Aeisha Mastagni: CalSTRS Corporate Governance Principles and Activist Stewardship.

1. Intro of episode.
2. (1:18) - Start of interview
3. (1:52) - Aeisha's "origin story"
4. (2:31) - Her beginnings with  Salomon Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley in the "dot com" era.
5. (3:40) -  Her corporate governance beginnings with CalPERS.
6. (6:50) - How pension funds manage their proxy voting and stewardship. At CalSTRS they manage 9,000+ equities. Role of Proxy Advisors: they help triage proxy voting, allowing to focus on the most relevant issues.
7. (9:17) - She would like to see more competition in the proxy advisory market (ISS and Glass Lewis). She would like to see as many inputs as possible (most informed decision).
8. (10:39) - On growth of corporate governance groups at CalSTRS (~15 people, "we call it our beehive") and CalPERS.
9. (11:26) - On structure of corporate governance group at CalSTRS: Sustainable investment and stewardship  strategies group ("SISS" team). Out of $285 billion of CalSTRS, the SISS team manages ~$8B in a portfolio of public equities (three basic strategies: 1) Passive around a low carbon index, 2) Activist managers, 3) Sustainability focus managers). They want to expand this strategy to private markets. They also have a team that works on strategic relations teams.
10. (14:50) - On her role as a board member of Golden 1 Credit Union.
11. (18:09) - History and focus of CalSTRS: $285B of assets under management. ~975,000 beneficiaries.
12. (21:21) - Stewardship and engagement tools of CalSTRS, "The tools have grown over the last 15 years": 1) Proxy voting, 2) Private engagements, 3) Shareholder proposals, 4) Collaborative engagements (ie. Climate Action 100+, Human Capital Management Coalition, etc), 5) Public engagements.
13. (23:27) - The CalSTRS' "Activist Stewardship" Model. This new form of stewardship is "one more tool in our tool chest"... "to be used in very limited circumstances". One of the first examples: the ExxonMobil campaign (with Engine No.1 and D.E.Shaw Group). "It's not about the size of investment, it's about credibility of the argument"
14. (29:02) - The value of engagements. On number of CalSTRS' shareholder proposals (down significantly, from 25-50 per year to 3-4 per year) and private interactions with companies. They have a variety of initiatives:
    1. Diversity efforts.
    2. Climate Action.
    3. Human capital management.
    4. Pandemic Resilient 50.
15. (34:53) - CalSTRS boardroom diversity efforts. The  Diverse Director DataSource (3D) (now transitioned to Equilar). Her thoughts on CA's SB-826 and AB-979.
16. (37:57) - CalSTRS' ESG Focus. They want to expand the sustainability investment approach to private assets including infrastructure, PE and real estate.
17. (41:36) - On CalSTRS' Corporate Governance Principles. "I like to think that at CalSTRS we are progressive in terms of our principles." Independence first and foremost. On Chair/CEO role and overboarding. "There are some issues that we are unwilling to waiver."
18. (48:25) - On corporate purpose.
19. (50:18) - Her favorite books:
    1. Freakonomics, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubbner (2005)
    2. Life in Motion, by Misty Copeland (2014)
20. (51:16) - Her mentors (her father). Professionally:
    1. Ted White (former head of corporate governance at CalPERS)
    2. Anne Sheehan (former director of corporate governance at CalSTRS)
21. (52:55) - Her favorite quote: "If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you probably don’t understand it yourself." (Albert Einstein).
22. (53:48) - Her "unusual habit": anything to do with dance.
23. (46:35) - Her parting thoughts to directors: "Remember who you're representing when you're sitting inside that boardroom. You're there to represent the interest of a broad shareholder group and your responsibility to them is to ensure a risk-adjusted return (considering all long term ESG risks, doing it in a responsible and ethical manner)."

Aeisha Mastagni is a Portfolio Manager in the Sustainable Investment & Stewardship Strategies Unit at the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the second largest public pension fund in the United States with $285 billion dollars in assets under management. Aeisha also serves as a director of Golden 1 Credit Union, California's leading credit union and one of the largest in the United States with over 1 million members and assets over $16 billion.

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Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License