Emerging New Models in Sustainable Real Assets

Rob Day has been a sustainable resources private equity investor since 2004, and acts or has served as a Director, Observer and advisory board member to multiple companies in the energy tech and related sectors. Rob also serves on the Board at the New England Clean Energy Council and the Investment Committee of the Clean Energy Trust. From 2005-2016 he authored the column Cleantech Investing, which appeared on GreentechMedia.com, and co-hosted several conferences with that group on the topic of new investment models for the sustainability sector. Formerly a consultant with Bain & Company, Rob has worked with companies and evaluated private equity transactions in the energy/ utilities, telecom, IT, medical/pharmaceutical, and retail industries. Earlier in his career, Rob was a member of the World Resources Institute's Sustainable Enterprise Program, where he co-authored the report The Next Bottom Line: Making Sustainable Development Tangible. Rob received his MBA at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management (Northwestern University), and his BA at Swarthmore College. A strong advocate for youth sports, he also serves as the President of the Marblehead Youth Soccer Association.

Beth is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Cyan Capital Partners whose mission is to bridge gaps for the Institutional Investor community and new firms pursuing Sustainable Investment strategies capable of generating financial returns and significant impact at scale. Directly before co-founding Cyan, Beth served as the first Managing Investment Director of Sustainable Investments for CalPERS. In this role, Beth led a team providing centralized leadership for integration of ESG factors into investment decision-making across CalPERS’ approximately $400 billion total fund and served as part of the executive leadership team overseeing the CalPERS Investment Office. During her years at CalPERS, Beth managed a $7 billion portfolio of infrastructure and real estate assets and served on the Real Assets Investment Committee. Prior to her time at CalPERS, Beth was Director of Business Development for Enel Green Power North America, where she worked on various business and finance aspects of over 1600 MW of renewable power assets. She earned a BS in Science, Technology & Society from Stanford University and an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School.

Liqian joined Cambridge Associates in 2011 and has more than 13 years of investment and impact experience. As Head of Sustainable and Impact Investing (SII) Research, Liqian leads the team in identifying and researching SII investment ideas and works with a variety of clients to build portfolios focused on impact and sustainability. He also co-chairs the firm’s Sustainable and Impact Investing Council, a cross-practice group that drives content and strategy on SII topics. He joined the firm as a private investment specialist and currently serves as a member of the firm’s global private investment ratings committee. Liqian is a frequent speaker at client and industry conferences and regularly contributes to firm research on impact investing trends and strategies. In 2015, he authored the report, Risks and Opportunities from the Changing Climate: Playbook for the Truly Long Term Investor. In 2019, he co-authored Pathways to Sustainable Investing: Insights from Families and Peers. In 2020, he co-authored Racial Equity Investing: The Time is Now. Prior to joining Cambridge Associates, Liqian was a finance associate at GreenerU, where he worked on developing a private investment vehicle to finance energy efficiency projects on university campuses. Previously, he was a financial analyst in the Investment Management Division at Goldman Sachs.

Frans Tjallingii is the CEO of 7 Generation Capital, a firm that provides “Vehicles as a Service” to operators of medium and heavy-duty fleets combining the vehicle and charging infrastructure into one monthly bill. He has over 20 years of entrepreneurial and corporate leadership experience in clean tech, fintech and in the maritime and oil & gas industries. In 2018, he completed the sale to Galaxy Digital of First Coin Capital, an advisory firm in the blockchain industry which he co-founded in 2017. Before that he worked in leadership roles for 12 years in the maritime services industry around the globe for SMIT (now Royal Boskalis Westminster). Frans started his career with business development at a consulting engineering firm and then worked for the Netherlands Government dealing with international maritime environmental treaties and conventions, before joining SMIT in 2004. Frans is the Board Chair for the Prince Rupert Port Authority and Co-founder and Board Chair of the Foundations for Social Change, a not for profit that is pioneering new approaches to homelessness. Frans has a Masters degree in Marine Biology from the University of Groningen and a Masters in Business Administration from the Rotterdam School of Management.