International career and sustainability: the path of Alice Bordini Staden

“The energy transition is the fourth industrial revolution. I tell today’s young women to seize the opportunity: you can build a brilliant international career by dedicating yourself to the enormous changes facing the economic system, while making your own contribution to protecting the planet.” Alice Bordini Staden, an expert in sustainable finance and climate policy, is convinced. She is now head of Engagement Management and a member of the investment committee at the National Trust, Europe’s largest foundation for the conservation of the environment and cultural heritage.

“Mine was not a conventional career path,” she admits. “Just think, until high school, all I wanted to do was ride horses, dreaming of a competitive career in show jumping. I had even given up on becoming a veterinarian. My parents persuaded me to change my mind and consider an alternative career. 
I started reading Il Sole 24 Ore and Milano Finanza during the summer before my final high school exams and, to my surprise, I became fascinated by the mechanisms of business, companies, and markets.”

Bordini Staden decided to focus on economics and took the entrance exam for Bocconi, where she later graduated in 1997 with a degree in Financial Economics (CLEFIN). “In Barcelona during my CEMS semester [a study abroad program organized by the Community of European Management Schools], I got a call from London for an interview, and I was offered the opportunity to work in investment management in hedge funds. At the time, very little was known about these alternative funds, as the industry was still in its infancy in Europe,” she adds. This was fortunate because it allowed her to build a career in a very stimulating environment where new energy was needed. She became a portfolio manager and chief investment officer of innovative portfolios. Of that time, she explains: “I loved the fact that I could work with brilliant people from all over the world and identify which strategies would perform best based on my macroeconomic and market forecasts.”

But after almost fifteen years as a fund manager, she made a life-changing decision. “After the 2008 crisis, investing in hedge funds had lost its excitement and I felt the need to do something new, something that was growing, something in line with my values. 

I wanted to feel that I was doing something good and worthwhile, and I wanted to enjoy my work again.” The growing impact of climate change on human health and its material impact on the economic system, with an inevitable political response, convinced her to leave the hedge fund world and focus on energy transition finance and policy. Bordini Staden set up her own company, GLC Advisors Ltd, and went back to the books, knowing that the whole economic system needed to evolve. Specializing in finance and climate policy before the acronym ESG became popular, she developed unique expertise in the market, from climate science to responsible finance, climate policy, and climate risk management. Over the years, the scope of her work has broadened, from investors to companies to policymakers.

As a consultant, she now works with large companies and international organizations. Her role at the National Trust involves developing innovative investment policies and engagement activities with the institutional investor coalitions ClimateAction100+ and IIGCC. She is also an advisor to the Financial Reporting Council, the UK’s accounting and reporting watchdog, which publishes the world’s leading Corporate Governance Code and the Stewardship Code. In addition, she works with the EU Commission and the UK government on how to structure the financial system for transition. Bordini also collaborates closely with companies such as Mundys SpA on climate strategy and sustainable finance. “This is what I say to new generations: it’s true that climate change puts certain sectors at risk, but there are also great opportunities. I’m thinking of science, but also the humanities, politics, and business. The world has to change, and it’s possible to contribute to that change and build a career at the same time,” she concludes.