that has been prevalent over the past twenty years and that focused on avoidance of so-called sin stocks and negative screening, is giving way to thinking which recognises that returns are likely to be enhanced by organizations that manage their business with an eye to the environment, social responsibility and governance: ESG.
“We are seeing incontrovertible evidence that organizations that limit their environmental footprint, mitigate their impact on climate, look after their employees and partner with their communities perform better than those who do not,” says Addas.
Socially Responsible and Sustainable Investment provides students with the background and tools to help them determine which investment opportunities are most ESG compliant and best positioned to provide sustainable value to their investors.
As part of the course, students get a review of the evolution of the field of ESG-based investing and then delve into topics such as data collection and evaluation, stranded assets, analysis of high performing ESG funds Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management, for example), emerging markets and ESG’s overall impact on the financial industry. The course prepares students for an industry where assets managed by signatories of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) account for about half of the more than $100 trillion under management by asset managers and institutional investors.
Socially Responsible and Sustainable Investment was created by Addas in collaboration with Thomas Walker, a professor in JMSB’s Department of Finance and director of the David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise. Addas says that relatively quick approval of the new course is, in itself, symbolic of the transformation in perspective of finance curriculum and of the industry as a whole.