The Future of Finance Podcast

Amy Jaffe, Director of the Energy, Climate Justice & Sustainability Lab at NYU, joins Georges Dyer for a rigorous, wide-ranging conversation on how institutional investors need to be thinking about energy risk, climate justice, and long-term capital allocation right now. As one of the most respected voices at the intersection of energy markets, sustainability, and institutional finance, Jaffe brings analytical precision and on-the-ground perspective to questions that every CIO, endowment leader, and asset manager navigating the energy transition needs to engage with seriously.
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Key themes explored in this episode:
- How NYU's Energy, Climate Justice & Sustainability Lab is training the next generation of investors and practitioners to operate across traditional energy systems and sustainability frameworks simultaneously
- Why sustainability must function as a genuine risk lens rather than a screening product, and what that distinction means for how institutional portfolios are actually built and managed
- The state of the global energy transition in 2026: AI data center demand, LNG supply disruptions, Pakistan's rapid solar buildout, and why natural gas is structurally too slow to manage the new load curve
- How adaptation finance and climate justice work are being deployed at the community level and whether capital is actually reaching the populations and geographies that need it most The Future of Finance is produced by the Intentional Endowments Network, supporting institutional investors in aligning capital with long-term value and resilience.
 
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General Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction: Amy Jaffe & NYU's Energy, Climate Justice & Sustainability Lab
03:20 How Amy Jaffe's Career Spans Energy Markets, Policy & Institutional Investment
08:45 What the NYU Lab Does — and Who It Serves
16:10 Student-Corporate Partnerships: Google, National Grid & Fusion Energy Research
22:00 Sustainability as a Risk Lens vs. a Screening Product
28:30 The Opportunity Side: Affordable Housing & Climate Solutions Investing
35:00 The New NYU Sustainability Master's Program: What It Teaches and Why Now
42:15 Climate Justice, Adaptation Finance & Community-Level Work in New York City
49:00 Energy Transition Outlook: Iran, LNG Disruption & Global Renewable Momentum
58:30 AI Data Centers, Battery Storage & the Limits of Natural Gas
1:05:00 Advice for Institutional Investors Navigating the Energy Transition
 
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Resources:
 
Podcasts
The Energy Gang: https://www.woodmac.com/podcasts/energy-gang/
Books
"Choke Points: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare" by Edward Fishman (2025)
"Energy's Digital Future" by Amy Myers Jaffe: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/energys-digital-future/9780231196826/
Organizations:
Solar One; https://solar1.org/
East New York Farms: https://www.eastnewyorkfarms.org/
Research Index ND-GAIN Country Index: https://gain.nd.edu/our-work/country-index/
 
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Disclaimer The information presented in this episode reflects the views and opinions of the guest and does not constitute investment, legal, or regulatory advice. The Intentional Endowments Network does not endorse any specific products, services, or organizations referenced herein.

US SIF: https://web.cvent.com/event/e6c2819f-b8d1-4861-bc7c-21a6e47c6c66/summary
 
Institutional investors are confronting a structural shift in how risk, return, and resilience are shaped. Climate instability, inequality, democratic fragility, and market concentration are no longer peripheral concerns—they are system-level forces that increasingly determine portfolio outcomes. Yet the dominant tools of modern investment practice, from portfolio theory to ESG integration, were not designed to manage recursive, market-wide risks. Drawing on a decade of field-building and recent work with leading asset owners, Burckart will share how system-level investing has moved from an emerging idea to an operating imperative and reflect on our central challenge: how to translate system-level ambition into repeatable governance, portfolio-wide decision-making, and durable influence on the systems that underpin long-term value creation.
 
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Disclaimer The information presented in this episode reflects the views and opinions of the guest and does not constitute investment, legal, or regulatory advice. The Intentional Endowments Network does not endorse any specific products, services, or organizations referenced herein.

Dave Helgerson, Managing Director and Head of Impact Investing at Hamilton Lane — one of the world's leading private markets firms with over $1 trillion in assets under management — joins Georges Dyer to make the case that impact investing is not a values compromise but a structural opportunity.
With over 22 years at Hamilton Lane building impact strategies from the ground up, Dave offers a rare inside view of how institutional-grade private capital can generate market-rate returns while directing investment toward the energy transition, sustainable supply chains, health access, and community development.
Key themes covered in this episode:
- How Hamilton Lane structures impact investing across verticals — clean energy transition, sustainable solutions, health & wellness, and community development — and why that framework sharpens, not softens, investment discipline
- The distinction between ESG as risk management ("playing defense") and impact investing as opportunity identification ("playing offense"), and why both are necessary within a diversified institutional portfolio
- How accelerants like AI-driven data center energy demand and geopolitical energy security risks are reshaping the investment case for renewables — independent of policy cycles
- Why endowments and foundations are a natural fit for long-duration private markets impact strategies, and how smaller institutions can access this asset class through fund-of-funds structures
- For institutional investors evaluating the long-term role of private markets in a sustainable portfolio, this conversation offers both the strategic framework and the on-the-ground evidence to move that conversation forward.
Resources:
Book: The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race - Walter Isaacson
Book: The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations - Daniel Yergin
Book: The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power - Daniel Yergin Capital Allocators Podcast - https://www.capitalallocators.com/
Dwarkesh Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd7-bHaQwnthaNDpZ32TtYONGVk95-fhF
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General Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introduction & SIF Announcement
00:01:12 Welcome & Guest Introduction — Dave Helgerson, Hamilton Lane
00:02:45 Hamilton Lane Overview: From Advisory Roots to $1T Platform
00:07:22 The New York State Common Origin Story & Building the First Impact Strategy
00:12:36 ESG vs. Impact — Playing Defense vs. Playing Offense
00:14:52 Energy Security, the Iran War & Why Diversification Matters
00:16:04 Hamilton Lane's Impact Framework: Environmental & Social Verticals
00:22:34 Portfolio Deep Dive: EeroSafe & the Cold Chain Innovation Case
00:25:32 Addressing LP Skepticism — Do Impact Strategies Sacrifice Returns?
00:28:54 Global Momentum: How Europe, Asia & the U.S. Are Moving Differently
00:32:21 AI, Data Centers & the Accelerating Demand for Energy Infrastructure
00:33:55 Google, Intersect Power & What Big Tech's Energy Moves Signal
00:40:52 Endowments & Foundations — Fit, Access & Minimums
00:43:34 Rapid Fire: Books, Resources & Advice for Emerging Investors
00:46:19 Vision for the Future of Finance 00:47:39 Advice for the Next Generation
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*Disclaimer* The information presented in this episode reflects the views and opinions of the guest and does not constitute investment, legal, or regulatory advice. The Intentional Endowments Network does not endorse any specific products, services, or organizations referenced herein.

The Intentional Endowments Network's 2026 Virtual Forum convenes June 2–4, bringing together institutional investors, legal scholars, climate strategists, and asset management practitioners for three days of structured dialogue on system-level investing, fiduciary duty, and long-term capital markets reform.
Register using code IENGUEST at https://www.intentionalendowments.org/2026_virtual_forum
In this preview episode, IEN Executive Director Georges Dyer walks through the full agenda — offering context on why each session was designed and who it's for.
Key themes across the three-day forum:
System-level investing frameworks and the newly published Handbook of System-Level Investing, featuring co-editors John McCormick and Bill Burkhart
Fiduciary duty in the context of climate and ESG — legal perspectives from Keith Johnson and Susan Gary
Climate solutions and portfolio alignment, including sessions with Project Drawdown, Climate Interactive, and Cambridge University's fossil-free cash fund case study Responsible AI, diversity in asset management, and the role of consultants in sustainable investing
 
The forum runs June 2–4, 12:00–2:30 PM Eastern daily. Registration and full agenda available at intentionalendowments.org.

Akasha Absher, Co-President at Syntrinsic — an institutional advisory firm managing approximately $3 billion for foundations, endowments, and nonprofits — offers a rare inside view into how investment consultants evaluate mission-aligned managers, advise fiduciaries on portfolio construction, and help clients navigate the tension between financial objectives and long-term systemic risk. As OCIOs and consultants become central to how institutional capital is allocated, Absher's perspective bridges the gap between investment theory and on-the-ground practice.
 
Key themes covered in this episode:
Manager Due Diligence & Mission Alignment — How consultants evaluate ESG and impact managers beyond labels, including the role of intentionality, measurement, and outcomes across asset classes
Fiduciary Duty Redefined — Why aligning investments with institutional mission is not in conflict with fiduciary responsibility — and how boards can reframe the performance conversation
Systems-Level Investing in Practice — How endowments and foundations are beginning to address systemic risks (climate, inequality, AI disruption) through capital allocation, stewardship, and coalition engagement
Emerging Managers & Access to Capital — The structural barriers new and diverse managers face and what asset owners can do to responsibly catalyze emerging strategies
This conversation is essential for investment committees, OCIOs, and institutional advisors seeking a grounded, practitioner-level perspective on sustainable portfolio construction.
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Resources:
Impact Management Project framework - https://impactfrontiers.org/norms/
Endowment Impact Benchmark - https://endowmentimpactbenchmark.org/
Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas -https://share.google/jze1kMR1TpXmVJsBo
Syntrinsic - https://www.syntrinsic.com
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General Timestamps: 00:00
Introduction & IEN 2026 Virtual Forum Announcement
02:30 About Syntrinsic: Firm Overview and Client Base
05:30 Akasha's Path from Wall Street to Institutional Consulting
10:15 Mission-Aligned Investing: Client Adoption and Common Concerns
16:00 Navigating the Financial Performance Question
22:10 Manager Due Diligence: Evaluating ESG and Impact Strategies
29:45 Asset Class Differences: Public vs. Private Markets for Impact
36:20 Systems-Level Investing and Systemic Risk Management
42:00 Emerging Managers and Access to Institutional Capital
48:30 The Endowment Impact Benchmark and Reporting Best Practices
55:10 Rapid Fire: Advice for Institutional Investors and Young Professionals
 
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*Disclaimer*
The information presented in this episode reflects the views and opinions of the guest and does not constitute investment, legal, or regulatory advice. The Intentional Endowments Network does not endorse any specific products, services, or organizations referenced herein.

Register for IEN's Virtual Forum here: https://www.intentionalendowments.org/2026_virtual_forum
Emily Goldstein-McGowan, Vice President and Head of Growth & Venture Capital at Malk Partners, the foremost ESG advisor to private market investors, joins Georges Dyer to examine how institutional asset owners and GPs are navigating the governance, risk, and due diligence dimensions of responsible AI. Drawing on Malk's landmark 2024 quick guide for asset owners (developed with ILPA) and two years of evolving LP-GP conversations, Emily offers a grounded, practitioner-level view of where responsible AI integration stands today and where it is headed.
Key themes covered in this episode:
How LP questions have shifted from "are you using AI?" to "how are you governing it?" — and what best-practice oversight structures look like at the GP level
The five responsible AI risk categories for private market investors (bias, privacy, job displacement, carbon emissions, lack of diversity) and which are gaining urgency
AI-native companies vs. AI-adopting portfolio companies: why the diligence framework differs and what LPs should be requiring from GPs during holding periods
The regulatory landscape — EU AI Act, U.S. state-level proposals, and why investors should be preparing portfolio companies now, regardless of enforcement timelines
The Future of Finance podcast is produced by the Intentional Endowments Network, advancing the alignment of institutional capital with long-term value and systemic resilience.
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Resources References:
ILPA x Malk Partners: Responsible AI Quick Guide for Asset Owners - https://ilpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Responsible-AI-Quick-Guide-for-Asset-Owners.pdf
ILPA ESG Quick Guide Overviews - https://ilpa.org/resource/esg-quick-guide-overviews/
Malk Partners: Responsible AI in Private Markets - https://malk.com/responsible-ai-in-private-markets-risks-regulations-and-best-practices/
NIST AI Risk Management Framework - https://www.nist.gov/itl/ai-risk-management-framework
Partnership on AI (PAI) -  https://partnershiponai.org/
EU AI Act: Official Overview - https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory-framework-ai
Reframe Venture: Responsible AI Due Diligence Toolkit - https://www.reframeventure.com/vcs/ai-dd
IEN Responsible AI Investor Hub -  https://intentionalendowments.org
Planet Money Podcast (NPR) — https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510289/planet-money
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General Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction & Overview of Malk Partners
04:10 Origins of the ILPA Responsible AI Quick Guide
08:30 Five Core AI Risk Categories for Private Market Investors
14:00 The Evolution of LP-GP Conversations on AI Governance
19:45 Best Practices: Oversight Structures, Policies & Training
25:20 AI-Native vs. AI-Adopting Companies: Diligence Differences
31:00 Data Center Environmental Impact & Net Zero Considerations
36:15 AI Regulation: EU AI Act, U.S. State Laws & Investor Preparedness
42:00 Frameworks & Resources for Resource-Constrained Teams
46:30 The Future of Finance: Moving Beyond Labels to Materiality
 
The Future of Finance podcast is produced by the Intentional Endowments Network, advancing the alignment of institutional capital with long-term value and systemic resilience. The information presented in this episode reflects the views and opinions of the guest and does not constitute investment, legal, or regulatory advice. The Intentional Endowments Network does not endorse any specific products, services, or organizations referenced herein.
 

Maurits Dolmans, Senior Counsel at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and co-author of Sustainable Fiduciary Duty: How Fiduciary Duties Can Be a Key to Escaping the Climate Prisoner's Dilemma (Net Zero Lawyers Alliance, November 2025), joins Georges Dyer on his own behalf to make a precise legal and economic argument: existing fiduciary law already requires institutional investors to address systemic climate risk, and he lays out five concrete principles for how to do it. No new legislation required. For CIOs, pension trustees, endowment leaders, asset managers, and their legal counsel, this conversation reframes the entire climate-and-capital debate as a question of legal duty and long-term financial obligation, not values.
Key themes:
The Climate Prisoner's Dilemma: Why rational actors keep financing high-emission projects against their own long-term interest, and why fiduciary duties, applied consistently, are the coordination mechanism that breaks the cycle without requiring new regulation or bilateral trust
The Economic Evidence: Rebonato's finding of 40% asset devaluation under business-as-usual, the UK Institute and Faculty of Actuaries' Planetary Solvency Report projecting 30–50% GDP loss, and why this loss, unlike 2008 or Covid, would be permanent
5 Principles for Action: Avoiding new unabated fossil fuel finance, internalizing the social cost of carbon in ROI assessments, pursuing transition investment opportunities, active stewardship of investee companies, and advocating for aligned regulation, each grounded in existing fiduciary law
Case Law & What's Coming: What Spence v. American Airlines, McRitchie v. Zuckerberg, and ClientEarth v. Shell actually says beneath the surface, and why Hirji v. CPPIB (Canada) and Kvek/ClientEarth v. Cushman & Wakefield (Washington State) are the cases to watch next.
This episode is part of IEN's ongoing series on fiduciary duty and system-level investing.
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Resources References:
Sustainable Fiduciary Duty — Net Zero Lawyers Alliance (2025) → https://www.netzerolawyers.com/publications/sustainable-fiduciary-duties-for-investors → Full PDF: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/65bb9ebee081d228a8003b56/690cb02c2d3dfd4b5c3fabca_Sustainable%20Fiduciary%20Duty%20-%20FINAL%20(6%20November%202025)%20(Compressed%20-%20Guru).pdf
Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Investing That Matters — Jon Lukomnik & James Hawley → https://www.routledge.com/Moving-Beyond-Modern-Portfolio-Theory-Investing-That-Matters/Lukomnik-Hawley/p/book/9780367760823
How to Think About Climate Change — Riccardo Rebonato (Cambridge University Press) → https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/how-to-think-about-climate-change/6F6AAB54523738CC7CF83B0EEFECD3A2
Making Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better World — J. Doyne Farmer → https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300283327/making-sense-of-chaos/
Planetary Solvency: Finding Our Balance with Nature — Institute and Faculty of Actuaries & University of Exeter (January 2025) → https://actuaries.org.uk/news-and-media-releases/news-articles/2025/jan/16-jan-25-planetary-solvency-finding-our-balance-with-nature/
Recalibrating Climate Risk — Carbon Tracker & University of Exeter (February 2026) → https://carbontracker.org/reports/recalibrating-climate-risk/
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General Timestamps:
 
00:00 Introduction & The Net Zero Lawyers Alliance Report
02:21 The Climate Prisoner's Dilemma Explained
05:38 How Fiduciary Duties Solve the Collective Action Problem
07:22 The Three Core Fiduciary Duties: Purpose, Loyalty, and Care
09:43 The Economic Evidence: 40% Asset Devaluation & Permanent GDP Loss
13:54 Climate Tipping Points Investors Are Not Pricing In
16:20 Why Existing Law Already Applies — No New Legislation Required
18:56 Principle 1: Avoid Finance for New Unabated High-Emission Projects
23:12 Principle 2: Internalize Climate Risk in ROI Assessments
24:49 Principle 3: Pursue Viable Impact Investments in the Transition
27:09 Principle 4: Active Sustainability Stewardship
29:04 Principle 5: Advocate for Aligned Regulation and Policy
31:14 Case Law Deep Dive: Spence, McRitchie, ClientEarth v. Shell
36:46 How to Make the Case to Skeptical Trustees and Boards
43:48 Addressing the Main Objections to Sustainable Fiduciary Theory
52:34 Pending Cases and the Five-Year Outlook for Fiduciary Law
56:45 Rapid Fire: One Action, Recommended Reading & Vision for Finance

 
Artist, National Geographic Explorer, and Chief Network Architect of the Shareholder Democracy Network, Asher Jay, joins host Georges Dyer to examine one of the most underleveraged mechanisms in institutional investing: proxy voting. For endowment leaders, CIOs, and asset managers navigating pressure to demonstrate mission alignment, this conversation offers a practical and structural framework for how shareholder voice can be restored to public markets, and why the same governance deficit is now showing up in AI.
How pass-through proxy voting enables values-aligned shareholders to aggregate governance power at institutional scale, and what the Sierra Club pilot signals about the potential ahead
Why asset managers retreating from ESG commitments under political pressure may find shareholder democracy a more durable and bipartisan path to mission-aligned governance
The unpriced risks embedded in AI company valuations: environmental liabilities, regulatory exposure, and the epistemic dangers of black-box architecture
What ontological AI design offers as a more efficient and governable alternative to large language model scaling, and why institutional investors should be asking these questions now
The Future of Finance podcast is produced by the Intentional Endowments Network and explores how institutional capital can be deployed in alignment with long-term fiduciary duty, systemic resilience, and the evolving standards of responsible investment.
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General Timestamps:
 
00:00 Introduction — Asher Jay: From Creative Conservationist to Systems Strategist 
09:30 Systems Thinking and Causal Loops: Why Externalized Costs Are a Market Risk 
13:45 Shareholder Democracy: The Premise, the Model, and the Governance Gap 
20:00 Pass-Through Voting Infrastructure and Fintech Integration 
25:30 Endowments, Foundations, and Family Offices: Institutional Applications 
28:00 The Sierra Club Pilot: Assets Under Stewardship and the Path to $1 Trillion 
38:06 Responsible AI: Governance Deficits, Hallucinations, and Who Pays the Cost 
41:30 The Black Box Problem: Transparency, Plagiarism, and Epistemic Trust 
44:45 Investor Risk in AI: Environmental Liabilities and Regulatory Exposure 
52:00 Rapid Fire — Biggest Driver of Responsible AI Going Forward
 
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Resources:
 
Asher Jay - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asherjay
Shareholder Democracy Network: https://www.shareholderdemocracy.org
Iconik: https://www.iconikapp.com
Tumelo: https://www.tumelo.com
Bast.ai: https://www.bast.ai
Book: AI for Humanity: Building a Sustainable AI for the Future by James Ong, Andeed Ma, and Siok Siok Tan https://share.google/IgRMYS9EqfvifCSbI
Book: Enlightened Bottom Line by Jenna Nicholas: https://share.google/yx44JcezuI4r4cufo

Paul Fehlinger, Senior Director of Policy, Investment & Innovation at Project Liberty, a 500 million initiative building an AI and data economy that advances voice, choice and stakes, joins Georges Dyer on the Future of Finance podcast to unpack what responsible AI actually means for institutional capital markets. Drawing on his decade leading the Internet and Jurisdiction Policy Network and his current work convening LPs, GPs, policymakers, and entrepreneurs globally, Fehlinger brings a rare cross-sector perspective to one of the most consequential questions in finance today.
AI is no longer a thematic investment trend but it’s a digital infrastructure, and its architecture will determine the structure of investable markets for decades. This conversation examines the governance gap that institutional investors must close before AI risk compounds across portfolios, and makes the case that safety and trust are not ESG overlays but core competitive variables in sourcing, due diligence, and long-term returns.
 
Key themes covered:
- Why 75% of major LPs acknowledge systemic AI risk, yet only 19% report knowing how to respond, and what that gap means for fiduciary duty
- The distinction between investing with AI and investing in AI, and why the data economy itself is emerging as an underappreciated investable vertical
- How the automation-versus-augmentation question directly threatens the size of investable markets if left unaddressed
- Why VC investors with 5+ years of experience increasingly believe strong responsible AI practices correlate with financial outperformance—and what the 83% and 91% survey figures actually signal
- The case for protocol-level infrastructure as a scalable alternative to company-by-company AI due diligence, and why this needs to become a C-suite conversation, not a sustainability team assignment
- For institutional investors, endowment leaders, asset managers, and anyone responsible for capital allocation in a world defined by AI, this episode is essential listening.
 
Resources:
Responsible AI Due Diligence Toolkit for VCs —https://www.impactvc.co/ai, https://www.projectliberty.io/news/venture-capital-tools-for-responsible-and-impactful-investment-in-ai/
The ReframeVenture x ImpactVC x PLI white paper: https://www.projectliberty.io/news/pioneering-vc-survey-nine-in-ten-investors-see-financial-opportunity-in-a-responsible-ai-stack/
The ReframeVenture x ImpactVC x PLI Responsible and Impactful AI DD Toolkit: https://www.reframeventure.com/vcs/ai-dd
StepStone: "Do No Harm — How GPs and LPs Can Use Responsible AI to Build Trust" - https://www.stepstonegroup.com/news-insights/do-no-harm-how-gps-and-lps-can-use-responsible-ai-to-build-trust/
"LPs Are Grappling with AI and Data Risks, but Incentives Are Misaligned" - https://www.newprivatemarkets.com/lps-are-grappling-with-ai-and-data-risks-but-incentives-are-misaligned/
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn (1962) - https://share.google/6BBq516A0e8sGkDep
 
General Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction & Overview of Project Liberty
03:10 AI's Systemic Risks: From Data Agency to Market Structure
08:30 What Responsible AI Actually Means for Investors
11:30 The Framework Proliferation Problem (and the Contrast with Climate)
13:30 The Fair Data Economy Task Force: Four Pillars of a Good AI Economy
15:00 Ecosystem Building in Action: LP and VC Engagement
18:30 VC Survey Results: What the 73%, 83%, and 91% Statistics Signal
21:00 Investing With AI vs. Investing In AI
25:00 The Data Economy as an Emerging Investable Vertical
31:30 The Due Diligence Problem: Auditing AI at Scale
36:30 The Aviation Analogy: Why Infrastructure-Level Trust Changes Everything
43:00 Bridging Risk Governance and Systemic Investment Approaches
49:00 What Comes Next: LP Tools, VC Guidance, and Entrepreneurial Centers of Gravity
53:30 Final Questions: C-Suite Priority, Book Recommendation, Vision for Finance
 
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The Future of Finance podcast is produced by the Intentional Endowments Network, serving institutional investors working to align capital with long-term financial and systemic goals.

Institutional investors are increasingly exposed to AI-driven risks that operate at the system level — spanning climate commitments, labor markets, and democratic governance. Whitney Shepard, Co-Executive Director of Majority Action, joins Georges Dyer on the Future of Finance podcast to lay out the research, frameworks, and stewardship strategies that investors need to navigate this moment responsibly.
Majority Action's emerging technologies research series makes a rigorous case that AI is not a siloed technology risk — it is a capital markets risk, one that intersects with concentration of corporate power, inadequate disclosure, and misaligned proxy voting by large asset managers. For fiduciaries managing public pensions, endowments, and foundations, understanding these dynamics is not optional; it is central to long-term value creation and duty of care.
 
Key themes covered:
- AI's three system-level risk categories for diversified investors: climate, inequality, and democratic backsliding
- XAI's Colossus data center case study — public pension capital financing projects with significant environmental and community harm
- Proxy voting trends: why the largest index funds diverged from public pensions on AI governance proposals last season
- What "active client" stewardship looks like in practice — engaging asset managers, not just portfolio companies
- First-mover frameworks from SFERS, CalSTRS, and Railpen that investors can learn from and adopt For institutional investors, academics, and policy leaders working at the intersection of technology governance, fiduciary duty, and long-term capital markets resilience.
 
General Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction — Whitney Shepherd and Majority Action
06:30 Bridging Grassroots Voices and Institutional Capital
14:45 Why Majority Action Turned Its Focus to AI
22:50 Three System-Level Risk Categories: Climate, Inequality, Democratic Backsliding
28:30 The XAI Colossus Case Study: Public Pensions and AI Data Center Financing
42:10 AI in the Boardroom: Proxy Voting Trends and the Index Fund Divergence
51:20 AI Stewardship in Motion: First Movers and Global Policy Benchmarks
57:40 What Endowments and Foundations Should Be Doing Now
1:01:30 Closing Takes: System Stewardship as the Core Ask
 
Resources:
Majority Action AI Accountability Hub: https://www.majorityaction.us/ai-accountability
Book: Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail — Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward: https://share.google/EKDxYky1Qm1CYMN5g
 
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The Future of Finance podcast is produced by the Intentional Endowments Network, serving institutional investors working to align capital with long-term financial and systemic goals.