tariq fancy

Tariq Fancy Keynote Speaker

  • World renowned investor and entrepreneur, leading voice for ESG reform.
  • Formerly BlackRock’s CIO for Sustainable Investing, and author of contrarian essay “The Secret Diary of a Sustainable Investor” that went viral in 2021.
  • Founder of Rumie, which pioneered ‘microlearning’ for mobile phones and is today used by millions of youth in over 200 countries, including girls in Afghanistan.

Tariq Fancy's Biography

Tariq Fancy’s unique perspective and experience give him unparalleled insights into arguably the most important challenge for global capitalism today: how to merge sustainability and social imperatives with traditional business models focused purely on profit. He has served as a successful investor, hands-on turnaround specialist, and entrepreneur, has lived and worked across North America, Europe, and Asia, and speaks four languages.

In 2018 and 2019, he served as BlackRock’s first-ever Global Chief Investment Officer for Sustainable Investing. After leaving he began publishing op-eds challenging the ESG status quo, culminating in a 2021 viral essay entitled “The Secret Diary of a Sustainable Investor” that argued that business leaders are “answering inconvenient truths with convenient fantasies.” The essay was called ‘riveting’ by the Economist and sparked a growing backlash against widespread ESG industry practices that constitute greenwashing with little to no real-world impact.

Tariq found himself at the nexus of capitalism’s attempt to merge profit and purpose after a genuine foray across both extremes. On the ‘purpose’ side, from 2013 to 2017 he founded and built Rumie, an award winning digital non-profit that pioneered smartphone-based ‘microlearning’ that is used today by millions in over 200 countries – including by Afghan girls to learn safely from anywhere on a mobile phone. As of 2023, Rumie’s learner base is growing exponentially with improved learning outcomes and exciting new evidence that it is replacing social media time for youth in North America. Rumie is a graduate of Y-Combinator, the elite tech incubator that also produced Airbnb, Dropbox, and Reddit, is winner of Google’s National Impact Challenge, and is the subject of a 2016 Harvard Business School case study.

Prior to taking a sabbatical to build Rumie, a personal quest ignited by the passing of a close friend from business school and for which Tariq worked full-time mainly on a pro bono basis, Tariq spent a long career on the ‘profit’ side as a senior investment professional. A self-taught programmer who received full-time coding offers upon graduation, he began his career in 2001 in Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB)’s technology investment banking group, which led the IPOs of Google, Amazon, and Cisco. In 2003, he joined MHR Fund Management, a private equity firm with a focus on distressed, turnaround and special situations investing, where he became the firm’s youngest partner in 2006. From 2010 to 2012, he served as senior investment professional at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), where he led the creation and investment of various new global investment strategies.

Tariq’s writings and talks are informed by practical, hands-on experience turning around businesses from Shanghai to San Diego, building and executing on profitable new investment verticals, building consensus and implementing changes across large bureaucracies, and using new data and technological methods to carefully measure and supercharge social impact. He has developed a reputation as a rare contrarian in the ESG space, an intellectually honest voice that challenges us all to step outside of our short-term incentives and targets in order to find long-term solutions that actually work. He is especially popular as a voice amongst those who believe that we need a hard-nosed, practical and honest conversation about where business is today and where it needs to go, and want to get from the optical changes and PR initiatives of the last few years (talking the talk) to the real-life results (walking the walk).

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Tariq Fancy's Speaking Topics

  • • Dealing with economic uncertainty

The current economic outlook is fraught with uncertainty and the looming prospect of a recession. Where is this distressed cycle going, and is this the usual cyclicality of business at play? Or is there a longer downturn in store as secular, long-term trends such as globalization, offshoring, government support for markets and business-friendly policies finally reverse?

  • • Preparing for ‘ESG 2.0’

The finance industry is facing a significant backlash today: across the globe for rampant greenwashing and also now from the US political right for allegedly being too “woke”. What does all of this really mean and where is it going? Hear from the ex-insider who sparked today’s greenwashing backlash explain why ‘ESG 1.0’ falls short and where we need to go.

  • • How to protect against charges of greenwashing?

Being accused of greenwashing carries with it growing risks, ranging from repetitional to greater regulatory and press scrutiny to employee backlashes and walkouts. But with the goalposts moving so quickly, how can business leaders thread the needle — how does one build a leadership role without the risk of a bruising backlash? And how will society soon view the difference between ESG and real-world impact?

  • • Building a truly sustainable organization

In a company’s early stages, sustainable practices can be written into the DNA from the ground up in a way that serves rather than detracts from business imperatives. But how does one build sustainability into an existing business model or new product in a best-in-class, greenwashing-proof way? How does one change company culture to facilitate this change?

  • • The rise of populism

Populism is growing on both the left and the right. The majority of people in Western countries believe the economic system is “rigged” (70% of Americans believe so) and are looking for answers from ever more polarized and uninformed sources. What are the trends that are driving this shift, and why are they likely to accelerate rather than abate during the 2020s? And how do the successes and failures of ESG and stakeholder capitalism contribute to populism?

  • • Gen Z / Millennials

A growing generational divide is being supercharged by transformational new communication technologies: the average US teen spends more time per day using their smartphone than they do sleeping, and the majority of Gen Z and Millennials say they no longer believe in capitalism. What does this mean in practice to how they look at the products they buy, the companies they work for, and how they vote and use their voices?

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Videos of Tariq Fancy

The Answer to Inconvenient Truths Isn't Convenient Fantasies | BoF VOICES 2022
The Answer to Inconvenient Truths Isn't Convenient Fantasies | BoF VOICES 2022
ESG + CRS = BS ? Straight Talk on Business for Social Good with Tariq Fancy and Bethany McLean
ESG + CRS = BS ? Straight Talk on Business for Social Good with Tariq Fancy and Bethany McLean
I’ve seen the worst of capitalism - here’s how we fix it | Tariq Fancy | TEDxToronto
I’ve seen the worst of capitalism - here’s how we fix it | Tariq Fancy | TEDxToronto

Articles, Media & Podcasts

Comments & Testimonials

"Tariq was a very persuasive and thought-provoking speaker when he participated in a debate at our annual conference on 'ESG: Hype or Reality'. He spoke alongside a proponent of ESG-oriented investment and gave a fresh and interesting perspective on the theme. He is very well informed on his specialist area, and an articulate and compelling speaker."
BCA Research
"Tariq Fancy was a keynote at the Global Risk Institute Annual Summit. He was extremely well received by CEOs, senior executives and board members from across the financial industry. Tariq delivers a clear and compelling message about what he see as the path forward for sustainable investing. Whether you agree with him or not he will leave you with lots to think about. I would strongly endorse Tariq if you want to challenge the status quo."
Global Risk Institute in Financial Services (GRI)
"Tariq's contribution to the dialogue was extremely valuable to the many students and faculty present and to our online community. His knowledge and first-hand experience in the capital markets, and his role at BlackRock, gave him great credibility. His ability to unpack the ESG debate, and to give critical insights to understand the different players and their incentives was illuminating. Tariq helped CASI deliver on our commitment to moving this discussion forward, and for this we are grateful."
Stanford School of Business

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