Maria Lettini
FAIRR Initiative Executive Director
London
My related interests: Transforming the food system to ensure environmental, economic and human health. Food and climate is both a professional and personal passion.
I am a firm believer that universities --through leading-edge research, climate-positive operations, engaged students and staff, and stewardship through uni endowments -- have enormous power to shift the dialogue on climate.
BIO
Maria Lettini is the Executive Director of the FAIRR Initiative, a global network of over 250 investors, whose combined assets total more than $29 trillion. The network engages institutional investors and related stakeholders on the material ESG risks that are inherent in today's food system with the aim of future-proofing investment portfolios and influencing strategic corporate change within global protein supply chains.
Maria has over twenty years’ experience in global investment banking, business and finance. She began her capital markets career at J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank, based in San Francisco, New York and Madrid. In 2009, she shifted her focus to sustainable finance and spent six years at the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) where she was responsible for the PRI’s signatory engagement and outreach, spearheading awareness about financially material ESG issues and ensuring their incorporation into investment policies and practices worldwide.
Maria joined FAIRR in 2016 to build a world-class research and engagement team which has since become the fastest growing global ESG investor network. She also currently serves on the Sustainability Accounting Standard Board (SASB) Standards Advisory Group, and the Intentional Endowment Network’s (IEN) Steering Committee.
Maria holds a MA, MSc (Distinction) in Environment, Politics and Globalization from King’s College London and a BA in International Business, Latin American Studies and Spanish from SDSU.