Investing in the environment

A summer internship as a business analyst at the global investment management firm Brown Advisory gave senior Courtney Simpson a firsthand look at sustainable investing. Describing her internship as the perfect culmination to her University of Richmond education, she said her leadership studies and environmental studies majors and business administration minor informed her work. Best of all, she received and accepted a return offer to join Brown Advisory after her graduation this May. 

“I had a myopic view of sustainability investing prior to my internship,” Simpson said. That changed when she learned about the multiple investing criteria Brown uses to create sustainability investment strategies for clients who request them. 

“Sustainability is not just about environmental impact,” the senior said, adding that Brown Advisory takes a holistic approach when considering companies for inclusion in sustainability investment portfolios. “Is the company viable for the long term? How does the company develop its human capital? How do the company’s goods and services help customers and impact the world?”

Her main summer project entailed researching and then presenting on Sharia-compliant investment strategies. These strategies, Simpson explained, exclude investing in companies that derive revenue from pork products, weapons, tobacco, and adult entertainment, among other things.

Her work at Brown Advisory fulfilled her required, credit-bearing Jepson School of Leadership Studies internship. She said she observed and practiced leader-follower dynamics during her internship. 

“At Jepson, we learn how to be good, ethical leaders,” she said. “We also learn when to be good followers and how to manage relationships in a company. My environmental studies major contributed to my understanding of the global impact our decisions can have. And my business administration minor created a foundation for understanding the U.S. economy and finance on a corporate and investment level.”

Two study-abroad experiences also contributed to her success at Brown Advisory, Simpson said. The summer after her first year on campus, she received Richmond Guarantee funds and a Weinstein grant to travel with University of Richmond professors David Salisbury and Stephanie Spera and a small group of students to Pucallpa, Peru, to conduct NASA-grant-funded research on the Amazonian ecosystem. She spent the fall semester of her junior year at the SKEMA Business School in Nice, France, where she took classes on the Mediterranean ecosystem and one on international cultural management. 

“These international experiences helped me relinquish my ethnocentric perspective and made me aware that U.S. norms may not apply elsewhere,” she said. “Brown Advisory has offices around the world, so it is important to be open to other cultures and perspectives. My first day on the job, someone from Brown’s Japan office came to dinner with the interns.” 

Looking ahead to starting her full-time job as a portfolio analyst at Brown Advisory, Simpson said she hopes to work on researching and managing sustainability portfolios. 

“I can’t take on the burden of every aspect of sustainability,” the environmental enthusiast said. “Corporate sustainability calls to me, because I think it is the most consequential. I will do what I can to contribute to sustainability through my career and my community.”