Insights and trends for a profitable yet
perplexing & evolving investing approach
The popularity of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) has increased greatly in recent years as more investors are compelled by the desire to partake in “impact investing”—investing money in ways that favourably impact the environment and society while still achieving market-rate returns. However, despite the fact that SRI continues to grow at double-digit rates as an asset class, there still exists a large amount of confusion around the approach. Just ask 10 investment managers to define SRI and you’d likely end up with differing explanations and interpretations of this ever-evolving investment strategy.
Discussions on SRI often revolve around easily understandable and recognizable mainstream “do-good” projects like solar or wind farm, but, according to Geneva Capital Principal, R. Scott Arnell, “The real SRI opportunities in the next 10 years lie in infrastructure investments in emerging and frontier markets, which are less trendy to discuss due to an overarching lack of awareness and understanding.” Arnell, an internationally-regarded field authority focused predominantly on SRI and with a specialized expertise in EM/FM, continues, “New SRI opportunities abound as a result of exploding middle classes in many rapidly growing economies that still have massively un-met needs and little or no legacy infrastructure. The comprehensive and sustained foundational development in these regions is vastly under-reported in the media, at least from an investor’s point of view, which is unfortunate since opportunities in this sector can deliver triple-digit returns for equity investors.”
To help clarify confusion and generally shed light on SRI both in and out of emerging and frontier markets, Arnell is available for interviews and editorials on a range of topics including, but not limited to, the following:
SRI
- 5 key approaches to SRI
- The differences between Impact Investing, SRI and Performance Philanthropy
- Why SRI is now a must for nearly every portfolio
- How SRI can transform how we look at philanthropy
Emerging/Frontier Markets
- 3 investing pitfalls in emerging and frontier markets
- 6 top frontier markets: potential new “BRIC”-esque economies of the future
Both
- How millennials are changing Wall Street and the world through impact investing
- Why SRI in frontier markets can be catalyst for social change
About the Expert: R. Scott Arnell
R. Scott Arnell is a founding partner of Geneva Capital S.A., an advisory firm based in Geneva, Switzerland specializing in alternative investments, including advising investors on socially responsible investment opportunities with a high concentration in private equity in emerging and frontier markets. He has 25+ years of international financial & business management experience serving in senior executive roles at multiple Fortune 500 companies in the high-tech and internet telecoms sectors. Since co-founding Geneva Capital, he has specialized in emerging/frontier markets, international private equity business development and alternative investment advisory. Arnell has extensive international business experience in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Prior to founding Geneva Capital, Arnell was the Chief Executive Officer of Coming Home Studios, an entertainment programming rights company in Los Angeles focused on the production and distribution of multi-camera, live music concerts of leading bands and performers producing two Billboard Top Ten music video DVDs. Previously, he was President and Chief Operating Officer of PSINet Europe where he restructured the $200 million revenue, 800 employee pan-European internet access and data hosting business across 13 countries and sold the company in a share purchase transaction. Before PSINet, Arnell was International Treasurer at Silicon Graphics, Inc. in both Geneva and Hong Kong, establishing a centralized global treasury operation and the international sales finance and remarketing business. He began his career serving in various corporate and business finance roles at Kimberly-Clark Corporation in both North and South America.
Based in Geneva, Switzerland, with an office in Beijing, China, Arnell speaks English, French & Spanish.
Arnell earned his Bachelor’s at Western Michigan University and his MBA from the Marshall School of Business – University of Southern California.
Learn more online at www.GenevaCapitalSA.com.
