Meet Our Wespath Expert Jake Barnett Managing Director, Sustainable Investment Strategies Joined Wespath: January 2020 Jake leads a team that focuses on investment stewardship and sustainable investing. In addition, he interacts with key partners in the UMC, works to foster collaboration with the UMC and collaborates with colleagues across Wespath to prepare for General Conference. Fun fact: During his prior job at Morgan Stanley’s Graystone Consulting, Barnett helped 16 congregations of Dominican nuns develop and launch the Climate Solutions Funds, which had both a private markets fund and a public markets fund. This was the first climate-impact focused fund launched by Morgan Stanley.
A note from Jake: Wespath on leading edge of assessing human rights risks to portfolio The United Nations defines human rights as rights inherent to all human beings, including the right to life and liberty, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to food, and many, many more.
Assessing and mitigating human rights risks is still a nascent field for investors. My team and I seek to keep this front of mind as we challenge ourselves to ask deeper questions rather than presuming we know all the answers. We have sought to learn as much as we can from others in the field.
In turn, the UMC Social Creed states a complementary perspective that, “We commit ourselves to the rights of men, women, children, youth, young adults, the aging, and people with disability; to improvement of the quality of life; and to the rights and dignity of all persons.”
In the coming years, I am confident Wespath will continue to advocate for human rights everywhere in practical, consistent, and ambitious ways. And, while we are certainly not equipped to solve all the world’s problems, if we help one additional individual to live a life of dignity with their rights respected, then that is work worth doing.
When human rights are violated by a country or a company, or when companies operate in geographic areas where rights are in jeopardy, it can have an impact not only on people, but on the bottom line as well. I am proud that Wespath is at the forefront of assessing how human rights risks can adversely affect investment portfolios—and working hard to mitigate the most problematic risks among our investments.
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