Jean Rogers
Dr. Jean Rogers is Global Head of ESG at Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager. She oversees the firm’s corporate ESG team and partners with business unit heads of ESG and asset management teams to advance ESG initiatives and integration across portfolio companies and assets.
Dr. Rogers is also the founder of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), which she also led in various capacities, including as Chief Executive Officer (2011-2017) and Chair of the Standards Board (2017-2018). Founded in 2011 as a 501(c)3, the SASB is dedicated to enhancing the efficiency of the U.S. capital markets by fostering high-quality disclosure of material sustainability information that meets investor needs and enhances public trust in companies.
Conceived during research conducted from 2006-2010 at Harvard University’s Initiative for Responsible Investment in the Kennedy School of Government, the concept for SASB as “market infrastructure” evolved under Jean’s entrepreneurial leadership from a self-funded start-up into a globally-respected, ANSI-accredited, independent standards-setting organization producing world-class ESG research with a staff of 35 and an annual budget of $8M. Under her leadership, the SASB developed provisional standards for 79 industries with the involvement of 3,000 stakeholders, raised more than $25M for research and standards development, launched an education program in sustainability accounting, and convened an Investor Advisory Group comprised of 27 leading asset owners and asset managers with more than $33T in AUM, including BlackRock, CalPERS, CalSTRS, and State Street Global Advisors, all advocating for a market standard for material sustainability information.
Dr. Rogers has been recognized with numerous leadership awards including being named by Barron’s as one of the Top 20 Influencers of Sustainable Investing in 2018. She is a Society of Progress Medal Laureate (2018) recognized by INSEAD for her work in founding SASB, a Sustainable Hero by GreenTech Capital (2018), one of the Most Powerful Women in Accounting by CPA Practice Advisor (2015, 2016), and one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting by Accounting Today (2015, 2016, 2017). Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Institutional Investor, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Forbes, and Huffington Post.
Dr. Rogers holds degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology (Ph.D.), and Manhattan College (B.E. and M.E.). Jean lives with her husband and daughter in the Bay Area, where she is an avid mom and a sporadic runner and painter.