Sanya Thapa ’18SIPA
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Sanya is an MIA candidate at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and was an energy equity research associate before graduate school. Driven by her experiences growing up in Nepal, she is focused on understanding how private capital can create positive social and environmental impact in developing countries. As a fellow at the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, she conducted research on a range of trends and issues in sustainable investing. She analyzed fund performance across a spectrum of traditional and socially responsible mutual funds to help debunk the myth that sustainable investing requires a financial tradeoff. She also researched how investors are incorporating place-based themes into their investments, and looked at program related investments as a vehicle for foundations to maximize impact. Finally, she conducted a broad survey on environmentally-focused private equity funds in emerging markets, participating in meetings and conference calls with fund managers. The key takeaway for her this summer was that sustainable investing has many stakeholders and has immense capacity to expand its reach in the coming years.