Sara E. Murphy of The Shareholder Commons: Challenging Capitalism to Work to Its Optimum‪.‬ Outside In with Jon Lukomnik

Sara E. Murphy is Chief Strategy Officer at The Shareholder Commons which she joined in 2020 after 22 years working in sustainable investing and environmental and social advocacy. Sara began her career working for NGOs in the international development and disaster response fields. In 2001, she transitioned into Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) research for the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC), where she specialized in bioengineering and defense contracting research. After leaving IRRC, she spent several years at The Cadmus Group, an environmental consultancy. In 2005, Sara moved to Frankfurt, Germany to work as a senior sustainability analyst for Fortis Investments’ SRI fund management team. Fortis Investments was acquired by BNP Paribas Asset Management during Sara’s tenure. She moved back to Washington, DC in 2011, where she launched her independent consultancy on sustainable investing and corporate responsibility.
Sara grew up in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, which fundamentally shaped her understanding of the business world’s long reach and influence. On this episode of Outside In Sara talks with Jon about challenging capitalism to work to its full potential, why, in some cases, companies should forfeit a certain amount of value if that value comes at the expense of broader portfolio value, keeping the baby of price discovery and throwing out the bathwater of externalized social and environmental costs. Sara also discusses her many reasons for remaining so optimistic.