Andrea Armeni
Associate Clinical Professor of Social Finance and Public Service; Director of Social Impact, Innovation, and Investment Specialization
Andrea Armeni is Associate Clinical Professor of Social Finance and Public Service and Director of Social Impact, Innovation & Investment at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He is also the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Transform Finance, a non-profit research, education, and implementation partner that supports investors and social change actors to challenge legacy investment approaches, seed transformative investment models, and build movement power.
A corporate lawyer by training, Andrea has spent the last decade exploring how capital can be made more just and equitable and how social change can be achieved both in and through finance. His current explorations focus on distributed governance mechanisms at the enterprise level as a fairer alternative to shareholder primacy.
He is the co-author, most recently, of “Grassroots Community Engaged Investment: Redistributing power over investment processes as the key to fostering equitable outcomes” and “Addressing Capital's Effects on Racial Justice: How investments drive injustice and what investors can do about it.” Andrea’s NYU Wagner course on finance and social justice received the 2021 Award of Excellence from the Financial Times and the Impact Finance Faculty Consortium.
Andrea holds a B.A. in analytic philosophy from Columbia University and a Juris Doctor from the Yale Law School.
This course introduces students to the main areas of corporate finance and how they relate to policy issues and discussions. The course covers topics in the three main areas of corporate finance: 1) capital structure (financing choices), 2) valuation (project and firm valuation) and 3) corporate governance (optimal governance structures). We will analyze how public policy, through taxes, public expenditures and regulation, affect these aspects of corporate finance. The course will additionally explore how key economic events have shaped public policy and influenced corporate financial practices. Case analysis will be used to enable students to understand practical application of the corporate finance theory introduced in the course and will also incorporate discussion of corporate finance in the context of social enterprises.
This course provides an introduction to the impact investing landscape and its evolution, players, and tools. After situating impact investing vis à vis both other forms of investing and other social change tools, we explore what makes an investment impactful - and how one would go about determining that and measuring it. Through a combination of readings, case studies, class discussion, and projects, students will gain deep insight into the perspective of the impact investor and consider how it relates to other stakeholders and to social change writ large. We will examine the process by which an investor develops an impact thesis, sources and evaluates opportunities, all the way to structuring a deal, monitoring financial and social returns, and exiting the investment responsibly. The course aims to combine practical knowledge about how impact investments are made with critical thinking about the field’s potential and limitations.
The NYU Impact Investment Fund (NIIF) is a unique inter-disciplinary, experiential learning course which is offered in tandem with a student-led and operated Impact Investing Fund of the same name. For students to participate in the Fund they are required to be enrolled in this course.
The creation of NIIF has been approved by the Deans of both Wagner and Stern. NIIF is operated under the guidelines of an Operational Handbook which has been reviewed by the NYU Office of General Counsel. Investment transactions made during the course are supported by the Business Law and International Transactions Clinics of the NYU Law School resulting in a three school interdisciplinary collaboration offering students the opportunity to interact with their peers across the University ecosystem.
Students participating in NIIF are expected to enroll in the NIIF course for the full academic year (fall and spring) and will receive 1.5 credits for each semester of participation. The course will meet every other week, but students are expected to complete assignments and deliverables during weeks that the class does not meet to assure the investment processes and momentum are responsibly maintained.
The class will be divided into five Deal Teams. The Deal Teams will have a sectoral focus (e.g., Financial Inclusion, Environment, Healthcare/Aging, Education and Food Systems) for sourcing prospective investment clients.
The teams will also have access to the MIINT (MBA Impact Investing Network & Training) program which is a competitive experiential on-line lab designed to give students at graduate schools a hands-on education in impact investing. The NIIF Investment Committee will recommend one of the teams to compete in the finals of MIINT where top graduate schools present to a judging committee composed of industry leaders in impact investing. Those participating in MIINT will have some additional deliverables in accordance with the MIINT program guidelines though the majority of the requirements align with deliverables identified in this Syllabus for the NIIF class as a whole.
This course provides an introduction to the impact investing landscape and its evolution, players, and tools. After situating impact investing vis à vis both other forms of investing and other social change tools, we explore what makes an investment impactful - and how one would go about determining that and measuring it. Through a combination of readings, case studies, class discussion, and projects, students will gain deep insight into the perspective of the impact investor and consider how it relates to other stakeholders and to social change writ large. We will examine the process by which an investor develops an impact thesis, sources and evaluates opportunities, all the way to structuring a deal, monitoring financial and social returns, and exiting the investment responsibly. The course aims to combine practical knowledge about how impact investments are made with critical thinking about the field’s potential and limitations.
This course provides an introduction to the impact investing landscape and its evolution, players, and tools. After situating impact investing vis à vis both other forms of investing and other social change tools, we explore what makes an investment impactful - and how one would go about determining that and measuring it. Through a combination of readings, case studies, class discussion, and projects, students will gain deep insight into the perspective of the impact investor and consider how it relates to other stakeholders and to social change writ large. We will examine the process by which an investor develops an impact thesis, sources and evaluates opportunities, all the way to structuring a deal, monitoring financial and social returns, and exiting the investment responsibly. The course aims to combine practical knowledge about how impact investments are made with critical thinking about the field’s potential and limitations.
The NYU Impact Investment Fund (NIIF) is a unique inter-disciplinary, experiential learning course which is offered in tandem with a student-led and operated Impact Investing Fund of the same name. For students to participate in the Fund they are required to be enrolled in this course.
The creation of NIIF has been approved by the Deans of both Wagner and Stern. NIIF is operated under the guidelines of an Operational Handbook which has been reviewed by the NYU Office of General Counsel. Investment transactions made during the course are supported by the Business Law and International Transactions Clinics of the NYU Law School resulting in a three school interdisciplinary collaboration offering students the opportunity to interact with their peers across the University ecosystem.
Students participating in NIIF are expected to enroll in the NIIF course for the full academic year (fall and spring) and will receive 1.5 credits for each semester of participation. The course will meet every other week, but students are expected to complete assignments and deliverables during weeks that the class does not meet to assure the investment processes and momentum are responsibly maintained.
The class will be divided into five Deal Teams. The Deal Teams will have a sectoral focus (e.g., Financial Inclusion, Environment, Healthcare/Aging, Education and Food Systems) for sourcing prospective investment clients.
The teams will also have access to the MIINT (MBA Impact Investing Network & Training) program which is a competitive experiential on-line lab designed to give students at graduate schools a hands-on education in impact investing. The NIIF Investment Committee will recommend one of the teams to compete in the finals of MIINT where top graduate schools present to a judging committee composed of industry leaders in impact investing. Those participating in MIINT will have some additional deliverables in accordance with the MIINT program guidelines though the majority of the requirements align with deliverables identified in this Syllabus for the NIIF class as a whole.
This course requires an application. Students participating in NIIF are expected to enroll in the NIIF course for the full academic year (Fall and Spring) and will receive 1.5 credits for each semester of participation.
Capital is but a tool – one that can be used for many different purposes. This course explores the use of finance as a tool for social change.
The sessions provide an overview of different approaches to the question of aligning investments and values and aim to empower the student with a critical framework for the evaluation of the role of finance in society via case studies and a review of current practices along a continuum from “avoiding the bad” to “building the good.” It is geared toward both finance practitioners and social change agents seeking to understand the interrelation and intersection of capital and social change practice.
Using impact investing as a starting point – but not an end point – this course provides an actionable, practitioner-centered overview of the opportunities to advance social change via capital. It will cover emerging strategies ranging from divestment in the public equities space to direct investments into social enterprises and communities, touching on some of the major topics in the space, from the allocation of risks and returns among stakeholders, to impact measurement and management.
Capital is but a tool – one that can be used for many different purposes. This course explores the use of finance as a tool for social change.
The sessions provide an overview of different approaches to the question of aligning investments and values and aim to empower the student with a critical framework for the evaluation of the role of finance in society via case studies and a review of current practices along a continuum from “avoiding the bad” to “building the good.” It is geared toward both finance practitioners and social change agents seeking to understand the interrelation and intersection of capital and social change practice.
Using impact investing as a starting point – but not an end point – this course provides an actionable, practitioner-centered overview of the opportunities to advance social change via capital. It will cover emerging strategies ranging from divestment in the public equities space to direct investments into social enterprises and communities, touching on some of the major topics in the space, from the allocation of risks and returns among stakeholders, to impact measurement and management.
Capital is but a tool – one that can be used for many different purposes. This course explores the use of finance as a tool for social change.
The sessions provide an overview of different approaches to the question of aligning investments and values and aim to empower the student with a critical framework for the evaluation of the role of finance in society via case studies and a review of current practices along a continuum from “avoiding the bad” to “building the good.” It is geared toward both finance practitioners and social change agents seeking to understand the interrelation and intersection of capital and social change practice.
Using impact investing as a starting point – but not an end point – this course provides an actionable, practitioner-centered overview of the opportunities to advance social change via capital. It will cover emerging strategies ranging from divestment in the public equities space to direct investments into social enterprises and communities, touching on some of the major topics in the space, from the allocation of risks and returns among stakeholders, to impact measurement and management.
Capital is but a tool – one that can be used for many different purposes. This course explores the use of finance as a tool for social change.
The sessions provide an overview of different approaches to the question of aligning investments and values and aim to empower the student with a critical framework for the evaluation of the role of finance in society via case studies and a review of current practices along a continuum from “avoiding the bad” to “building the good.” It is geared toward both finance practitioners and social change agents seeking to understand the interrelation and intersection of capital and social change practice.
Using impact investing as a starting point – but not an end point – this course provides an actionable, practitioner-centered overview of the opportunities to advance social change via capital. It will cover emerging strategies ranging from divestment in the public equities space to direct investments into social enterprises and communities, touching on some of the major topics in the space, from the allocation of risks and returns among stakeholders, to impact measurement and management.