Dr. Ashby Monk is the Executive & Research Director of the Stanford Research Initiative on Long-Term Investing. Ashby has studied and advised the largest asset owners in the world for more than twenty years with a particular interest in how to improve outcomes for their beneficiaries and the world. Ash also serves as the Head of Research at Addepar, a fintech company that helps investors make smarter decisions. He has twice appeared on the show – as the 29th guest back in 2017 and again two years ago – and those conversations are replayed in the feed.

Our conversation starts with a recent paper Ashby published called Investor Identity: The Ultimate Driver of Returns. We discuss the descriptors of identity and enabling factors that determine each investor’s fingerprint. From there, we dive into technology as an enabler and how technological innovation can improve returns. We then turn to ESG investing and another of Ashby’s recent papers, Submergence = Drawdown + Recovery, that discusses the importance of considering the combined drawdown and recovery period in making investment decisions.

Show Notes
04:37 Ashby’s recent research
07:42 Institutional investor identity
10:07 Best practices
11:35 People, process and information
14:44 Future of governance
17:03 Role of technology in the investment office
21:11 GPS for portfolios and markets
26:25 Impact of culture on technology
31:03 Fueling innovation in investment offices
39:43 Collaboration
43:26 ESG
50:53 Additional research insights
59:00 Closing questions