Changing How We Invest to Unlock Better Human Outcomes

Meet Our Presenters

Jake Walko  |  Director of ESG Investing & Global Investment Stewardship, Managing Director, Thornburg Investment Management

Panelist

Bio

Jake Walko is the director of ESG investing & global investment stewardship at Thornburg Investment Management, furthering the adoption of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations across Thornburg’s full product suite. He was named managing director in 2023. Prior to joining Thornburg, Jake worked at Neuberger Berman in New York as vice president, ESG investing and director of global investment stewardship. Earlier in his career, he covered the technology and real estate spaces on BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship team, as well as serving in various positions at Glass, Lewis, Co.

Jake is a graduate of the City College of the City University of New York with an MA in international relations and Hunter College of the City University of New York with a BA in economics. He is currently registered with FINRA with a Series 7 and 63 and holds the CFA Institute Investment Foundations Certificate™.

Mel Dubin  |  Manager | Sustainable Finance at Deloitte & Touche LLP

Panelist

Bio

Mel has 15 years of experience building and managing sustainability programs within the investment management and real estate industries. She brings an investor’s perspective to sustainability projects across all sectors, where she leads double materiality assessments, financed emissions, and regulatory readiness engagements. Mel enjoys working with financial institutions to elevate the rigor of their sustainability disclosures to withstand evolving stakeholder scrutiny and prepare for multiple overlapping ESG regulations in the US and globally.

Prior to joining Deloitte Mel worked at an asset manager where she launched a sustainable investment framework, and previously she conducted portfolio due diligence and served on limited partner advisory boards for the real estate and real asset portfolios for a state-endowed permanent fund. She received an MBA in Finance from University of New Mexico and a Masters of Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden and holds the IFRS Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting credential.

Reilly White  |  Associate Professor of Finance

Moderator

Bio

Reilly White serves as UNM Assoc. Dean of Teaching and Learning, and an Associate Professor of Finance. As a board member of the CFA Society of New Mexico he advises on the $4.7M student-run UNM Regent’s Portfolio. In addition, he leads a series of financial literacy projects in the community. With a banking analyst background Reily is well versed in ethical corporate leadership including how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing is used to screen investments based on corporate policies and to encourage companies to act responsibly. In 2022 he received the Paul Bartlett Ré Emerging Promoter of Peace Award and has written widely on finance and financial technology and interviewed over 150 times by local and national media outlets on various economic and finance topics.