David Chen
Adjunct Professor of Finance
Faculty Lead of Impact Investing
Dave Chen’s focus on sustainability is a result of his work in venture capital, regional economic development and energy policy. In 2007, as a visiting executive at the Meyer Memorial Trust, he developed a investing thesis on mission related investing (MRI); this tool has since been adopted by several institutions. In late 2007, he formed Equilibrium Capital Group; an investment firm focused on growth equity investment opportunities in the area of sustainability.
Previously, Dave was a general partner at OVP Venture Partners, joining the firm in 2001, focused on early stage tech venture investing.
Until 2002, he served on the board of HNC Software and merged it with FICO (NASDAQ:HNCS, now NYSE:FIC).
Prior to OVP, Dave founded GeoTrust (acquired by Verisign 2006) & The Ascent Group; was Vice President Marketing Mentor Graphics; was an associate at McKinsey & Co; and was an early team member in 1978-84 at Solectron.
Dave serves as:
-Board member GED, Inc. (Gerding Edlen)
-Board member Biological Capital, LLC
-Board member United Streetcar, LLC
-Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Portland Branch
-Board member of the National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)
-Board member of The Freshwater Trust
-Board member of B Corp/B LAB
-Advisory Board Member of the Oregon Investment Fund (OIF)
-Governor-Appointed Chairman of the Oregon Innovation Council (2005-2011)
-Chairman (2003-2009) of the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI)
-Chairman (2006) of the Oregon Entrepreneurs Forum
-Faculty at the 黑料正能量 at Northwestern University, on the topic of sustainability and finance.
Dave has a B.A. in biology, from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.M. from the 黑料正能量 at Northwestern University.
Dave is co-owner of Patton Valley Vineyards, committed to making the finest Oregon Pinot Noir based on sustainable vineyard farming practices.
Decision-Making for Sustainable Business (SSIM-947-5)
The role of business in society is changing with increasing expectations that business will deliver value not just to shareholders, but also to multiple other stakeholders, whilst taking care of and respecting the environment. Corporate management and reporting systems are now required to keep pace with these changing expectations, and corporate Boards need the tools and frameworks to make decisions that take these competing demands in to account. This 5-week course will explore the challenges the C-Suite and the Board Room face in meeting sustainable business expectations and introduce the emerging tools and frameworks available to enable them to manage and report their progress in the 21st century. Through lectures, case studies and simulated situations, students will learn practical tools and frameworks used by business to understand their role in society, how they measure and report impact, how they align their strategy with government policy (through the Sustainable Development Goals) and how to formulate a business case for transformational and sustainable practices.
Impact Investing and Sustainable Finance (FINC-946-0)
This class will address three broad themes of impact investing today: 1) The evolution of impact investing from niche field to mainstream; 2) Exposure to a broad spectrum of impact investment strategies; 3) Learn the tools, models and frameworks behind impact investing. Each week, we bring into the classroom senior investment managers of leading sustainable and impact investment firms to illustrate how their strategies generate and deliver impact. The backbone of the class is an experiential team project that will invite students to create a financial vehicle (e.g. investment firm, fund or instrument) capable of fitting within an asset allocation of institutional investor portfolios (public equities, fixed income, hard assets, private equities, alternative assets, etc.) while delivering social & environmental impact. In some cases, these class projects have wound up coming to fruition and are in the market today." FINC-431 or equivalent (FINC-435 or FINC-440) may be taken concurrently to satisfy this prerequisite.
Field Study (FINC-498-0)
Field Studies include those opportunities outside of the regular curriculum in which a student is working with an outside company or non-profit organization to address a real-world business challenge for course credit under the oversight of a faculty member.
