RepRisk establishes Academic Advisory Board to guide the company’s focus in ESG research

# The RepRisk Academic Advisory Board, consisting of five prominent researchers, will deepen the company’s relationship with academia and advance research in ESG

Zurich, Switzerland – June 23, 2021 – RepRisk, a leading ESG data science firm combining machine learning and human intelligence to identify ESG risks, today announced the formation of the RepRisk Academic Advisory Board. The new Board is comprised of five prominent research leaders in ESG dedicated to developing innovative thought leadership, bridging new theories and ideas in the academic space with RepRisk’s industry leading ESG dataset.

“ESG investing can only be as good as the data that underpins it,” said Julian Kölbel, Head of Research, Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth at the University of Zurich. “I look forward to supporting RepRisk’s drive towards reliable and transparent ESG metrics.”

“At RepRisk, we remain steadfast in our mission to drive responsible corporate behavior and create positive change. Key to fulfilling that is enhancing and formalizing our relationship with academia,” said Dr. Philipp Aeby, CEO of RepRisk. “That focus on building inroads with academia has never felt more important than it is today amidst the reinvigorated attention on ESG issues and the increased awareness businesses now have on their impact on our society, our environment, and the economy. Our new RepRisk Academic Advisory Board will convene some of the best minds in the field of ESG scholarly research to guide our work in this area, helping ‘kick the tires’ of our datasets and ensure that our ESG risk data continues to remain best-in-class.”

RepRisk’s daily times series of metrics and analytics, starting from January 2007, is based on its transparent, rules-based methodology that has been in place since day one. The time series is not reverse-engineered, but generated point-in-time, allowing for proper back-testing and – as ESG risks are known to be material with respect to security prices – to generate ESG alpha.

Meet the RepRisk Academic Advisory Board:

Jeffrey Bohn, University of California at Berkeley: Dr. Bohn is Affiliated Researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, Consortium for Data Analytics in Risk, as well as Chief Research & Innovation Officer and Head of Research & Engagement at Swiss Re Institute. His research focuses on factor modeling and large-scale risk simulations, and he has been published widely in the area of credit risk.

Rajna Gibson Brandon, University of Geneva: In addition to her role as a Professor of Finance, Rajna Gibson was the founder and Director of the Geneva Finance Research Institute between 2009 and 2016. She has been the Director of the Geneva Institute of Wealth Management since 2016 and Chairwoman since 2021.

Andreas Hoepner, University College Dublin School of Business: Andreas Hoepner, Ph.D, is a Professor of Operational Risk, Banking & Finance and is a named supervisor for UCD’s SFI Centre for Research Training in Machine Learning. He also serves on the EU’s Platform on Sustainable Finance.

Julian Kölbel, University of Zurich: Dr. Kölbel is an economist and environmental scientist and the BMW Foundation Fellow at the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth, covering the real-world impact of sustainable investing, analysis of ESG metrics, as well as the effects of climate change on risk and return.

Aaron Yoon, Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management: Aaron Yoon is Assistant Professor of Accounting and Information Management. His research focuses on how to account for and quantify a firm's ESG efforts and integrate the information into portfolio decision-making processes.

For more information, please visit RepRisk’s research lab.

About RepRisk

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Switzerland, RepRisk is a pioneer in ESG data science that leverages the combination of AI and machine learning with human intelligence to systematically analyze public information and identify material ESG risks. RepRisk’s flagship product, the RepRisk ESG Risk Platform, is the world’s largest and most comprehensive due diligence database on ESG and business conduct risks, with expertise in 23 languages and coverage of 170,000+ public and private companies and 45,000+ infrastructure projects. For more than a decade, the world’s leading financial institutions and corporations have trusted RepRisk for due diligence and risk management across their operations, business relationships, and investments. For more information, visit reprisk.com.