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 Kellogg School of Management 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 Kellogg School of Management 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.
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.
