10 Years Later – Headed Toward a Brighter Future

“As Veris marks our 10th anniversary we are optimistic because we see that impact investing and Veris are part of a much larger transformational ecosystem steadily gaining momentum. We believe this ecosystem is advancing sustainability in business, investing, and society.

-Excerpt from 10 Impacts In 10 Years.

An Impactful Vision

Ten years ago, our five Veris Co-founders came together with an idea and a dream to create a registered investment advisory firm focused on helping families and foundations align their investments with their values and create positive social and environmental impact in the world with their wealth.

We believed sustainable business and sustainable investing were growing and changing the way business operates and capital was invested. Ours was a vision in which sustainable businesses could change the world, and investors would choose to fund sustainable companies because they are the innovators and can deliver both financial performance and social benefit.

We believed, as did Generation Investment Management and others, that we were at a tipping point. No longer would Socially Responsible Investing be primarily about what companies shouldn’t do. Instead, sustainable and impact investing focused on what companies could do to create positive change, by understanding the drivers of great companies and transformative businesses.

We wanted to be part of this new ecosystem, aptly described by the United Nations, “Business as an Agent of World Benefit.” We also understood that many of the world’s most pressing challenges could not be addressed via business alone. That investing in NGOs and Community Banking was a critical part of building affordable housing, providing solar energy or clean drinking water in the villages of the world, and for empowering women through micro-finance.

A Vision Turns To Reality

In August 2007 Veris opened our doors for business. In the beginning, a team of 10 dedicated staff members managed about $350 million in client assets. In the following decade, Veris developed and grew our San Francisco office. In ten years, the Veris team grew to 23 people managing ~$1 billion in client assets. The firm celebrated the AUM milestone on June 13, 2017, which was the day of Veris Wealth Partners’ 10th anniversary celebration at the Rubin Museum in New York.

Throughout this growth, Veris has remained an independent firm focused on serving our clients and helping them work towards their financial and impact goals through values- and mission-aligned investing across asset classes.

We have also worked to help build the field of impact investing by contributing thought leadership and collaborating with US SIF and other leading organizations at the forefront of this movement.

A Year Of Celebrations

Veris held events in New York City and Portsmouth New Hampshire events so that our team, clients, impact-investing sector leaders, and representatives from impact field-building organizations could gather to reflect on ten years of growth and impact.

Highlights of the NYC Event

The first event was held on June 13, 2017 at the Rubin Museum in Manhattan.

• Three Veris Co-Founders, Patricia Farrar-Rivas, Michael Lent and Steve Fahrer, shared their reflections on how we got here, what we have accomplished, and where we are going over the next decade.
• Lisa Woll, CEO of US SIF, the sustainable and impact investing trade association, provided an overview of the extraordinary growth of the impact investing industry. In the ten years since we were founded, the sector grew from less than 10% of US assets managed for impact in 2007 to 25% and nearly $9 trillion in 2017.
• A multi-generational family who had worked with Veris Co-Founder and Senior Advisor Michael Lent for over 20 years shared their journey to impact investing.
• Clients engaged in discussions on key impact investing themes including Gender Lens Investing, Community Wealth Building, Sustainable Food & Agriculture, and Climate Solutions.
• Deval Patrick, Managing Director of Bain Capital’s new Double Impact Fund and the former Governor of Massachusetts, told the story of his journey from leading a state to building an impact investment fund at a very traditional private equity firm. Patrick shared his hopes and his worries. And he reminded us change-makers “that too often we whisper our successes, while we shout out our failures.”

Highlights of the Portsmouth Event

On July 18, 2017, nearly 100 clients, colleagues and friends came to the Veris Portsmouth 10th Celebration and Farewell Gathering for David Hills, one of our Co-founding partners.

• Keynote speaker Greg Watson, Director of Policy and System Design, E.F. Schumacher Center for a New Economics was formerly Secretary of Agriculture for Deval Patrick during his term as Governor of Massachusetts. Greg demonstrated that a lifetime of service in sustainable food and agriculture, both urban and rural, renewable energy, and creating more inclusive communities can be integrated for promising results.
• Veris Partner Nicole Dolan discussed global and local sustainable business solutions for creating business as a force for change with Brad Sterl, founder and CEO, of Rustic Crust and Ken Locklin, Director, of Impax Asset Management. Rustic Crust is a New Hampshire company invested in by three Veris fund managers. Sterl provided a perspective on rural community job creation and sustainable food solutions. Impax sub-advises the Pax Global Environmental Market Fund and Locklin offered a global market perspective on energy efficiency, renewable energy and climate solutions. The audience was struck by the clarity that risk-taking and entrepreneurship drive real, positive change – be that in global solar projects or baking the best organic pizza dough in the U.S. from a rural New Hampshire town.
• Veris Partner Alison Pyott gave a heartfelt farewell address to retiring Veris Co-Founding Partner David Hills and he shared reflections on his 30-year career in impact investing.

Looking Ahead

The following excerpt from our 10th anniversary book sums up how the team at Veris feels about the future.

“We are optimistic as we head into the next decade, despite significant challenges. We’re hopeful because a new generation of investors and business leaders actively believe and demonstrate that sustainability and impact investing works. We are also hopeful because of the unstoppable tide of impact in business-driven innovation. These companies invest in people, communities, creativity, and transformative technologies.”