Pacific Island nations are on the frontlines of climate change. On behalf of regional Finance and Economy ministers, Ekaterina Gratcheva and I analyzed the returns and management of their national funds, many of which are larger than 100% of GDP. These funds play an outsized role in providing for the future wellbeing of citizens in Pacific Island nations. The analysis aimed to fill the vacuum of comparable information about fund performance, fees, and management. Greater transparency empowers policymakers to make prudent decisions in the best interest of their citizens.
I helped formulate the strategy for benchmarking investment returns and risk in the context of limited data, and compatibility challenges. We built off of the work of New Zealand's sovereign wealth fund in benchmarking the performance of active managers against reference portfolios comprised of easily implementable, low-cost, internationally diversified passive portfolios. I performed the quantitative investment analysis using R.
This past summer, I launched [**Teal Insights**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/teal-insights/?viewAsMember=true), a research consulting firm focusing on uncovering actionable insights relevant to emerging markets, sovereign debt, and sustainability. It has been a pleasure working with the [**Emso Asset Management**](https://emso.com/) team to assess and continue to enhance their approach to Sovereign ESG in emerging markets. This publication benchmarked their approach to Sovereign ESG against best practices I helped formulate at the World Bank. It also outlined areas for growth going forward. Teal Insights is working with Emso Asset Management on an ongoing basis on projects related to sustainable finance in emerging markets sovereign fixed income. The partnership aims to cut through the wishful thinking and hype that currently dominate discussions of ESG to provide reality-based insights and investment practices.