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Monday 28 October - SRI & Corporates in Asia
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Speakers
& Presentations
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SPEAKERS
PANEL: An A-Z of SRI
パネル・ディスカッション:SRIについてのイントロダクション |
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Chair: Ms. Louisa Mitchell,
Executive Director, ASrIA
Panel:
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| Mr. Peter
Montagnon, Head of Investment Affairs,
Association of British Insurers |
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63 KB |
The Association of British
Insurers |
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Mr. Robert Rosen,
SRI Consultant, Australia
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Ms. Fran Teplitz,
Managing Director , US Social Investment
Forum
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68 KB |
Remarks |
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Ms. Helen Wildsmith,
Executive Director, UK Social Investment
Forum
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68 KB |
SRI in the UK: The Role of
Public Policy |
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Introduction
The purpose of this panel is to set provide an introduction to SRI for those
not particularly familiar with it, and to have a discussion of SRI as it is
practiced in the USA, Europe and Asia. The panelists will describe the evolution
of SRI in their different parts of the world, then they will touch on the different
approaches to SRI, and each will focus on specific issues and practices and
the latest developments in their own countries and areas. Hopefully this will
provoke some discussion on how to further develop SRI in Asia based on other
models and the latest developments around the world.
Fran Teplitz
Ms. Teplitz oversees both the programmatic and membership aspects of the US
Social Investment Forum. The US Social Investment Forum is one of ASrIA's sister
organizations. She joined the Forum June 2000.
Fran also serves as the Director of the Socially Responsible Business &
Investing Division of Co-op America. Co-op America is a nonprofit membership
organization that involves consumers, businesses and investors in economic strategies
to advance positive social and environmental change. Co-op America also serves
a secretariat role for the Social Investment Forum.
Before joining the Social Investment Forum and Co-op America, Fran worked with
Peace Action and the Peace Action Education Fund for seven years and she worked
on U.S. policy toward Central America.
Helen Wildsmith
Helen Wildsmith is the Executive Director of the UK Social Investment Forum,
another of ASrIA's sister organisations. She took up this position in February
this year. Prior to joining UKSIF, she worked at the Centre for Business &
Society at Ashridge Management College and at the National Westminster Group
where she worked on a varity of strategic projects for different NatWest divisions
and subsidiaries for 7 years. She has MSc in Social Policy from the London School
of Economics.
Peter Montagnon
Peter Montagnon joined the Association of British Insurers as Head of Investment
Affairs in October 2000. ABI members are large investors controlling funds worth
some £1,100bn. His department is responsible for representing the interests
of ABI members as investors to the broader public, government and the companies
in which the industry holds stakes.
Previously Mr Montagnon was a senior journalist at the Financial Times for many
years, including a significant time spent in Asia in the 1990s.
Robert Rosen
Robert has been involved in the Australian SRI industry for 17 years. He was
involved in the establishment of the first ethical investment unit trust and
the first green equities fund in Australia. He has carried out social and environmental
research on Australian listed companies, managed an SRI investment advisory
group and a community based loan fund and written and lectured extensively on
SRI and related issues. He is on the Board of the Ethical Investment Association
of Australia and is a Director of ASrIA.
Questions (in case of lack of questions from the floor)
a) What has been the impact of the corporate scandals over the last year on
shareholder advocacy, attitudes toward SRI, and the priorities of SRI?
b) What impact is the current depressed global equity market having on SRI?
c) In each of your areas, how is the focus on SRI and the focus on Corporate
Governance being handled. Are the two converging together? Particularly in light
of the recent corporate scandals. Obviously we have a workshop dedicated to
this issue tomorrow, but I think it would be interesting to share you views
from around the world on this with the plenary session.
d) I have noticed that the ABI is specifically recommending that companies
report on sustainability issues in their annual report so as to facilitate assessment
of the business impact of social responsibility. How is sustainability reporting
being handled in general each of your areas/countries?
e) Policy as follow-on from Helen's talk: has the UK Government's move in terms
of the pensions legislation with regard to SRI acted as a lead example for Europe?
I ask because it would be great to see Japan acting as a leader for the rest
of the Asian region in this area of legislation. Have other European countries
looked at the UK as an example of best practice in this area and what has the
knock-on effect been?
f) How did the process of similar legislation amendment take place in Australia
(Robert)? Was the UK used as a precedent. What were the drivers to this decision
in Australia?
f) Microfinance as follow-on from Robert's talk but aimed at Helen/Fran: how
do some of the US/European SRI funds structure their community investing within
their SRI portfolios?
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