Christian
Brothers Investment Services (CBIS)
Promotes Socially Responsible Investing
On
Monday, October 24th, Dr. Krause and the students in the AIM program
heard an excellent presentation about socially responsible investing (SRI).
Representing Christian
Brothers Investment Services were Julie Tanner, Director of Catholic
Responsible Investing; Tim Schwarzenberger, Head of Portfolio Services; and Tom Kelly (AIM alumnus), Portfolio Specialist, Distribution Services
Team
Christian
Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) is a Catholic socially responsible asset
management firm. Founded in 1981 by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, CBIS
works exclusively with Catholic institutions and their fiduciaries. They offers
services to numerous dioceses, colleges and universities, religious institutes
and health care systems. They currently manage over $6 billion in assets
globally and have offices in the U.S. and Europe (New York, Chicago, San
Francisco and Rome).
 |
Julie Tanner, Tim Schwarzenberger,
Tom Kelly, and Dr. David Krause |
Christian
Brothers uses Catholic beliefs as the basis of their ongoing corporate
dialogues, encouraging companies to create long-term strategies and policies
that potentially reduce investment risk and increase shareholder value.
Dr.
Krause said, “Christian Brothers is a manager of managers. In other words, they
engage third parties to actively sub-advise the assets in their portfolios. They
offer two product lines: US-domiciled, commingled funds and Ireland-domiciled global
funds for Catholic institutions in select countries around the world.
The
AIM students learned that CBIS’ primary investment philosophy is to deliver
highly competitive risk adjusted investment returns in a manner consistent with
the moral and social teachings of the Catholic Church. They believe that they successfully
utilize investors who can generate favorable long-term risk-adjusted performance
and support the conviction of Catholic responsible
investing. Their process is to utilize Catholic investing screens to avoid
companies providing products or services that violate Catholic teachings.
 |
| Julie Tanner, Director, Catholic Responsible Investing |
Examples of key issues that could exclude firms from
their portfolios include those that produce or engage in providing the
following: abortifacients, contraceptives, embryonic stem cell research, human
cloning, fetal tissue research, pornography, major weapons manufacturers, producers
of landmines, manufacturers of firearms, tobacco products, etc.
Their process involves reviewing company researchand creating a list of prohibited companies to their sub-advisers. They employ
a diverse range of strategies to implement their Catholic responsible investing
program which includes screening and activism.
By active ownership of the shares of firms that do
not meet their standards they engage in some or all of the following
activities: corporate engagements, shareholder resolutions and proxy voting.
 |
| Tom Kelly |
Dr. Krause commented, “It was great to see Tom Kelly and I am pleased that he was able to bring his colleagues to campus. The AIM students engaged in a discussion
with our guests from CBIS about socially responsible investing (which is an
investment strategy which seeks to consider both financial return and social
good). They were very interested in
learning more about ESG investing – which is the incorporation of
environmental, social and governance factors into traditional financial
analysis. It was an excellent presentation and the AIM students are likely to
not only select companies with strong financial performance prospects, but also
those that are ESG leaders in their respective industries.”
After the class, Mr. Bill Walker (AIM Adjunct
Lecturer) and I met with Julie, Tim and Tom to discuss ways that the AIM
program can work SRI practices into the investment curriculum. Krause
summarized, “This was an excellent presentation and I know that the students
are committed to making sound investment decisions that consider both financial
return and social good – it is consistent with our mission and values at
Marquette University.”
