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.
How to Navigate a Climate Transition (SSIM-947-5)
Scientists agree that humanity must vastly reduce anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Most of these reductions will need to be made by companies changing their energy use and de-carbonizing production processes. Many these companies are in infrastructure sectors, with significant legacy capex, commodity margins, and they are often publicly listed. We need these companies to successfully transition, but the challenge is significant. In a system of private enterprise, this will only happen once companies find it in their interest to do so. The course will focus on how companies can find a business strategy for decarbonization, how they can create a financial model that will enable a decarbonization strategy, and what has to be aligned within an organization - both internally and with respect to investors - in order for this to succeed. We will adopt the lens of the executive team leading a firm. Government policy will be an important consideration, but we will be thinking of policy from the perspective of a firm to whom the policy applies, not from the perspective of the policy-maker. You should expect the course to be highly interactive. You know that climate is a hard problem and we do not have all the answers. The class will be built around some key cases drawn from energy-intensive commodity industries facing this challenge-steel, fertilizer, automobiles, oil and gas-and on the role of finance in relation to all of them. Together, we will try to develop frameworks and strategies to address these challenges.
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.
