I had an early career in the finance industry, selling financial analysts’ research to pension funds and investment managers. Although I loved it, after 15 years I felt that something was missing. I began to feel there was a lack of connection between the financial world I was living in and the real world. I started to wonder what I could do about some of the overwhelming global issues I saw, such as resource scarcity, climate change and unjust social conditions.

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What I realized is that there have been many changes over the past 50 years that have affected corporate behavior. Companies are required to report on their activities much more frequently, which has led investors to focus on short-term gains. However, the global issues that are affecting more of us every day, require more of a long-term approach.

There is a disconnect from what we want as global citizens (long-term solutions), versus what we want as investors (short term profits). If we want companies to address these global issues, more focus needs to be put on the long-term. As public companies are very sensitive to what investors want (because they provide them with the capital they need for growth), I realized that the investor stakeholder is the key to having impact on these global issues.

I subsequently started Millani, an ESG advisory firm that focuses on the investor stakeholder. We now help institutional investors understand how they can take environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues into consideration in their investment processes and we help those companies they invest in to develop and disclose appropriate data, so investors can make impactful decisions about how they allocate their capital.