Stephanie Cohn Rupp
Managing Director, Tiedemann Advisors
Stephanie oversees the development of the firm’s impact investing service offering. She is also responsible for working with Tiedemann prospects, clients and advisors on developing impact approaches to be integrated into their portfolios. Additionally, she co-leads the firm’s business development strategy team. Stephanie joined Tiedemann when the firm merged with the Threshold Group, where she launched Threshold’s presence in the Bay Area and led the Impact Investing team. Prior to Threshold, Stephanie was the CEO of Toniic, an impact investor network where she led all aspects of global strategy, growth and operations. She is a frequent speaker at impact investing conferences. Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Science in philosophy and politics from Bristol University, England, a Master of Science from the London School of Economics, and a Master in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School focused on Trade and Finance.
Patricia Farrar-Rivas
CEO,Founding Member, Veris Wealth Partners LLC
Patricia Farrar-Rivas is a founding principal, as well as the CEO, of Veris Wealth Partners. She has been providing investment advisory and wealth management services since 1992. Patricia is a principal consultant to the Envestnet Sustainability Platform and was a member of the Envestnet Advisory Board. Prior to Veris, Patricia led the effort by Silicon Valley-based public accounting firm, Frank, Rimerman + Co. to launch its new investment advisory subsidiary, Frank, Rimerman Advisors. She also co-founded the New York office of Progressive Asset Management in 1994.
Earlier in her career, Patricia worked with Veris co-founder Michael Lent and community leaders in Central America on economic development, local empowerment, and social justice. She realized the degree to which economic factors were embedded in the challenges they faced, and, as the responsible investing industry was emerging in the U.S., turned her attention to advising asset owners on the potential impact of their investment policies and decisions.
Patricia is currently a Board member of 18 Reasons, a community cooking school, empowering communities to eat good food every day. Her previous Board experience includes As You Sow, a nonprofit organization promoting corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, grant making, and innovative legal strategies. She also served as a member of the Standards Council for the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), a nonprofit that works on developing and disseminating industry-specific sustainability accounting standards for material, nonfinancial (ESG) information.
Liz Michaels
Chief of Staff and Director of ESG/SRI, Aperio Group
Liz Michaels is Aperio’s Chief of Staff and Director of ESG/SRI. Prior to joining Aperio, Liz was responsible for the $11 billion defined contribution managed accounts business at Ibbotson Associates, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. Earlier in her career, she was the Chief Operating Officer of Morningstar, Inc. and served on the company's executive committee. Liz was also the President of Jellyvision, Inc., an interactive firm best known for its game, You Don't Know Jack™, and Associate Dean/Director of the Career Advising and Planning Services office at the University of Chicago. Liz has a BA in Economics and an MBA from the University of Chicago. When she's not in Sausalito, Liz starts her day with 5:00 a.m. runs along Lake Michigan with her Weimaraners and mom friends.
Samantha Palm
Portfolio Manager, Parnassus Investments
Samantha D. Palm is the Portfolio Manager of the Parnassus Fixed Income Fund. Prior to joining Parnassus Investments in 2013, she was a Vice President within Wells Fargo Securities’ fixed income group. Previously, Ms. Palm was at Robert W. Baird & Co. where she was an equity research analyst. Ms. Palm graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a bachelor's degree in agricultural and applied economics.
Debbie McCoy
Managing Director, Impact Investing & Emerging Markets, BlackRock
Debbie McCoy, Managing Director, is Head of Sustainability with the Systematic Active division of BlackRock's Active Equities Group.
Ms. McCoy joined the firm in 2015. Previously, she worked for Stanford University where she made investment recommendations to the university's endowment manager, conceived and co-taught an MBA finance elective course about investing in emerging and frontier markets, and was a Director of the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies. Ms. McCoy began her career at Bain & Company in San Francisco and Johannesburg and later worked for Citigroup in New York and New Delhi, as well as a sovereign wealth group. Ms. McCoy served as a non-partisan, Presidentially-appointed White House Fellow at the U.S. Department of State. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Ms. McCoy received a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from Howard University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and MBA from Harvard Business School.
