MARCH 14: The Proxy Preview report with a forecast of the proxy season and additional articles from shareholder proponents and experts was released on March 14. Download the report and access the webinar replayhere
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Our Board of Directors

The Sustainable Investment Institute (Si2), a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. We conduct impartial research and publish reports on organized efforts to influence corporate behavior on social and environmental issues.


Our Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors consists of the following individuals:


Heidi Welsh

Executive Director

Email Heidi
Heidi Welsh, the founding executive director of the Sustainable Investments Institute (Si2), has analyzed and written about corporate responsibility issues since the late 1980s. She oversees Si2's operations and research. Welsh was the lead author of several Si2 studies about corporate political influence, some published with the IRRC Institute. Previously, Welsh helped author seasonal and annual reports on proxy voting trends starting in 1987 at the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC), closely followed social and environmental shareholders resolutions and their results, and for 16 years ran the monitoring program examining corporate compliance with the MacBride principles for fair employment in Northern Ireland. She co-authored the Carbon Disclosure Project's 2007 report on S&P 500 companies and also set up a global sustainability metrics project for RiskMetrics analyzing 1,800 of the world's biggest companies. Welsh also served on the Global Reporting Initiative's Electric Utility Sector Working Group in 2008-09 and participated in an Oxford University assessment of Northern Ireland's affirmative action legislation. Welsh received her bachelor's degree in political science, cum laude, with a concentration in science, technology and public policy, from Carleton College. She holds a master's degree from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.

Julie Gorte

Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing, Impax Asset Management


Julie Fox Gorte, Ph.D. is the Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing at Impax Asset Management LLC. She oversees Environmental, Social and Governance-related research on prospective and current investments as well as Pax's shareholder advocacy and work on public policy advocacy. Dr. Gorte serves on the boards of the Institute, the Endangered Species Coalition, the Women’s Education Project, Clean Production Action, and E4theFuture. She has served as the co-chair of the Asset Management Working Group of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiatives. Prior to joining Pax, Dr. Gorte served as Vice President and Chief Social Investment Strategist at Calvert. Her experience before she joined the investment world in 1999 includes nearly 14 years as Senior Associate and Project Director at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, Vice President for Economic and Environmental Research at The Wilderness Society, Program Manager for Technology Programs in the Environmental Protection Agency's policy office and Senior Associate at the Northeast-Midwest Institute. Dr. Gorte received her Bachelor of Science in Forest Management at Northern Arizona University and a Master of Science and Ph.D from Michigan State in resource economics.

Scott Fenn

Treasurer, Si2


Scott Fenn is semi-retired and previously served as research director for the Solar Industries Association and with Proxy Governance, a proxy advisory firm. Fenn worked for 24 years at the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC), a not-for-profit policy research institute in Washington, D.C., and as its executive director and president from 1996 through 2001. He also worked as IRRC's treasurer and CFO and director of its energy and environmental program. IRRC provided impartial research, analysis and voting agent services on a wide range of corporate governance and social responsibility issues to more than 500 leading institutional investors and corporations, its operations eventually became part of MSCI Group. Fenn was a consultant or advisor on energy or environmental issues to other organizations, including the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the State of New York, the Global Environmental Management Initiative and a number of investing institutions. He is the author of three books and numerous analytic studies on energy, environmental and corporate governance topics. He is a cum laude graduate of Williams College, where he received a degree in economics and was editor-in-chief of the Williams Record, the college newspaper.

Mark Bateman

Director of ESG/SRI Research, Aperio


Mark Bateman is Director of ESG/SRI Research for Aperio, a separate account asset manager providing hyper-customized portfolio, including on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. Mark also founded ENSOGO Analytics, a firm that rates the ESG attributes of mutual fund portfolios. Previously, Mark founded the research department at IW Financial (later acquired by ISS), a leading provider of value-added ESG research, and was its director for six years. Before IW Financial, Mark spent eleven years at the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC, now part of MSCI) in a range of positions, including director of the Environmental Information Service and ultimately vice president of research and operations. Mark also served on the original steering committee of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) helping to develop a sustainability reporting framework for companies. Before joining the responsible investing industry, Mark served on the legislative staff of Senator Mark O. Hatfield from Oregon. Mark holds a BA from The Johns Hopkins University and an MA from George Washington University.

Mary Jane McQuillen

Portfolio Manager and Head of the ESG Investment Program, ClearBridge Investments


Mary Jane McQuillen is a Portfolio Manager and Head of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investment Program at ClearBridge Investments, the largest equity affiliate of Legg Mason, Inc. Prior to this, Mary Jane worked in the same capacity with predecessor firm, Citigroup Asset Management since 1996. She serves on the Board of the IRRC Institute, a funder of of ESG research within a capital markets context. Mary Jane is a former Board Director for the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA). She is also a former Board member of the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US SIF). Mary Jane serves on the Legg Mason Sustainability Council, as well as the Education & Awareness Committee. Mary Jane is a member of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) public equities ESG Integration Working Group. She is a long-standing and active member of the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Asset Management Working Group (AMWG). She received her MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School and her BS in Finance from Fordham University.