Center for Sustainable Business | Advisors

Lee Ballin (MBA '09) brings over 20 years of experience working at the intersection of sustainability, business and finance. He is an expert on reporting, disclosure and sustainability strategy, as well as a thought leader and highly sought after speaker on a wide range of sustainability topics. At FSI, Lee leads the firm’s Sustainability Advisory Solutions where he crafts and implements sustainability strategies for clients, while helping them navigate the ever-changing ESG regulatory landscape and voluntary disclosure frameworks. As a former practitioner, Lee understands the challenges that companies face from a reporting and program management perspective and takes a pragmatic approach that helps them achieve their sustainability goals and objectives. Lee began his sustainability career at Bloomberg, where he was a founding member of the Bloomberg Sustainable Business & Finance group. The group was the driving force behind integrating sustainability considerations into the firm’s operations globally and developing strategies to integrate ESG data, climate and other sustainability considerations into the Bloomberg Terminal. Lee then transitioned to BloombergNEF providing research and data to help companies, investors and policy-makers navigate the shift to a lower carbon economy. More recently, Lee served as Managing Director at Deloitte providing ESG consulting and ESG reporting services. Lee holds a bachelor's degree in Business Logistics from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from NYU's Stern School of Business.

Jake Berlin (MBA '09) is the Senior Vice President of Energy Services for Stem Inc., an energy technology company with proprietary software focused on energy storage, solar, and electric vehicle optimization. Prior to this role, he was the Director of Technology to Market at the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority; served as Senior Manager of Distributed Grid Strategy at consulting firm ICF; adfgfounded and served as the Managing Partner of the Rethink Energy venture fund; held a variety of positions with the New York Power Authority; helped establish energy efficiency program management firm Willdan Energy Solutions on the East Coast; and worked to launch the distributed generation start-up Rentricity. He has also served on a number of non-profit boards, including, currently, the Center for Humans and Nature. Jake has an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BA from Brown University.

Casey C. Clark , CFA, is President and Chief Investment Officer of Rockefeller Asset Management. Mr. Clark is responsible for overseeing Rockefeller’s efforts to maximize alpha and positive outcomes by executing across four strategic pillars: Investments, Distribution, Business Operations, and Opportunities. He is also a member of RCM’s Management Committee.Prior to joining Rockefeller in 2019, Mr. Clark was Managing Director and Director of Sustainable and Impact Investing at Glenmede, where he helped launch and build Glenmede’s sustainable and impact investing business. Mr. Clark has authored numerous investment and sustainability-related publications and is often featured in print and broadcast media segments. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, received his MBA. from the Stern School of Business at New York University and retains the Charter Financial Analyst® designation. Mr. Clark is also an Advisor to New York University Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business.

Laura Fox speaks on mobility, city, and climate topics globally, and is on ‘Transportation Power 100’ and ‘Top Women in Mobility’ lists. She is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Streetlife Ventures, a seed-stage venture fund investing in urban climate solutions to transform sectors including mobility, buildings, energy, waste, and water. Previously, Laura was the General Manager of Citi Bike at Lyft and built it into a $100M ARR business and one of the country’s largest transportation systems, led diligence on urban climate tech companies at Sidewalk Labs, launched new mobility products with Boston Consulting Group’s digital ventures team, and advised Bloomberg Philanthropies on their urban investment strategy. Laura also teaches MBA strategy courses at NYU Stern, and is on the board of Governors Island, which will be the test bed for climate innovation in NYC. She is a Senior Fellow with MIT’s Mobility Initiative, and on the urban-focused Expert Taskforce for the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Young Leaders Circle at the Milken Institute.  Fun fact: Laura’s friends call her ‘20 Questions’ since she loves getting to the heart of a good idea - and she’s given a TED Talk on the topic.
 

Markus Kalina is the Managing Director of Atalo Capital, a boutique asset manager focused on value investing. Prior to starting Atalo Capital, he worked at Deutsche Bank in New York focusing on institutional consulting and equity sales. He is a CFA Charterholder who received his BA from Occidental College and his MS in Financial Engineering from Claremont Graduate University. He is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.

David Korngold partners with corporate boards, executives, and investors to develop high-impact sustainability strategies. As part of BSR’s Transformation team, he co-leads engagement with boards of directors to promote effective board governance and leadership ambition on sustainability. 

Having previously led BSR's Financial Services team, David continues to work closely with financial companies on sustainability, ESG integration, and impact investing. David has led engagements in nearly all of BSR’s focus areas and major industry groups. This includes leading climate scenarios workshops with boards, creating net-zero road maps for investment firms, designing and operationalizing a leading impact investing fund, conducting materiality assessments, undertaking human rights impact assessments, and co-authoring research on topics like ESG for emerging public companies and responsible investment policies for private equity firms.

Before joining BSR, David worked in strategy and management consulting at Bain & Company.

Lawrence Pratt is Senior Lecturer at INCAE Business School in Alajuela, Costa Rica where from 2010 to 2015 he was Director of the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development (CLACDS). He is founder and director of the Ecobanking Project and the Sustainable Markets Intelligence Center. Lawrence is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and holds a Master’s degree from the Yale School of Management.

Suma Swaminathan (MBA '15) is Director, Investments Funds at U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). DFC is the U.S. government's development finance institution partnering with the private sector to finance solutions to the most critical challenges facing the developing world today. Prior to DFC, she was a Director, Private Equity at Developing World Markets, a U.S. based impact investment manager that has disbursed over $1.7 billion in over 60 emerging and frontier market countries. Suma's background includes experience in business valuation and technology as well as the international development sector where she worked with partner weaver cooperative societies in the handloom industry in India to promote strategies for financial self-sufficiency. Suma received her MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business, where she was designated a Faculty Scholar for Social Enterprise, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India.

Jim Tolisano has designed and implemented natural resource and biodiversity conservation projects in more than 40 countries and integrated applied work in sustainable finance, conservation planning, conservation biology, and environmental education. He is also Adjunct Professor of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Studies at New York University.

Lorraine Spradley Wilson (MBA '12) is a Senior Advisor and former Chief Sustainability Officer of Novata, a software and services platform focused on sustainability within the private markets. Before joining Novata, Lorraine was managing director and head of investor solutions at JUST Capital. Prior to that, Lorraine held roles in investment management in New York at Bank of America Merrill, Third Avenue Management, and Goldman Sachs. Lorraine has also served on the board of several community organizations and is an advisor to the NYU Center for Sustainable Business. She earned an M.B.A. in finance, entrepreneurship, and economics from New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a B.A. in government from Georgetown University.