About Us

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.

A contributing researcher and analyst since Si2's inception, Robin Young oversees Si2's research efforts in all areas of corporate political activity and related shareholder proposals and co-authored its two studies on corporate political spending. In addition, he covers all research for executive compensation, mortgage and banking issues as well as contributing to research and reporting on environmental and sustainability proposals. Previously, he was a senior analyst for IRRC, ISS and RiskMetrics from 2005 to 2009. There he covered a wide range of corporate governance issues, including evaluation of company specific compensation plans, management and shareholder sponsored corporate governance issues with special emphasis on mergers, acquisitions and recapitalizations, as well as management and shareholder proposals related to executive compensation. While at IRRC and ISS he also helped collect and verify evergreen and overall dilution data and was a contributing writer to several dilution studies. He helped manage overseas teams and perform quality control checks on data collected by these divisions, as well as helping to maintain and manage the organizations' databases of shareholder proposals. He also worked for RiskMetrics' ESG group, covering political contributions and predatory lending. In addition to writing background materials and company analyses on these topics, he contributed to custom consulting projects, providing research for several clients and helping to develop cases for them on corporate engagement. Before coming to IRRC, Young also worked as loan officer and team leader for several mortgage businesses. He holds B.A. in political science from Colorado College.

Sara E. Murphy was a long-time contributor to Si2 who in January 2021 became Chief Strategy Officer at the Shareholder Commons.


She previously was an independent consultant producing research reports and articles on how social and environmental factors affect investment analysis and decision-making. She also provided corporate social responsibility training in both English and French, primarily to members of private industry and civil society in sub-Saharan Africa. Murphy began her career in 1998 working for NGOs in the international development and disaster response fields. In 2001, she transitioned into SRI research for the Corporate Benchmarking Service of the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC), where she specialized in bioengineering and defense contracting research. After leaving IRRC, Sara spent several years at The Cadmus Group, an environmental consultant whose primary client was the EPA. In 2005, Murphy moved to Europe to work as a senior sustainability analyst for a large SRI fund management team, where her primary role was to define the investable universe on the basis of sustainability criteria. She worked as a consultant from 2011 to 2020, with a focus on the social and environmental factors at play in extractive industries.


Murphy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia in French and Spanish, and a Master of Arts degree from George Mason University in Economics. She currently serves on the Board of p.h. balanced films, a non-profit film and research organization that makes documentary films designed to educate consumers about social concerns in the global supply chains of common consumer goods.

Sol Kwon has researched and written about corporate responsibility issues since 2002. Most recently, between 2012 and 2015, she was the Associate Director at the Center for Political Accountability, a non-partisan group that promotes greater disclosure of corporate political spending. Kwon worked in the Finance and Strategy Practice of the Corporate Executive Board from 2010 to 2011 as a Strategic Research Consultant, helping corporate executives solve critical management-related problems. Between 2006 and 2010, Kwon was the Lead Analyst for Corporate Governance at the Capital Stewardship Program of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, where she worked with labor pension fund trustees on responsible investing and corporate governance reform campaigns. She joined IRRC's Social Issues Service in 2002, where she analyzed and wrote about sustainability reporting, global health pandemics, climate change, and defense contracting issues. Kwon earned her B.A. in International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University and holds an M.B.A. from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland.

Asha Sanaker is a writer and business manager based in Ithaca, New York. She began her career in social work, as an advocate for chronically homeless women and domestic violence victims in Seattle. Working on behalf of people whose lives are dependent on sound social policy was an essential foundation for the development of Asha's perspective as she moved into business management. After relocating to Ithaca in 2001, Asha began working in financial and business management for cooperatives, learning about the benefits and challenges of balancing financial success and social conscience. She also worked as a political journalist as a staff writer for Countable, a nonpartisan online political website, in 2017. Asha has a BA in African & African-American Studies from Earlham College.

Fuad Ahmad is a writer and communications specialist with a background in global corporate brand management. Over a two-decade advertising career in Asia, Latin America and the United States he helped craft successful advocacy campaigns for organizations like the Worl Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and Amnesty International, while providing critiques of brand campaigns created for Fortune 500 corporations. He began his career in Bangladesh, interning for organizations including the Grameen Bank and BRAC, while also working as a report writer for civil society groups focused on environmental and economic issues. He began his agency career in Chicago after attending Oberlin College and now also is pursuing a degree in animation and media design from Full Sail University.

Joy Borkholder has worked as a freelance researcher and investigative data journalist for several years. Her published topics vary widely, from the gig economy to voting rights. Previously, she spent a decade working as a researcher for several labor unions, in that time passing CFA Level 1. Her other areas of expertise include the implications of mergers and acquisitions in health care and corporate influence in politics.

Joy holds master's degrees from the University of Chicago (social work) and the University of Virginia (sociology); and a bachelor's degree from Cedarville University (international studies).