My Journey on the Road Less Traveled (From a Scottish Univ to Impact Investing in NYC)

by Elizabeth di Bonaventura, Senior Institutional Relationship Associate, Domini Impact Investments. 

The road less traveled has always been the path I’ve found myself on in life, whether intentionally or not. As a young girl, I did not grow up believing that I would have a career in finance. I was beguiled by misconceptions that the field was too difficult and the bar for entry too insurmountably high. Even more daunting was the lack of representation of women within the financial sector.

As a millennial myself, I find my generation faced with the challenge of tackling humankind’s greatest crisis: climate change. Growing up under the specter of a rapidly warming planet, we’ve had to decide that the cost of chasing unlimited profit may not be worth the payoff and the corresponding destructive social or environmental consequences. The lens of investing has broadened so that positive social and environmental outcomes can be coupled with lucrative returns, 

Prior to the onset of my professional career, I chose to attend the University of St. Andrews, a Scottish university located in a small town nestled on the North Sea. I found myself in a new culture, surrounded by people from different backgrounds with fresh points of view. While the rigorous academics and people I met at St. Andrews greatly shaped both my personal and professional trajectory, I did not pursue a ‘classically finance-oriented’ degree, majoring instead in International Relations. Through this area of study, I followed my interests in political theories, governing bodies, and matters of foreign policy. In my senior dissertation, I dug deeper into the structural inequities that result from these systems and the implications for marginalized populations in Latin America. From this vantage point, I began my career in finance. Somewhat accidently, I stumbled into the realm of impact investing, but was ultimately compelled by the principles of this investment thesis.

I was fortunate enough to find my way to Domini Impact Investments, an SEC-registered investment advisor with an exclusive focus on impact investing. Domini is a women-led and founded firm, often seen as a rarity in the mutual fund world. 

Read Elizabeth's full post here with many interesting insights on her career (so far) in Sustainable Finance and Impact investing  - https://greenmoney.com/my-journey-on-the-road-less-traveled

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