Sustainable Investment Fund Student Principals — Bidding Open Fall 2025

New for the 2025–2026 School Year
The Sustainable Investment Fund (SIF) has been redesigned and will now be offered as a one-semester, 3-unit course on Thursday evenings (6:00–9:00 PM) during Spring 2026, open to both FTMBA and EWMBA students.

What’s Changing?

  • One-semester format: SIF will now run exclusively in Spring as a single, 3-credit course, offering greater scheduling flexibility and improved integration of content.
  • Open enrollment: SIF is shifting from an application-based model to bidding-based enrollment, expanding access to students across programs.
  • No prerequisites: Prior coursework in Financial Information Analysis is no longer required. Foundational training in financial analysis, valuation, and sustainability reporting will be embedded directly into the course.
  • SIF Advisory Board: Investment opportunities and company connections will be sourced with the support of a newly formed advisory board of experienced investors and industry professionals.

What’s Staying the Same?

  • Hands-on learning: Students will work in teams to evaluate real public equity opportunities and develop both investment theses and actionable engagement strategies focused on unlocking long-term financial and sustainability value.
  • Students remain central to fund strategy, security selection, and impact evaluation.
  • SIF continues to count toward the Michaels Certificate in Sustainable Business.
    The course remains a flagship Applied Innovation offering, giving students a real-world platform to apply and extend classroom learning.

Course Description
Are you interested in integrating financial analysis, sustainability data, and real-world corporate engagement into investment decision-making? The Haas Sustainable Investment Fund (SIF) offers MBA students a rigorous, applied experience in public equity sustainable investing. As a Student Principal, you will learn to think like both an external investor and an internal strategist—evaluating companies, identifying areas for operational improvement, and pitching investment ideas grounded in long-term value creation. Since its founding in 2008, SIF has grown into the largest student-led sustainable investment fund at a leading business school, with a portfolio exceeding $4.5 million.

The course offers a unique opportunity to:

  • Build investment and engagement theses tied to real public companies
  • Integrate sustainability performance with traditional financial metrics
  • Pitch ideas to an Investment Committee and receive feedback from expert advisors
  • Help shape durable student-company relationships through a pipeline of follow-on consulting projects
  • Learn directly from faculty and a newly formed SIF Advisory Board, including leading voices in sustainable investing

No prior finance or sustainability experience is required—just intellectual curiosity, a willingness to learn, and a commitment to working in teams to tackle complex real-world challenges.

Faculty
The course will be taught by Panos N. Patatoukas, L.H. Penney Chair in Accounting and Co-Director of the Sustainable and Impact Finance (SAIF) Initiative at Berkeley Haas, and Anne Simpson, Global Head of Sustainability at Franklin Templeton and a globally recognized leader in sustainable investing.