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How Modern Fiduciaries Navigate Climate Risks and Opportunities

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MoFo was proud to sponsor <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/cleantechiq/home/" target="_blank">Transition IQ’s</a> <a href="https://web.cvent.com/event/058cc8a6-a7bc-4959-8b55-ce3adcc12742/summary?RefId=Climate+Week+NYC+2024" target="_blank">How Modern Fiduciaries Navigate Climate Risks and Opportunities</a>, held during San Francisco Climate Week 2026. The third annual San Francisco forum brought together institutional investors, asset allocators, and industry leaders to explore evolving climate risks, investment opportunities, and strategies for advancing the energy transition.The event featured discussions on emerging investment themes across climate-resilient infrastructure, clean energy technologies, digital infrastructure, and natural capital. Speakers examined topics including the role of AI in the energy transition, critical minerals and energy security, climate adaptation, and innovative financing strategies aimed at generating both financial returns and environmental impact.MoFo partners Suz Mac Cormac and Fredo Silva participated as speakers during the event. Suz joined a morning panel examining how institutional investors are navigating the energy transition, balancing climate and financial risks amid political uncertainty, and identifying new investment opportunities driven by growing demand for critical minerals. Fredo participated in an afternoon breakout session exploring investment opportunities and challenges related to natural capital, including agriculture, water, and other natural resources. Their sessions took place at the times listed below:<ul><li>Investing in the Energy Transition (9:35 a.m. PT)<ul><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-cashion/" target="_blank">Peter Cashion</a>, Managing Investment Director – Sustainable Investments, CalPERS</li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinleduc/" target="_blank">Colin le Duc</a>, Founding Partner, Generation Investment Management</li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-brown-nmsic/" target="_blank">Bruce Brown</a>, Head of Strategic Climate Initiatives, New Mexico State Investment Council</li></ul></li></ul><ul><li>Investing in Natural Capital: Opportunities & Challenges (2:10 p.m. PT)<ul><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/waltduflock/" target="_blank">Walt Duflock</a>, VP of Innovation at Western Growers Association</li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-e-bergman/" target="_blank">Adam Bergman</a>, Managing Director at EcoTech Capital</li><li><a href="https://www.alderpoint.com/team/chris-larson" target="_blank">Chris Larson</a>, CIO at Alder Point Capital</li><li><a href="https://rrgcapitalmanagement.com/ari-swiller">Ari Swiller</a>, Managing Partner at RRG Capital Management</li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachary-ducheneaux-31052619/" target="_blank">Zach Ducheneaux</a>, Founder of 5th C LLC</li></ul></li></ul>To learn more about SF Climate Week, visit <a href="https://www.sfclimateweek.org/" target="_blank">its website</a>.<hr>

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Susan (“Suz”) co-chairs the Sustainability + Corporate Responsibility and Social Enterprise + Impact Investing practices. Her practice focuses on late-stage financings, secondaries, and other corporate transactions for investors, such as SoftBank and Temasek, and on investments for some of the top investors dedicated to impact, from “impact first” foundations to family offices to private equity funds. She co-led the drafting group for the first of the new corporate forms (the Social Purpose Corporation in California), has created hybrid/tandem corporate structures and crafted debt and equity instruments that blend impact with traditional financial terms, and has used corporate law to develop creative capital market solutions to pressing environmental problems. She also advises the boards of public and private companies on corporate governance and fiduciary duties as applied to sustainability and climate change.She was named a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) in 2012 and 2016 by Daily Journal and the Most Innovative Lawyer in North America in 2015 by the Financial Times.Leading Business AdvisorA powerhouse negotiator, clients note that “you cannot get a better corporate counsel” and that Suz “understands the big picture, could not be more responsive, and understands the business” (The Legal 500 US). She has extensive experience providing corporate and finance advice to companies and investors in connection with growth equity financings and secondaries, with particular experience in late-stage investments that have come to rival traditional strategic acquisitions in size and significance. Her experience includes leading some of the highest-profile late-stage investments over the past few years, including notable transactions for SoftBank Group (in the two largest private tender offers in history) in its $7.7 billion investment in Uber, $4.4 billion investment in WeWork, further $10 billion investment in WeWork, $1 billion investment in SoFi, and $250 million investment in Kabbage. She has also advised Temasek on its $800 million investment in Verily Life Sciences, Intel on its equity investment in Cloudera, and each of Fortress, TPG Rise, Vision Ridge Partners, Generation Investment Management, and Pontifax AgTech in numerous mid- to late-stage investments in clean technology, sustainability, education, food, and agriculture technology.Social Enterprise and Impact InvestingSuz is the go-to legal resource for social enterprises (for-profit and non-profit companies focused on social or environmental purpose), impact investors (investors interested in social or environmental returns), and mainstream companies developing environmental, social, and corporate governance policies. With deep expertise in the impact investing model, institutional investors exploring the space turn to her for creative solutions and her ability to structure both investments and companies to emphasize impact and returns.She represents a wide range of investors who are focused on impact, from foundations like the Gates Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and The Rockefeller Foundation, to family offices like Armonia, Cornerstone Capital, Emerson Collective, New Island Capital, and Omidyar Network, to private equity funds like Goldman Sachs, TPG Rise, Vision Ridge Partners, and Generation Investment Management, in their equity investments in companies and projects that are focused on generating impact and returns for investors. She has deep experience and expertise ensuring energy, sustainability, and other investments have positive impact through the use of new corporate forms, hybrid or “tandem” structures with non-profits and for-profits, and alternative debt and equity instruments.Notable work in this space includes the establishment of a tandem structure, The Carbon Endowment, to retire coal assets at scale while securing a revenue stream for community reinvestment and job training in coal communities. Suz also advised on the structuring of Common Sense Growth as an extension of the non-profit Common Sense Media (to invest in companies that address issues related to children, education, and technology), the establishment of a fund for TPG Rise to provide debt financing to Echoing Green fellows, the spin-out of PRX from Public Radio International (to generate new revenue flows up to the non-profit), the establishment of a for-profit joint venture with non-profit Medicines360 (to allow the non-profit to distribute its healthcare products to women in the developing world), and the structuring of a for-profit evergreen fund that allows The Nature Conservancy to aggregate return-seeking and donor capital in order to invest in preserving our natural resources. She has also advised numerous clients on converting to a public benefit corporation or social purpose corporation model (which requires balancing traditional fiduciary duties against a social or environmental purpose), including This American Life, Revolution Foods, Rise Labs, and Beneficial State Bancorp.Suz also regularly advises boards of directors of private and public companies, special committees, and CEOs on corporate governance, particularly the intersection of fiduciary duties with sustainability, and focuses on environmental, social, and governance issues.Unmatched Cleantech and Renewable Energy ExperienceIn addition to founding and chairing the firm’s Social Enterprise and Impact Investing Group, Suz serves as Chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Energy Group and has extensive experience representing start-up to late stage private companies in the clean technology or sustainability space. She provides corporate and finance advice in connection with equity and debt financings, mergers, acquisitions, asset purchases and sales, reorganizations, and joint ventures. She has experience working with renewable energy start-up companies and renewable energy developers in the solar, wind, and biofuels industries. Suz has assisted renewable energy start up companies with raising venture capital and has advised renewable energy developers on project acquisitions.Suz’s representative renewable energy, cleantech, sustainable, and social enterprise clients include Anaergia, Change.org, EDF Renewables, E.ON, Etsy, First Look, OneSun, Planet Labs, Rising Sun Energy, RSF Social Finance, SustainBio, Trelys, Inc., Wikipedia, and Xpansiv.Board Activity and Thought LeadershipMs. Mac Cormac was a founding board member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), is a member of the board of directors of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), the Ceres President’s Council, and the Earth Genome Project, and is an advising board member of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy’s Strategic Investor Initiative.She has joined the faculty (teaching on the intersection of sustainability and fiduciary duties) at both the Stanford Director’s College and the Northwestern Corporate Counsel Institute and is an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, teaching a course on Social Enterprise.

Susan Mac Cormac

Partner

Alfredo Silva is a key member of the firm’s Social Enterprise + Impact Investing Group and the Emerging Companies + Venture Capital practice. He advises companies and investors—particularly in life sciences, agtech, and fintech—on a wide range of corporate and securities matters, with a strong focus on venture capital, growth equity and corporate venture capital financings. Alfredo brings particular expertise in complex restructuring and recapitalization transactions. He also advises both impact-first and return-first investors on building mission lock into their strategies, works with clients to form Delaware public benefit corporations and structure for-profit/non-profit “hybrid” entities that can attract both philanthropic and traditional capital, and on a pro bono basis advises nonprofits and small businesses on formation, structuring and governance matters.In his private company practice, Mr. Silva has served as company or investor counsel in early- and late-stage financings, minority strategic investments and impact investments in over a hundred private companies, including representation of SoftBank and SoftBank Vision Fund in financings with a combined value of over $2 billion, Temasek in its $800 million minority investment in Verily Life Sciences, an Alphabet company, and Visa Ventures in strategic fintech investments around the world.In his public company practice, Alfredo counsels issuers on strategic transactions, such as the stock-for-stock merger of Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. with Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp, as well as corporate governance and compliance with the U.S. federal securities laws and stock exchange listing standards, including advising on cutting-edge issues with respect to ESG disclosures and materiality assessments.In addition, Mr. Silva works extensively with nonprofit organizations, providing advice on fiduciary issues, entity formation, structuring and other corporate matters, and assists small businesses pro bono. He incorporated and continues to advise Illuminate, the nonprofit producer of The Bay Lights, a 25,000 LED sculpture on the western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, in structuring, corporate governance, and project management matters. Mr. Silva currently chairs the audit committees of the boards of directors of Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, a nonprofit founded by three-time NBA champion Stephen Curry and The New York Times bestselling author Ayesha Curry to unleash the potential of every child, and San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which for nearly 30 years has been pursuing a future where health justice is achieved for all people living with or at risk for HIV, both of which Mr. Silva has previously advised as corporate counsel.Alfredo is recognized by The Recorder as a 2013 Lawyer on the Fast Track, in 2014 was the inaugural recipient of the firm’s Kathi Pugh Award for Pro Bono Service, is a 2017 Lawyers Committee for Legal Diversity Fellow, and was the recipient of the American Bar Association’s 2023 National Public Service Award.

Alfredo B. D. Silva

Benjamin Fox co-chairs the Social Enterprise + Impact Investing practice and is a partner in the firm’s Transaction Department based in San Francisco. Benjamin’s practice focuses on the representation of clients in broad array of corporate and transactional matters, including early-stage and late-stage financings, secondary transactions, mergers, acquisitions, asset purchases and sales, joint ventures and corporate structuring and governance.For over a decade, Benjamin has advised leading private equity and venture capital funds, family offices and venture-backed companies focused on solving some of society’s most pressing challenges. His practice spans the energy transition and decarbonization, scientific R&D, natural capital and conservation investments, food innovation and security and breakthrough technologies in life sciences, space and AI. Benjamin’s representative clients include Generation Investment Management, Just Climate, America’s Frontier Fund, Nature’s Fynd, Acario, Builders Vision, and Aurelia Foundry.As the co-lead of the firm’s Social Enterprise and Impact Investing Group, Benjamin regularly advises clients on creative legal structures with respect to aggregating and deploying capital to maximize impact and returns, including hybrid or “tandem” structuring arrangements between nonprofit and for-profit entities. His representative philanthropic and impact clients include Elemental Impact, Rockefeller Foundation, Mark1, Rocky Mountain Institute, The Nature Conservancy, Breakthrough Energy Foundation, GRID Alternatives and Waverley Street Foundation.Benjamin earned his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law , where he served as an executive editor of Ecology Law Quarterly and a member of the California Law Review. Benjamin now serves as an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley Law, teaching a course on the intersection of climate change and corporate governance.Prior to law school, Benjamin spent a year at Taiwan’s Tunghai University researching renewable energy and urban development policy on a Fulbright Fellowship. He earned his B.A. with distinction and highest honors from the University of Michigan.

How Modern Fiduciaries Navigate Climate Risks and Opportunities

21 Apr 2026