Q&A: Getting to Know Jacqui Smith, MBA, CSRIC™

Welcome to a conversation with Jacqui Smith, MBA, CSRIC™, a Portfolio Manager at Reynders McVeigh and a leader on our shareholder engagement team.

What about your work gets you excited?

Working in sustainable finance allows me to go much deeper with clients. I’m an extrovert, and one of my favorite parts of the job is getting to know clients personally: learning what they care about, what motivates them, what they want to do with their money, and what makes them feel aligned. I love being able to help people in this way.

I also like that we invest in individual securities, and I get to know the companies that I work with. Understanding these companies inside and out, especially through shareholder engagement and research, allows me to connect the investments directly to what’s important to clients. That motivates me.

What do those client conversations look like for you?

When we first start onboarding clients, we explain our process and investment philosophy. It’s a fun process for them. One of my favorite parts is working with someone who never cared about investments, never cared about money, had zero interest, and then became engaged. It’s an educational experience for them, and that’s fun for me.

I often like to have a discussion after the first few rounds of trades—explaining to clients why I moved out of certain names and into new ones. That’s when I get to know them because they get to ask questions about the companies. Many times, those conversations will get me thinking more about ways we could bring ideas from investors to these companies. This, in turn, helps create more connections with our shareholder engagement team.

What’s a memorable accomplishment from your time at Reynders?

There’s been a number of little accomplishments over the years. One that comes to mind is MasterCard now having 1:1 pay equity in terms of gender, which is significant. This was the type of proxy questions that Reynders voted in favor of reporting on.

Another achievement involves the use of forced arbitration. During the time when I first started here, reporting the use of forced arbitration that was mostly related to sexual harassment and racial discrimination was receiving some attention. We signed onto a Tesla shareholder proposal related to this, asking them to eliminate the use of forced arbitration and similar mechanisms in cases concerning allegations of discrimination. The next year, the Senate passed the ending of the forced arbitration of sexual assault and sexual harassment with a bipartisan vote, which was also significant. That was a memorable moment for us as we believe these engagements helped bring this issue to the forefront and create positive change.

There’s been a dip in the number of sustainability-focused shareholder proposals at major companies. What do you think is going on?

I think that more proposals have been withdrawn for companies agreeing, so they're not actually reaching the ballot, which is what we want. The end goal is not to have a question like that get on the proxy ballot. We want to have the agreement before then, which is the first step. We’ll reach out to a company, have dialog with them, and explain our concerns. If there’s no progress after multiple attempts, we start to do a more formal SEC or submission process, typically with likeminded investors.

What organizations are you involved with outside Reynders?

One organization I'm more recently actively involved in is the Executive Leaders Council for Tomorrow's Women TODAY. It’s women from all different industries who can ask each other, “What’s something you’re working on right now?” and “What do you need help in?” Talking with other people in different industries is great because I think sometimes we can get siloed.

Another organization I’m involved with that I absolutely love is WISE, which stands for Women Investing for a Sustainable Economy. That’s how I met people like Maria Egan at Reynders many years ago. It has a large presence in Boston and has grown to be an international organization.

I also help with the Intentional Endowments Network. I completed a fellowship with them after grad school, but I am still in touch with them and currently helping with planning a big 10-year anniversary event in the fall. They’re just a great organization doing amazing work for endowments.

On a more personal side, how do you like to spend your time outside of work?

Being a mom is a full-time job. I have two boys: one 5½ and the other 3. They are great kids and fun ages. My oldest is entering kindergarten, and my youngest is in preschool, so that’s a blast. Trying to be present for my kids and have family dinners most nights and organize their activities-- all of that is my biggest and best time commitment outside of work.  

Can you name times, both professionally and personally, that you got out of your comfort zone?

Professionally, creating and teaching a class, Introduction to ESG and Impact Investing at Bentley University, was the most I’ve been outside my comfort zone. I pushed myself, and I learned a ton in the process. Teaching the course helped me professionally in working with students because they got me to think outside the box.

Personally, I got out of my comfort zone by traveling to foreign countries like South Africa in 2016. Doing so put many things into perspective for me. I took a class there while I was in grad school. Seeing the stark income inequality and how differently people live solidified that I wanted to work in impact investing. I also went bungee jumping in Greece in 2007, and that was certainly out of my comfort zone!

DISCLOSURE: The commentary provided by an employee of Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management, LLC (“RMCM”) in the Q&A above is subject to change and represents the current, good-faith views of the employee and RMCM at the time of publication. The commentary is educational in nature these views are not intended to forecast future events or guarantee future results.