2025 Neuberger Berman Sustainable Investing Challenge

Neuberger Berman is proud to launch the 2025 Sustainable Investing Challenge in conjunction with the Columbia Business School, Harvard Business School, Kellogg School of Management, The London Business School, NYU Stern School of Business, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The Challenge

2025’s Theme Is Climate Adaptation

Students will work with mentors to identify publicly listed equity investments that are both aligned with the sustainability theme and expected to generate positive ﬁnancial performance. After an initial round of eliminations, ﬁnalists will present virtually to a panel of Neuberger Berman judges who will select the winning team(s), which will receive a ﬁnancial prize from Neuberger Berman.

Neuberger Berman

Founded in 1939, Neuberger Berman is a private, 100% independent, employee-owned investment manager. From offices in 39 cities worldwide, the firm manages a range of strategies, including equity, fixed income, quantitative and multi-asset class, private equity and hedge funds on behalf of institutions, advisors and individual investors globally. With 753 investment professionals and 2,846 employees, Neuberger Berman has built a diverse team of individuals united in their commitment to delivering compelling investment results for our clients over the long term. That commitment includes active consideration of environmental, social and governance factors. As an active manager, Neuberger Berman has a long-standing belief that material environmental, social and governance factors are an important driver of long-term investment returns from both an opportunity and a risk mitigation perspective. We also understand that for many of our clients the impact of their portfolio is an important consideration in conjunction with investment performance.

Stewardship & Sustainable Investing at Neuberger Berman

2024 Stewardship & Sustainable Investing Report

Key Dates

Virtual Kick-Off

September 15, 2025 &
September 22, 2025

Team Registration Date

October 3, 2025

Speaker Session

October 31, 2025

Submission Due

November 14, 2025

Finalists Announced

November 21, 2025

Virtual Final Judging Panel

Week of December 8, 2025

Why Participate?

Through the NB Sustainable Investing Challenge, students will study a sustainability theme and learn how to invest for sustainable and impact portfolios. Neuberger Berman also views the Challenge as an avenue through which exceptional candidates can be identiﬁed for internship and full-time positions.

“It is an honor to be entrusted with the precious capital of clients from around the world. Our clients have diverse portfolio objectives—from managing material ﬁnancial risks, to seeking speciﬁc environmental or social outcomes. Some wish to align their portfolio with the net-zero transition or to invest in companies that help save lives. We are committed to offering clients the choice for how they wish their capital to be invested.”

~ Jonathan Bailey, Global Head of Stewardship and Sustainable Investing

2025 Theme: Climate Adaptation

Climate Adaptation is an important theme for investors, particularly as the likelihood of maintaining a 1.5˚C temperature rise becomes more uncertain. The world faced a number of natural disasters over the past year, from wildﬁres to hurricanes to ﬂoods. Global economic losses from natural disasters in 2024 were estimated to reach at least $368 billion and exceeded the 21st century average ($324 billion) on a price-inﬂated basis. The increase in climate hazards is becoming a growing concern for corporations, with a recent survey indicating that over 60% of EU and US ﬁrms were directly impacted by physical risk¹. However, widespread climate adaptation measures could help reduce these risks and even have a positive impact on economic growth.

One of the most cited barriers for investing in adaptation has been the lack of understanding and standardized definitions of what is and is not adaptation finance. However, the growing body of adaptation taxonomies such as Climate Bonds Initiative’s (CBI) Resilience Taxonomy (CBRT) and Tailwinds Taxonomy for Adaptation and Resilience Investments, can help better define the adaptation theme’s investable universe.

Companies can employ various adaptation measures across different stages of their operations to not only generate competitive advantages and improve profitability, but also reduce risk and drive innovation. These companies with positive exposure to climate adaptation may even provide portfolio diversification benefits.

Over the next few years, we expect businesses will begin placing a greater emphasis on adaptation plans to not only manage physical risk, but take advantage of economic opportunities.

Select adaptation characteristics:

Offer Innovative Solutions or Products: Businesses that develop new services or products designed to reduce vulnerability to physical climate risks such as ﬂooding, wildﬁres, and other climate-related hazards. This includes, but is not limited to:

Advanced climate and catastrophe insurance products
Climate risk analytics, data, and modeling services
Resilient infrastructure solutions (e.g., ﬂood barriers, heat-resistant building materials)
Water management and drought mitigation technologies
Cooling and AC systems

Adopt Adaptation Measures: Companies that are integrating adaptation plans into their strategies whose operations are materially impacted by climate hazards. This includes, but is not limited to:

Utilities reinforcing power grids to withstand extreme weather events, such as installing ﬂood barriers or moving substations above ﬂood levels.
Real estate and infrastructure ﬁrms upgrading buildings and transport networks with heat-resistant materials or enhanced drainage systems to address risks from heat waves and heavy rainfall.
Manufacturers diversifying supply chains to mitigate risks of disruption from climate- related events such as hurricanes or wildﬁres

Questions to consider:

What industries face the greatest ﬁnancial impact to their assets due to climate hazards such as ﬂooding and heat waves?
What strategies are companies pursuing to strengthen their climate adaptation capabilities?
Where are the most compelling opportunities to invest in businesses that are enabling, scaling or beneﬁting from climate adaptation (e.g., innovative insurance models, advanced analytics, infrastructure retroﬁts, resilient agriculture, water technologies)?
How are companies leveraging adaptation to create new revenue streams, expand market share or reduce operational volatility?

Insights and Sources

Company Name

Investment Year: OriginationDate

Sector: asset type

Fund: total-commitment

ExternalLinkText.com

Company Name

Investment Year: OriginationDate

Sector: asset type

Fund: total-commitment

ExternalLinkText.com

Company Name

Investment Year: OriginationDate

Sector: asset type

Fund: total-commitment

ExternalLinkText.com

Guidelines

Prize Pool

$15,000 to be split between teams at the judges’ discretion. Judges may award prizes to multiple teams.

Investment Universe

Investment ideas must be a public equity (long only) with a market cap of $1 billion or greater. There are no regional restrictions; companies pitched can be based in any country.

Eligibility and Team Composition

Teams must consist of two to four members; at least 50% of the team must be ﬁrst-year full-time MBA students, and the rest can be second-year MBA students and other graduate students from the university.

The team must appoint a team captain responsible for team organization and communications with competition organizer, mentors and judges.

Deliverables

Each team is required to submit a maximum ﬁve-page investment pitch with up to ﬁve additional pages for appendix and supporting tables (10 pages total). Each team must also complete a mandatory mid-competition check-in with their assigned mentor, to be scheduled at their discretion. All ideas must be presented using original content.

Financial Objective

Investments must provide compelling ﬁnancial upside.

Sustainability Objective

Investments alignment with theme supports financial upside.

Required Elements

Below are key questions that should be addressed in your investment pitch:

What is your team’s investment thesis and price target? Please include the following information:
- Expected total return
- Relevant timeframe
- Valuation methodology
Why is this company aligned with the theme and how does that alignment support why your team believes the company will be ﬁnancially successful?
What broader ﬁnancially material governance, social or environmental risks is the company exposed to and why does your team believe these are sufﬁciently mitigated and/or accounted for in your valuation?
What are the priority topics for engagement with the Board and management team?
What do the ﬁnancial statements and forecasts indicate about the performance of the company?
What assumptions are included in your team’s valuation and what risk factors is the company exposed to?

Finals Presentation

Finalists will be notiﬁed by mid-November. Finalists must prepare a presentation for the judges that effectively communicates the investment and its satisfaction of the criteria. The presentation will be followed by Q&A from the judges.

Judges

Jonathan Bailey, CFA

Janine Guillot

Joseph V. Amato

Daniel Hanson, CFA

Jonathan Bailey, CFA

Jonathan Bailey, Jonathan Bailey, CFA, Managing Director, is the Global Head of Stewardship and Sustainable Investing at Neuberger Berman. Jonathan joined the firm in 2017 and has overall responsibility for how financially material environmental, social and governance factors are considered in investment processes and engagement activities. He also oversees the firm’s approach to sustainable and impact investing across asset classes. He leads the firm’s Stewardship and Sustainable Investing Group and works with portfolio managers and analysts across the firm's equities, fixed income and private investment portfolios. The team enhance existing strategies and launch new sustainable and impact investing strategies. Jonathan chairs the firm's Stewardship and Sustainable Investing Committee, and is a member of both the firm's Governance and Proxy Voting Committee and its Partnership Committee. Jonathan spent the bulk of his prior career at McKinsey & Co where he was an Associate Partner working with asset owners and asset managers on investment strategy and sustainable investing topics. Jonathan has also worked for Generation Investment Management, the sustainable investment firm co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, and as a governance advisor for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Jonathan holds an MBA (with high distinction) from Harvard Business School, an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and an MA (Oxon) from the University of Oxford. He has been awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. Jonathan is a Board member of Instiglio, a developing market social impact bond advisory non-profit.

Janine Guillot

Janine Guillot is an experienced financial services leader and expert on sustainability disclosure. Most recently, Janine served as Special Advisor to the Chair of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), where she provided strategic counsel to the ISSB Chair and IFRS Foundation Trustees.

Prior, Janine was Chief Executive Officer of the SASB Foundation and the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF). She led SASB and the VRF to global recognition as leaders in investor-focused sustainability disclosure. To meet market demand for simplification of the sustainability disclosure landscape, Janine played a pivotal leadership role in the global effort to create the ISSB. To do so she completed two mergers within two years: the merger of SASB and the International Integrated Reporting Council to become the VRF and the merger of the VRF into the ISSB.

Janine has a distinguished career in financial services. Prior to joining the SASB Foundation, she served as Chief Operating Investment Officer for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), where her responsibilities included oversight of CalPERS ESG integration and corporate governance programs. Prior to CalPERS, Janine held senior leadership positions at Barclays Global Investors (BGI) and Bank of America, including serving as Chief Operating Officer of BGI’s European and Global Fixed Income businesses.

A graduate of Southern Methodist University (SMU), Janine began her career as a technical accountant and auditor with Ernst & Young. In recognition for her leadership at the intersection of sustainability, accounting and finance, Janine was selected as a 2020 and 2021 NACD Directorship 100 Honoree and named to the 2020 Business Insider's 100 People Transforming Business list. Janine serves on the Board of Directors of Equilibrium Capital, B Lab Global and the International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI), on the Advisory Board of Blockchain Co-investors, and on the Climate-related Financial Risk Advisory Committee to the US Financial Stability Oversight Council.

Joseph V. Amato

Joseph V. Amato serves as President of Neuberger Berman Group LLC and Chief Investment Officer of Equities. He is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors and its Audit Committee. His responsibilities also include overseeing the firm’s Fixed Income and hedge fund businesses.

Previously, Joe served as Lehman Brothers’ Global Head of Asset Management and Head of its Neuberger Berman subsidiary, beginning in April 2006. From 1996 through 2006, Joe held senior level positions within Lehman Brothers’ Capital Markets business, serving as Global Head of Equity Research for the majority of that time. Joe joined Lehman Brothers in 1994 as Head of High Yield Research. Prior to joining Lehman Brothers, Joe spent ten years at Kidder Peabody, ultimately as head of High Yield Research.

He received his BS from Georgetown University and is a member of the University’s Board of Directors. He currently serves on the McDonough School of Business Board of Advisors and the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy Board of Advisors. He is Co-Chair of the New York City Board of Advisors of Teach for America, a national non-profit organization focused on public education reform. He is also a Board Member of KIPP NJ, a charter school network based in Newark, NJ, which focuses on educational equity.

Daniel Hanson, CFA

Daniel Hanson, CFA, Managing Director, joined the firm in January 2022. Dan is the Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of the Quality Equity team. Dan joined Neuberger Berman from Waddell & Reed and Ivy Investments, where he was Chief Investment Officer. Previously, he served as Head of Impact Investing for JANA Partners. Prior to that role, he was Partner and Head of U.S. Equities, and Co-Chair of the Investment Strategy Committee with Jarislowsky Fraser Global Investment Management. Previously, Dan spent 10 years at BlackRock where he launched and managed the firm’s first fundamental, active ESG strategy, the BlackRock Socially Responsible Equity strategy. Dan is involved in a number of initiatives in the area of governance, corporate reporting, and sustainable investing. Dan was a founding member of the board of directors of the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (“SASB") in 2011. He served on the professional faculty of the University of California-Berkeley Haas School of Business, where he taught sustainable investing from 2016-2019. In that role, he was a judge for the Moskowitz Research Prize, which recognizes outstanding quantitative research in sustainable and responsible investing. Dan received his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and French from Middlebury College, and earned an MBA, Accounting and Analytic Finance, from The University of Chicago. He is a CFA charterholder.

Stewardship & Sustainable Investing

We believe that financially material environmental, social and governance factors may be an important driver of long-term investment returns from both an opportunity and a risk mitigation perspective.

LEARN MORE

2024 Challenge Winners

Team RB Global (RBA) from Columbia Business School

Xuechun (Elsa) Fu

Xutong Liu

Yifan Wang

FAQs

Investment Thesis

How important is the sustainability score by well-known sources (e.g., Eikon) in the company screening process?

There is no score or source that we require students to utilize as part of their ideation process

Is there any specific sustainable investing framework or types of analysis that teams should use?

We encourage students to develop their own investment thesis and framework to identify investment ideas

Are there any limitations to geographies? Should teams only focus on investment ideas in North America or the United States?

There are no geographic limitations, investments can be global. Investment ideas must be a public equity (long only) with a market cap of $1 billion or greater.

How in depth should they focus on the theme?

Teams are free to explore the theme to any extent they find will help make their investment idea most compelling

Submissions

Can I see an example of a submission from last year?

We are unable to show previous years' submissions, but teams are expected to communicate and work with their mentors who will provide guidance on their submission

Who should students send their submissions to?

Teams should submit to NeubergerBermanSustainableInvestingChallenge@nb.com

How are the stock pitches submitted?

Please email your pitch to NeubergerBermanSustainableInvestingChallenge@nb.com and save your file with this title: "Team#_Company Name_School Abbreviation" for example "Team 4_Apple_CBS". Include your name and team member names in the body of the email. Let us know if you have any questions.

Your submission should contain the following: 1) 5-page maximum investment pitch 2) Up to 5 additional pages for appendix and supporting tables (10 total pages) 3) PDF format

What time of day are the deadlines?

Deadlines should be assumed to be end of day Eastern Time (for example, submissions this year are due November 14th, 2025 at 11:59pmET)

Will extensions to the submission deadline be provided upon request?

Given that teams have over a month to work on their submission, we will not be able to accommodate any extensions to the submission deadline

When can we start working on our submission after signing up? Do we have to wait to be assigned a mentor?

Students can begin working on their submission as soon as they can and do not have to wait to be assigned a mentor. We encourage teams to come to their first meeting with their mentor with a company they've selected and an outline of the submission.

My team made it to the finals! What are the requirements for the final presentation?

Please prepare a presentation that effectively communicates the investment and its satisfaction of the criteria (maximum of 10 minutes). The presentation will be followed by a ~5 minute Q&A with the judges.

The guidelines for the slide deck are as follows: 1) 1 title slide 2) Maximum of 10 content slides 3) Optional: Additional slides may be included in an appendix. Please note this is not a requirement and should only be included if teams feel the content is necessary for the judges. You will be required to email your slides 48 hours prior to the presentation to NeubergerBermanSustainableInvestingChallenge@nb.com and save your file as a PDF with this title: "Team#_Company Name_School Abbreviation" for example "Team 4_Apple_CBS". Include your name and team member names in the body of the email.

Mentors

When will a mentor be assigned?

We aim to have a mentor assigned soon after we have confirmed your teams registration. Please keep in mind, if we receive an overwhelming number of student teams, we may need to allocate more mentors and this might take longer.

Who initiates communication with the Neuberger Berman assigned mentor?

Student teams are responsible for reaching out to their assigned mentor. We have let all mentors know to expect an email from their assigned student team.

How often should teams meet or hear from mentors?

We expect teams to meet an average of 3 times in total: once after being matched, once at the mid-point and once before submission, but the schedule should be flexible based on mentor's availability

Teams and Registration

Can each school have multiple teams?

Yes. There are no limitations to how many teams from each school can participate.

What is the required composition of teams? Can we have 2 first year MBA students on the team?

We require at least 50% of the team be first year MBA students. For example, you have a team of 4, you may have 2-4 first year MBA students as part of the team

Can we form a team with students from different school?

Yes as long as 50% of the team is first year MBA students. Students must all be from schools included in the challenge.

Can we substitute a member of our team?

Yes, we understand sometimes conflicts come up and if a team member needs to change, please let us know by emailing NeubergerBermanSustainableInvestingChallenge@nb.com.

Will I receive a confirmation email once our team signs up?

No, you will not automatically receive an email confirmation once you filled out the survey. You will receive confirmation once the sign-up window has closed.

My team won! When can we expect to receive our prize?

Congratulations! To receive your prize, you will need to complete a few forms. Immediately following the competition, the Challenge team will distribute these forms to the winners. Each individual on the team must complete the forms and return to the Challenge team by the end of December. If an individual, does not provide the required forms by the deadline, she/he will forfeit the prize. You can expect to receive your prize in ~2 months following the challenge.