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Todd Arthur Bridges, Ph.D.

Build solutions for sustainable economic growth and to accelerate the net-zero transition

Summary

Todd Bridges has a deep passion for building research, product, and companies that create sustainable economic growth and generate sustainable return on investment (SROI). He has built innovative solutions in the technology and financial services industries. His industry experiences have given him the opportunity to develop global growth strategies, fundraise (Series A, Series B) across the capital markets, integrate sustainability into business strategy, build innovative product roadmaps, manage high-performing teams, and lead corporate engagement on climate solutions and sustainability-linked value creation. His intellectual curiosity has driven him to develop expertise in ESG data, ESG analytics, ESG product, ESG research, ESG technology solutions, climate solutions, and sustainability standards & frameworks. He has built commercial relationships with companies in technology and finance - including Bloomberg, NASDAQ, S&P Global, Google, Accenture, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, BlackRock, Bridgewater, SSGA, Allianz, DWS, and Dow Jones & WSJ. Todd has contributed to consultations for the EU, SEC, SASB, IFRS ISSB, TCFD, SBTi, NZDPU, and EDCI. He enjoys working with companies (public, private) to integrate technology to drive sustainable growth and accelerate net-zero climate transitions.

Work experience

2020 - 2024

Partner & Global Head of Sustainability

ESG Book (private company, venture-backed tech company)

ESG Book is a global leader in technology and data. The company offers a range of product solutions that are used by the world’s leading investors and companies. The product portfolio includes data, ratings, benchmarking analytics, and reporting platform. The products cover the full spectrum of sustainability including ESG, climate, net-zero transition, regulatory, and impact. The company is backed by Energy Impact Partners, Meridiam, Accenture,  and Allianz X. ESG Book is headquartered in London.

Trusted Responsibilities
• Strategic Leadership - collaborated with CEO and Board of Directors to develop long-term strategic vision, establish business requirements that prioritize stakeholder demands, and build global product roadmap to help clients meet climate, sustainability, and reporting challenges.    

• Product Development - built innovative products (data, analytics, technology platform) that solve for client requirements for sustainability performance, GHG data, climate transition, and reporting.

• Team Leadership - built and led high-performing global research and product management team across four verticals (sustainability, climate science, artificial intelligence, regulations & standards), and collaborated with engineering, sales, and marketing on GTM product release.  

• Corporate Engagement - led commercial engagements with global clients on data, analytics, decarbonization, climate transition, climate scenarios, and reporting solutions.  

• Education & Advocacy - established the company as a thought leader via speaking engagements, white-papers, industry conferences (UN Climate Week), and professional forums (CFA Society).

20172020

Head of Sustainability Research

State Street Global Advisors (public company, NYSE: STT)

State Street Global Advisors serves the world’s governments, institutions, and financial advisors. With a rigorous, risk-aware approach built on research, analysis and market-tested experience, they build from a breadth of index and active strategies to create cost-effective solutions. As pioneers in index, ETF, and ESG investing, they are always inventing new ways to invest. As a result, SSGA has become the world’s fourth-largest asset manager with US $4.72 trillion AUM. SSGA is headquartered in Boston. 

Trusted Responsibilities: 
Strategic Leadership - collaborated with CIOs to develop long-term strategic vision, establish business requirements that prioritize stakeholder demands, and build global product roadmap to help clients meet climate and sustainability challenges.  

Product Development - built innovative products (investment strategies, client solutions, reporting tools) that solve for client requirements for sustainable investing and climate decarbonization, and collaborated with engineering, sales, and marketing on GTM product release. 

Team Leadership - built and managed global research team and collaborated with strategists, product, and engineering on the integration of sustainability across asset class — including beta, smart beta, active quant, fixed income, active fundamental, and asset stewardship engagements.

Corporate Engagement - led commercial engagements with investors on climate data, climate risk, ESG investment solutions, climate investment solutions, and reporting & regulations.

Education & Advocacy - established the company as a thought leader via speaking engagements, white-papers, industry conferences (UN Climate Week), and professional forums (CFA Society).

20152017

Head of Sustainability Research

Ethic (private company, venture-backed tech company)

Ethic is the technology platform for sustainable and impact investing. The company empowers wealth advisors and institutional investors to create portfolios that align personal values with financial goals. The Ethic offering is available to advisors and institutions at Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and Morgan Stanley. The company is backed by investors including State Street Global Advisors, Jordan Park, UBS, Fidelity, and Oak HC/FT. Ethic is headquartered in New York City.

Trusted Responsibilities:
• Strategic Leadership - collaborated with CEO to develop long-term strategic vision, establish business requirements that prioritize stakeholder demands, and build product roadmap to help clients meet climate and sustainability challenges.

Product Development - built innovative product that integrates proprietary investment model and best practice from modern portfolio theory - tracking error, risk premia, and sustainability. 

Research Leadership - led due diligence on data, climate decarbonization, reporting solutions, values-alignment, and negotiated data licensing contracts - MSCI, Sustainalytics, CDP, S&P, SASB. 

Corporate Engagement - led commercial engagements on ESG data, climate data, sustainable investing, climate transition, technology solutions, and climate reporting & regulations.

20122015

Executive Director - Economy & Society

Cornell University

Cornell University is a privately endowed research university, and as the federal land-grant institution in New York State, it has a responsibility--unique within the Ivy League--to make contributions in all fields of knowledge in a manner that prioritizes public engagement to help improve the quality of life in our state, the nation, and the world. 

Trusted Responsibilities: 
Strategic Leadership - collaborated with Faculty Director and Board of Directors to develop organizational strategy, secured grant funding for programs, and managed research institute.

Research Leadership - led programs and research to empirically model how to build sustainable economic growth and long term value creation - via entrepreneurs, technology, and finance.

Education & Advocacy - produced data-driven reports and presented findings on the impact of capital markets and government in building innovation hubs and technology ecosystems.

20142015

Postdoctoral Research Scientist

National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense." NSF is vital because they support basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.

Trusted Responsibilities:
Program Management - secured grant funding and built program to model the role of technology, finance, and entrepreneurship in building sustainable capital markets.

Research Leadership - developed research and data analysis to answer key strategic questions focused on entrepreneurs, economics, venture capital, and sustainable markets.

Education & Advocacy - presented research findings to scientists and industry leaders in the USA, Germany, United Kingdom, and Russia.

20112012

Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Max Planck Society

The Max Planck Society is Germany's most successful research organization. Since its establishment in 1948, no fewer than 18 Nobel laureates have emerged from the ranks of its scientists, putting it on a par with the best and most prestigious research institutions worldwide. The currently 83 Max Planck Institutes and facilities conduct basic research in the service of the general public in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.

Trusted Responsibilities:
• Program Management - secured grant funding and built program for research on corporate governance, networks, and financial regulation across global capital and financial markets.

Research Leadership - produced data-driven research reports on the changing structure of financial markets and the new governance structures in the alternative investment industry--hedge funds and private equity. 

Corporate Engagement - built strategic relationships with hedge fund managers, private equity, CIOs, and entrepreneurs - conducted 100+ qualitative interviews and surveys.

Education & Advocacy - presented research findings to scientists and industry leaders in the USA, Germany, United Kingdom, and at the Max Planck Institute for the Advancement of Science.

Education

20072012

Doctor of Philosophy

Brown University

Doctorate with specialization in Organizational Behavior, Social Science, Research Methods

20102011

Doctoral Fellow, Visiting

University of Oxford

Doctoral fellow with specialization in Law, Economics, and Socio-Legal Governance 

20072008

Doctoral Fellow, Exchange

Harvard University

Doctoral fellow with specialization in Organizational Behavior, Social Science, Research Methods 

20052007

Master's Degree

Brown University

Masters with specialization in Organizational Behavior, Social Science, Research Methods 

Publications - sample

Avoiding the Tragedy of the Horizon: Portfolio Design for Climate Change-Related Risk Management and the Low-Carbon Energy Transition

Palgrave Macmillan Feb 2020

Sustainable investing is a rapidly growing and evolving field. With investors expressing ever greater interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics and reporting, companies face a sustainability imperative and the need to remake their business models to respond to an array of pressing issues including climate change, air and water pollution, racial justice, workplace diversity, economic inequality, privacy, corporate integrity, and good governance. 

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Reinventing Climate Investing: building equity portfolios for climate risk mitigation and adaptation

Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment (JSFI) Feb 2019

Institutional investors are increasingly concerned with the material financial risks associated with global warming and the impacts of climate change on corporate financial performance and security returns. The challenge remains how to empirically quantify climate risk from an investment perspective and build investable portfolios that address the transition to a low-carbon economy. This study analyzes the available metrics for capturing climate-related investment considerations. 

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A Blueprint for Integrating ESG into Equity Portfolios

Journal Of Investment Management (JOIM) Jan 2018

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) offers a source of new and potentially valuable information for investors, impacting both potential returns and risk. Growing data availability has created the opportunity to integrate ESG into equity portfolios for a variety of investment processes, for both indexing and active management. In this paper, we provide an overview of the current data landscape and several popular methods for integrating ESG.

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