Sustainable investing is one of the fastest growing segments in finance, according to the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance. This trend has been a key concern for leading universities and institutes, including Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Morgan Stanley's Institute for Sustainable Investing.
Each year, Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge invites teams of graduate students around the world to propose a creative financial solution that addresses critical environmental and social issues, while aiming to provide competitive market returns to private-sector investors.
This year’s competition is fiercer than ever, with more than 80 graduate schools submitting investment proposals targeting sustainability and impact challenges in 31 countries. A team of Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS) stood out from 109 teams of world top universities and is chosen as one of the twelve finalist teams to present their ideas at Morgan Stanley’s Hong Kong offices on April 12th.
From left to right,Raphael Thomas, Gianni De Bruyn, Ann Tseng, Seohee Choi
PHBS team Omega consists of four members, Gianni De Bruyn, Ann Tseng, Seohee Choi and Raphael Thomas. Inspired by the sustainable finance conference held at PHBS in January, 2019, they decided to make a proposal focusing on tax equity and income bonds to support improved air quality through investments in biofuel plants in Bayannur, China.
“We met through the investment club and we are excited to compete as one of the 12 finalists. We are a diverse group from different parts of the world, South Korea, America, Belgium. We would like to thank all our fellow students, professors from PHBS and STL that helped us along the way,” remarked Omega team members, adding that they will be competing among the top business schools in the world, which include MIT, Columbia, Berkley, Yale and many more.
In order to do their due diligence for the competition, the team went to Bayannur in Inner Mongolia from March 17th to March 20th . They met with the project management leaders, government officials and CEOs that would be directly involved with the biomass project throughout Bayannur.
Team Omega with Ning Ding and the CEO of Jin Caoyuan
Now, with much pressure and tons of materials to probe into, they are working around the clock, preparing for the final competition. Wish them good luck at the final competition!
