Ethics of Socially Responsible Funds
August 23rd, 2016
By: Seamus Vaughan Lucey
Certain mutual funds attempt to be both ethical and profitable. Early attempts ...
Staff
Dr. Kara Tan Bhala
President and Founder
Education
PhD (Philosophy) University of Kansas
MA (Philosophy) University of Kansas
MA (Liberal Studies) New York University
MPhil (Management Studies) Oxford University
BS (Systems and Management) City University of LondonDr. Kara Tan Bhala has a rare combination of professional training and extensive experience in both global finance and moral philosophy. She has over twenty-three years of experience in global finance, much of which was gained through working on Wall Street. She has been a sell-side equity analyst, a sell-side equity sales person, a buy-side equity analyst, and a portfolio manager. From 1992-2001, Dr. Tan Bhala was a Managing Director of Merrill Lynch and the Senior Portfolio Manager of the Merrill Lynch Dragon Fund and Emerging Tigers Fund. At its height, the Merrill Lynch Dragon Fund was the second largest Asian ex-Japan mutual fund in the world, with assets over $1 billion. Before running the Dragon Fund and Emerging Tigers Funds, Dr. Tan Bhala was a portfolio manager with Fiduciary Trust International in New York, where she ran the Far East equity portion of the United Nations Pension Fund. She was a lecturer at the University of Kansas School of Business where she taught Global Finance and Ethics.
Dr. Tan Bhala is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Regulation and Ethics at Queen Mary University of London. She is an Advisor for IntegTree Compliance Consulting. She runs her own international financial markets consulting firm and has been a consultant for hedge and mutual funds based in Kansas City.
Dr. Tan Bhala is the lead author of International Investment Management: Theory, Ethics and Practice published by Routledge in 2016. She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week, The Far East Economic Review, and other prominent publications, and has been interviewed on Adam Smith’s Money World. Her published articles are in The Harvard International Review, The Journal of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs, among others and has contributed to The Handbook of Portfolio Management. Dr. Tan Bhala has lived and worked in London, Oxford, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Dr. Tan Bhala is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) , a Member of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs , a Board Member of the Friends of Johnson County Disability Services. She was formerly a Trustee at Bishop Seabury Academy, Lawrence, Kansas , and a Treasurer on the Friends of the Lied Board, Lied Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas.
Cristian Dimitriu
Institute Fellow (cdimitriu@hotmail.com)
BA in Philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. PhD in Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Canada. Cristian was a lecturer at the Department of Philosophy and Humanities and Western Civilization Program, University of Kansas. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. He specializes in Global Justice and Analytic Political Philosophy. He is currently doing research on the ethics of international debts, international fair trade, human rights and other topics.
Eric Witmer
Editor (witmereric@ku.edu)
Eric Witmer lives in Kansas City, Missouri and attends the University of Kansas School of Law. He earned his BA in Film and Video from Pennsylvania State University and also has a Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Eric will finish his Juris Doctor degree in May of 2017.
Interests: Dog-walking and nature
Carolina Rocha
Institute Fellow (carorocharo@gmail.com)
MBA, Harvard Business School, USA
Economic Consultant
Shazia K. Afghan
Institute Fellow
Email: s.k.afghan@hss14.qmul.ac.u
LLM in Banking and Finance Law, Queen Mary University of London, England
Visiting Research Fellow, Institute for Regulation and Ethics, Queen Mary University of London, England
Consultant for the Banking Standards Board, UK
Cristina Van Putten
Research Associate (cristinavanputten@gmail.com)
LLM, Corporate and Financial Law, University of Glasgow
LLB, University of Amsterdam
Interests: Drawing and Art
Abhishek Roy
Research Associate ( abhi2013roy@gmail.com)
Michigan State University, Major: Economics, Minor: German
Andy Nelson
Research Associate (anelson77n@gmail.com)
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, University of Kansas
Interests: Golf and music
Anh Lee
Research Associate (nhatanhku93@gmail.com)
Bachelor of Science in Economics, Finance and Information System, University of Kansas, USA.
Interests: Public speaking, martial arts.
Kolbe Murray
Research Associate (kolbemurray@gmail.com)
BSc in Finance, The University of Kansas. (Jennett Finance Scholar and University Honors Program.)
Interest: Triathlons
Nicola Bilotta
Research Associate (N.bilotta@lse.ac.uk)
Master of Economic History, London School of Economics, UK
MA in Historical Science at Università degli Studi of Milan
Bachelor of History, Università degli Studi di Milano
Interest: Water polo
Rachel Thomas
Research Associate (rachelat@ad.unc.edu)
BA, Public Policy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Rahim Daya
Research Associate (daya.rahim@gmail.com)
BA, Political Economy, University of California, Berkeley
Toby Wai
Research Associate (tobywai327@hotmail.com)
MSc (Law and Finance) and LLB, Queen Mary University of London
LLB China University of Political Science and Law
Victoria Tse
Research Associate (vtse001@g.ucla.edu)
BA, Philosophy, University of California, Los Angeles
Interests: Cooking and Yoga
Yucheng Lu
Research Associate (nyu.lu@yahoo.com)
Master in Economics Candidate, New York University, USA
Interest: Badminton and Classical Music
