The inaugural members are:

• Francesca Cornelli, Dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management
• Sharon Hendricks, professor, Los Angeles City College, board member, California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) and former director of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
• Martin Skancke, founder, Skancke Consulting and a board member of both Storebrand ASA and the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund)
• Peter Tufano, Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School

They join Hiro Mizuno, special advisor to MSCI’s CEO and former chief investment officer of Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, who serves as strategic counsel to the Institute.

“We are thrilled to welcome Francesca Cornelli, Sharon Hendricks, Martin Skancke and Peter Tufano to our advisory council,” said Linda-Eling Lee, the Institute’s founding director. “Dean Cornelli and Professor Tufano are widely regarded as leaders in connecting insights and innovation produced by academics with investment practice.

“Professor Hendricks and Martin Skancke are champions of sustainable investment principles who have used their leadership at some of the world’s biggest investors to address climate risks and the shift to a greener global economy,” she added.

A forum for aligning (and driving) action

The Institute’s Advisory Council will bring together experts in sustainability-related practice, research and advocacy from across finance, academia, business and policymaking with the aim of inspiring the direction of the Institute through strategic guidance, analysis and feedback. Members of the council will advise the Institute on opportunities to align data, analysis, policy and practice across domains and seed ideas for research.

Francesca Cornelli is the dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the Donald P. Jacobs Chair of Finance. Previously, she was professor of finance and deputy dean at London Business School, where she directed and advanced the school’s Private Equity Institute, building a bridge between academia and practice by partnering with private equity leaders in London, alumni and top academics in the field. Her research interests include corporate governance, private equity, privatization, bankruptcy, IPOs and innovation policy. She is a research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and previously served as a director of the American Finance Association.

Sharon Hendricks is a professor of communications studies at Los Angeles City College, where she has taught for more than two decades. She serves on the boards of both CalSTRS, where she has served as both chair and vice chair, and the PRI. She also serves on the working group for the Trustee Leadership Forum, part of the Initiative for Responsible Investment at Harvard’s Kennedy School, chairs the American Federation of Teachers Trustee Council and partners in convening the California Trustee Network.

Martin Skancke is a self-employed consultant at Skancke Consulting and a board member of both Storebrand ASA and Norfund, as well as a former chair of the PRI. He has worked in the Norwegian Ministry of Finance and headed the ministry’s Section for Monetary Policy and Public Finances. He has been chair of Norway’s Climate Risk Commission and Director General at both the Office of the Norwegian Prime Minister and at the Ministry of Finance’s Asset Management Department.

Peter Tufano is Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and senior advisor to the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. From 2011 to 2021, he served as the Peter Moores Dean at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. From 1989 to 2011, he was a Professor at Harvard Business School, where he oversaw the school’s tenure and promotion processes, campus planning, and university relations and was the founding co-chair of the Harvard i-lab. His research and course development has spanned financial innovation, financial engineering, and household finance. His current work focuses on business solutions to climate change.

About the MSCI Sustainability Institute. We are on a mission to drive progress by capital markets to create sustainable value and tackle global challenges such as climate change. We do this by drawing upon MSCI’s experience and expertise in the investment industry to curate data and analysis, support scholarship and advance knowledge that helps practitioners, academics and policymakers fine-tune their approaches for maximum effectiveness.