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About the Foundation

Expert Advisors

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About Us

Our Mission

The EIRN Foundation (the "Foundation") addresses what might be called the "hard problem" of modern finance, building the quantitative evidence base on how economic, social, and environmental externalities generated by portfolio companies feed back, through the real economy and wider environmental and social systems, into diversified investment portfolios as systematic, non-diversifiable risk.


The Foundation also considers what this evidence means for investment practice, capital allocation, and fiduciary duty, and how it may inform regulation and public policy. These implications extend beyond investors and beneficiaries to other significant stakeholders

How we work

The Foundation pursues its mission through research funding and incubation, publication and dissemination, convening, and collaboration across academic, professional, policy, and civil-society networks. It works closely with the Externality Investment Research Network, including through a shared Council of Expert Advisors, while developing its own activities and partnerships.

Feedback in Both Directions

The Foundation adopts a broad understanding of financial impact. The research it supports examines the two-way feedback loops through which corporate externalities affect the real economy and wider systems, while the resulting systemic risks are transmitted back into diversified portfolios. Investment decisions may, in turn, influence the production and distribution of those externalities. Close attention is paid to their social and distributional dimensions, including just-transition dynamics and the pathways through which unevenly distributed impacts may contribute to social and economic instability and, from there, to systematic portfolio risk.

Building the Field

The Foundation's approach is interdisciplinary and international, reflecting both the complexity of externalities and the limitations of any single perspective. Externalities call for a range of skills embodied in holistic models rather than assembled side by side. It is from this melting pot that the rigour of our work emerges. Beyond supporting individual projects, the Foundation seeks to strengthen the intellectual and institutional foundations of a rigorous and internationally connected field of research on portfolio externalities.

Meet our Board

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Costanza Consolandi

Chair

Dr. Costanza Consolandi is an Associate Professor of Corporate Finance at the University of Siena and an Adjunct Professor of Sustainable and Impact Finance at LUISS University. At the University of Siena, she is a member of the PhD Program Council for Law and Management of Sustainability and of the Teaching Committee for the undergraduate Economics and Management program. She has also chaired the University’s Sustainability Report Committee and served on its Board of Directors. Her research has centered on finance and sustainability for many years.

Portrait of a serious looking woman with short dark hair in a dark top, pale background.

Costanza Consolandi

Chair

Dr. Costanza Consolandi is an Associate Professor of Corporate Finance at the University of Siena and an Adjunct Professor of Sustainable and Impact Finance at LUISS University. At the University of Siena, she is a member of the PhD Program Council for Law and Management of Sustainability and of the Teaching Committee for the undergraduate Economics and Management program. She has also chaired the University’s Sustainability Report Committee and served on its Board of Directors. Her research has centered on finance and sustainability for many years.

Portrait of a serious looking woman with short dark hair in a dark top, pale background.

Costanza Consolandi

Chair

Dr. Costanza Consolandi is an Associate Professor of Corporate Finance at the University of Siena and an Adjunct Professor of Sustainable and Impact Finance at LUISS University. At the University of Siena, she is a member of the PhD Program Council for Law and Management of Sustainability and of the Teaching Committee for the undergraduate Economics and Management program. She has also chaired the University’s Sustainability Report Committee and served on its Board of Directors. Her research has centered on finance and sustainability for many years.

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Jim Hawley

Board Member

Jim Hawley is Professor Emeritus School of Economics and Business, Saint Mary College of California. He was the Senior ESG advisor to Truvalue Labs, subsequently merged with Factset, where he held the same position. Before moving to Saint Mary’s College was an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis. He also was a risk analyst at Wells Fargo Bank.

Portrait of an older man with white hair, mustache, and beard in a patterned shirt.

Jim Hawley

Board Member

Jim Hawley is Professor Emeritus School of Economics and Business, Saint Mary College of California. He was the Senior ESG advisor to Truvalue Labs, subsequently merged with Factset, where he held the same position. Before moving to Saint Mary’s College was an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis. He also was a risk analyst at Wells Fargo Bank.

Portrait of an older man with white hair, mustache, and beard in a patterned shirt.

Jim Hawley

Board Member

Jim Hawley is Professor Emeritus School of Economics and Business, Saint Mary College of California. He was the Senior ESG advisor to Truvalue Labs, subsequently merged with Factset, where he held the same position. Before moving to Saint Mary’s College was an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis. He also was a risk analyst at Wells Fargo Bank.

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Giovanni Ferri

Board Member

Giovanni Ferri is a world level professional and scholar who has constantly addressed complex issues with a problem-solving approach by thinking out of the box and seeking innovative answers beyond mainstream views. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from New York University, has served at the Banca d’Italia, World Bank and University of Bari and since 2012 is full professor of economics at LUMSA University of Rome.

Portrait of a man in a blue shirt smiling, with short hair and receding hairline.

Giovanni Ferri

Board Member

Giovanni Ferri is a world level professional and scholar who has constantly addressed complex issues with a problem-solving approach by thinking out of the box and seeking innovative answers beyond mainstream views. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from New York University, has served at the Banca d’Italia, World Bank and University of Bari and since 2012 is full professor of economics at LUMSA University of Rome.

Portrait of a man in a blue shirt smiling, with short hair and receding hairline.

Giovanni Ferri

Board Member

Giovanni Ferri is a world level professional and scholar who has constantly addressed complex issues with a problem-solving approach by thinking out of the box and seeking innovative answers beyond mainstream views. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from New York University, has served at the Banca d’Italia, World Bank and University of Bari and since 2012 is full professor of economics at LUMSA University of Rome.

Ralf Frank

Board Member

Ralf Frank is Managing Partner at Sustainserv, a sustainability consulting firm with offices in Boston, Frankfurt, Nashville and Zurich. In parallel, he is a Professor of Organizational Transformation at GISMA University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, where he teaches CSR, business ethics, diversity and behavioral competences in virtual teams.

Ralf Frank

Board Member

Ralf Frank is Managing Partner at Sustainserv, a sustainability consulting firm with offices in Boston, Frankfurt, Nashville and Zurich. In parallel, he is a Professor of Organizational Transformation at GISMA University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, where he teaches CSR, business ethics, diversity and behavioral competences in virtual teams.

Ralf Frank

Board Member

Ralf Frank is Managing Partner at Sustainserv, a sustainability consulting firm with offices in Boston, Frankfurt, Nashville and Zurich. In parallel, he is a Professor of Organizational Transformation at GISMA University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, where he teaches CSR, business ethics, diversity and behavioral competences in virtual teams.

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Frank Jan de Graaf

Board Member

Frank Jan de Graaf is Full Professor of Corporate Governance & Leadership and Economic Transformation, and Lector at the Centre for Applied Research on Economics & Management (CAREM), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA). He began his career as a financial journalist, earned his PhD on corporate governance and CSR from the University of Amsterdam in 2005, and later worked as a responsible investment advisor. His research focuses on alternative ownership models and values in finance, ethics, and social finance.

Portrait of an older man with white beard and short hair, in a dark suit and light blue shirt.

Frank Jan de Graaf

Board Member

Frank Jan de Graaf is Full Professor of Corporate Governance & Leadership and Economic Transformation, and Lector at the Centre for Applied Research on Economics & Management (CAREM), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA). He began his career as a financial journalist, earned his PhD on corporate governance and CSR from the University of Amsterdam in 2005, and later worked as a responsible investment advisor. His research focuses on alternative ownership models and values in finance, ethics, and social finance.

Portrait of an older man with white beard and short hair, in a dark suit and light blue shirt.

Frank Jan de Graaf

Board Member

Frank Jan de Graaf is Full Professor of Corporate Governance & Leadership and Economic Transformation, and Lector at the Centre for Applied Research on Economics & Management (CAREM), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA). He began his career as a financial journalist, earned his PhD on corporate governance and CSR from the University of Amsterdam in 2005, and later worked as a responsible investment advisor. His research focuses on alternative ownership models and values in finance, ethics, and social finance.