Shearman & Sterling hosted Sharenett’s Smart Cities, ESG & Impact Symposium on Wednesday, December 11, 2019 to an audience of family offices and high-net-worth individuals. The symposium brought together finance, sustainability and risk experts to explore the underlying factors that have driven the rise of ESG, investor expectations and how to quantify impact across portfolios, while making an attractive return.  Donna Parisi, partner and Global Head of Finance, Financial Services and FinTech, led a fireside chat entitled “How is the Fortune 500 approaching Impact & ESG” with Valerie Smith, Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at Citi. The discussion provided insight on why an investment bank and corporate lender needs a CSO, how Citi measures impact and the specific metrics and key performance indicators utilized.

The symposium consisted of a host of panel discussions such as “Digital Transformation of Smart Cities,” “Doing Good while Doing Well,” “Opportunities in Global Renewables Power” and “Smart Cities and Climate Change.”

Additional notable speakers included:

• Moshe BenBassat - Associate Professor at IDC Herzliya and Founder & Former CEO, ClickSoftware
• Cecelia Chapiro - Investment Advisor, UNICEF Venture Fund 
• Oliver Davis - CEO, Buildee 
• Justin DeAngelis - Partner, Denham Capital 
• Tara Doyle, Director of Business Development, Terra Alpha Investments 
• Lori Fena, Founder, Sustainable Information Economy
• Matt Kennedy - Managing Director, Diatoms Inc.
• Liz Luckett - Managing Partner, The Social Entrepreneurs' Fund
• Samir Saini - Chief Commercial Officer, Mobility Insight 
• Richard Seamans - CIO, Seamans Capital Management
• Rick Shrotri - Managing Partner, Digital Alpha Fund
• Dave Shuler - Co-Founder, Y2X
• Martin Torres - MD & Head of Renewables Business, BlackRock 

Founded by a family office, created and designed for family offices and owned by family offices, ShareNett is a members-only, global network of professional investors collaborating on curated, quality investment opportunities.