School Notes: School of Management
March/April 2023

Student-run impact investing fund launches

The Yale School of Management will launch a new student-run impact investment fund in 2023, called the Meng Impact Investment Fund, that will enable students to gain experience in making hands-on decisions about investments in companies with a social purpose. The fund grew out of a multi-year student effort and is being supported by a generous gift from Leon Meng ’97MPPM.

The fund will begin operations in 2023 and will likely begin to consider investments in the 2023–24 academic year, according to Heather Tookes, deputy dean for faculty and professor of finance. Its operations will be overseen and supported by the International Center for Finance. The idea for the fund originated with students taking the Private Capital and Impact Investing course taught by Sue Carter four years ago. 

New case studies focus on diversity

New case studies that put a spotlight on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in business are featured in a growing number of courses in the Yale SOM curriculum. The new cases, which debuted last spring and have been integrated more widely into the core curriculum this fall, are part of Dean Kerwin Charles’s Anti-racism at Yale SOM initiative. These cases fall into two, often overlapping categories: cases that feature women and underrepresented people of color as protagonists, and cases that consider the ramifications of DEI efforts inside organizations and communities. The cases are sprinkled throughout the Yale SOM curriculum.