Ex-Trillium executives Seitchik, Brown in new sustainable wealth venture

Senior responsible investment figures team up with Baldwin Brothers Inc.

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A new sustainable wealth management firm has been formed in the US by two former senior figures at sustainable fund firm Trillium Asset Management, Farnum Brown and Adam Seitchik.

They have teamed up with Massachusetts-based wealth management group Baldwin Brothers to launch Arjuna Capital, named after the hero of the ancient Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata. The new firm’s tag line is ‘Enlightened Engagement in the Capital Markets’. The launch follows other recent responsible investment start-ups such as Ownership Capital, headed up by former PGGM responsible equities head Alex Van der Velden.

Brown was most recently Chief Investment Strategist at Trillium. Seitchik is the firm’s former co-CEO and chief investment officer, who was most recently Executive Director of the Sustainable Investment Research Center, which he formed in 2011 to assist asset owners and asset managers integrate sustainability into their investments.

Seitchik, author of Climate Change from the Investor’s Perspective and former Chief Global Strategist at Deutsche Asset Management in London, will be the new operation’s CIO while Brown will be Chief Strategist and Senior Portfolio Manager.“Arjuna’s mandate is to build the best performing, most forward-looking and high-impact sustainable investment platform in the business,” the group said – adding it will partner with others to offer clients sustainable investments “across the asset class spectrum”.

“An opportunity to advance the field of sustainable investing”

Seitchik said the launch was “opportunity to advance the field of sustainable investing with wisdom and creativity.” Brown said the move was the “next logical step”.

“I am thankful for Farnum Brown’s years of service here at Trillium and wish him well in his new venture,” said Trillium CEO Matthew Patsky.

Baldwin Brothers was founded in 1974 and has around $1bn in assets under management; senior partner Michael Baldwin is the founder of the Marion Institute, a non-profit incubator for sustainability and social justice projects.

Seitchik and Brown – who merged his own SRI firm Advent Advisors into Trillium in 2004 – will work alongside Baldwin Brothers executives Ellen Stone and Bill Marvel. Announcement