Holding Business to Account

16 Feb 2022

Holding Business to Account

Boston Common’s Geeta Aiyer uses her shareholder platform to effect social change

Re: Geeta Aiyer (MBA 1985)

Topics: Organizations-Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact Relationships-Business and Shareholder Relations Finance-Impact Investing

Photo courtesy Geeta Aiyer

In the early 1990s, company leaders for Albertsons, a rapidly expanding supermarket chain, flew to Boston to meet with Geeta Aiyer (MBA 1985),a young analyst and portfolio manager at the United States Trust Company of Boston, to discuss an issue Aiyer thought was important to their bottom line: gender equity. “I suddenly realized the power, the reach we had as shareholders,” Aiyer recalls with some amazement.

After that experience, “the idea of being a passive investor, along for the ride, no longer appealed to me,” Aiyer says. Shareholders were owners, she realized, and they had a say in how a company ran and the ability to influence everything from labor practices to environmental policies. It would be years before the model Aiyer envisioned would be christened “impact investing,” but she launched Walden Capital Management in 1994 to pursue the dual goals of financial return and social change on behalf her clients. Following Walden’s acquisition, she founded Boston Common Asset Management, in 2003.

By the fall of 2020, Boston Common had $3 billion under management and a mission to be, as Aiyer explains, “responsible investors who pursue financial returns but who also use the unique access and voice we have as investors to engage management and redirect corporate efforts toward long-term sustainability.” The firm has been active in encouraging companies to be leaders on issues from climate change to human rights and environmental solutions, among many others.

“These kinds of changes are positive for the company's fundamentals—for its profitability, its long-term success, its consumer and employee loyalty, the brand equity it has built. And if you take a slightly longer-term view, you see that,” she observes. “We’re in the business of asking our companies for more accountability and transparency, and really empowering their ability to act for the long term.”

Support the next generation of leaders Make a gift now

Featured Alumni

Geeta Aiyer

MBA 1985

Featured Alumni

Geeta Aiyer

MBA 1985

Stories Featuring Geeta Aiyer

- 15 Aug 2023
- Forbes
Twelve Alumnae Named to Forbes 50 Over 50

Re: Lisa Tatum (MBA 1998); Depelsha Thomas McGruder (MBA 1998); Sarah Harden (MBA 1999); Suzanne Strassburger (OPM 53); Gina Bartasi (OPM 33); Tanya Lombard (AMP 199); Jessie Woolley-Wilson (MBA 1990); Geeta Aiyer (MBA 1985); Mala Gaonkar (MBA 1996); Aileen Lee (MBA 1997); Purnima Puri (MBA 1997); Deborah Quazzo (MBA 1987)
- 09 Jun 2023
- Inc.
9 Alumnae Named to Inc's Female Founders 200

Re: Geeta Aiyer (MBA 1985); Meridith Cass (MBA 2010); Carolyn Childers (MBA 2008); Sherrese Clarke Soares (MBA 2004); Lindsay Jurist-Rosner (MBA 2009); Sandra Lin (MBA 2003); Janvi Shah (MBA 2022); Trina Spear (MBA 2011); Jannine Versi (MBA 2014)
- 01 Dec 2012
- Alumni Stories
From Where We Stand

Re: Roslyn Payne (MBA 1970); Courtney Leimkuhler (MBA 2007); Myra Hart (MBA 1981); Muriel Maignan (MBA 1997); Benaree Wiley (MBA 1972); Susannah Swihart (MBA 1980); Debby Farrington (MBA 1976); Lisa Carnoy (MBA 1994); Laura Liswood (MBA 1976); Sue Schooner (MBA 1983); Barbara Franklin (MBA 1964); Ilene Lang (MBA 1973); Robin Smith (MBA 1963); Cathy Benko (MBA 1989); Mamongae Mahlare (MBA 2004); Kiyomi Saito (MBA 1981); Naina Kidwai (MBA 1982); Flavia Almeida (MBA 1994); Amrita Sen (MBA 1999); Cynthia Vance (MBA 1985); Anne Bonaparte (MBA 1988)

Stories

Stories