Electives

In addition to the wide variety of classes listed at Yale School of Management, MBA students are able to take electives offered by other schools within Yale University. Members of the Impact Investing Club have taken classes at Yale School of the Environment, Yale School of Architecture, Yale School of Public Health, the Jackson Institute, Yale Law School, and more. See a few of our favorites from the past year!

Past students highly recommend Private Capital and Impact Investing not only because Sue Carter provides an accessible, balanced, and comprehensive overview of the Private Capital and Impact Investment markets, but also because she brings in phenomenal speakers for each class session. The curriculum includes lectures focused on 1) the development of the venture capital industry 2) an overview of the private equity industry 3) an exploration of how venture capital and private equity investment firms are embracing ESG, environmental, social and governance, factors and 4) the development of impact investment and how the private capital model is used for positive environmental and social impact. The course is taught from the perspective of institutional investors: pension funds, endowments and foundations and family offices, with an emphasis on factors these organizations use to make investment decisions and the role of private capital investments in their portfolios.

This seminar comes highly recommended by one of our club leaders because it provides students the opportunity to interact with and learn from instructors and guest speakers who are skilled and successful investors from a variety of markets and asset classes. Students will develop insights into managers’ research and investment approaches, learning how managers assess a company’s business quality, competitive dynamics and long-term prospects as well as management ability, motivation and integrity. The class will discuss investment risk, asset valuation and portfolio management, as well as the management of investment organizations, research methods, decision making, compensation and incentive structures and their investor base. Guest speakers may also discuss their strategic opportunities to help portfolio companies build value or investments realize value. Endowment managers will discuss how they find, assess and work with investment managers. After an introduction to investment management principles, weeks 2-5 will feature leading investment managers who will describe their investment approach, team, sourcing and decision-making and risk management. Investors will discuss ideal characteristics of quality, value and opportunity and present one or two companies with those winning attributes as well as some investments that have not worked out as expected and why.

As a result of its popularity, REPF requires an application for enrollment and comes highly recommended from students who have taken it in previous years. The course is intended to be a practicum, exposing students to real-world tools of the trade as well as the theory underlying them. In place of a textbook, students will read approximately 400 pages of legal contracts and engineering reports from a U.S. renewable energy project. Through weekly homework assignments, students develop the skills necessary to construct a detailed financial model, largely comparable to what would be used by an investment firm, project developer, or independent power producer. Modeling skills include sizing debt capacity, sensitivity analysis, stochastic forecasting, taxes, and 3-way financial statements. Lectures introduce energy market dynamics, financial structuring, equipment engineering, risk management, and alternative contractual frameworks. REPF is cross-listed with Yale School of the Environment.

Venture capital and private equity play a critical role in the financing and development of high-growth entrepreneurial companies. This course takes the perspective of venture investors, and will cover the tools, methods, and mindset used by venture capitalist to operate, invest, and create value. Many of these skills and insights are readily generalizable to other PE models. The course is structured around the “VC/PE cycle.” It starts from setting up a VC firm, fundraising from limited partners (LPs), and the contracting problem with LPs. The cycle moves to selecting and valuing an entrepreneurial company and structuring a deal. We then investigate the management of investments and value creation. Finally, we study the exit of investments and the risks and returns of the PE asset class. This course combines lectures and case studies. The lecture portion of the course is designed to equip students with key techniques and background knowledge; these techniques will be applied to case studies to help us solve practical problems in VC/PE investment.

This course will provide students with technical skills to evaluate performance in the social sector, namely by measuring impact and analyzing financial reports. Students will be introduced to tools and methods to measure social impact, with an emphasis on causality and cost-benefit tradeoffs. Sequentially, students will acquire the technical knowledge to interpret the financial reports of nonprofit organizations (topics include expense classification, contributions, donors-imposed restrictions, endowments, etc.). I draw on real examples and use cases to apply the concepts. The course will benefit students interested in leadership or directorship at nonprofit organizations and social enterprises, as well as students who intend to take up positions in corporate social responsibility, impact investing, or grantmaking.

The ESG Investing class discusses incorporating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) information in investment portfolios. ESG objectives are important for investors representing trillions of dollars and may affect their portfolios’ risk and return. We will consider ways of blending portfolios’ financial and non-financial goals, and the potential for ESG-minded asset owners to impact the companies in which they invest. The course will blend academic research with case studies from investment practice.

Understanding the tools used in financial analysis is an important component of successful forestland investment and forest management decision making. This course will provide students with a basic suite of financial tools used in the acquisition and management of forestland/timber. It will include an overview of traditional financial analysis metrics used in land acquisition, timber management, and risk management, as well as topics related to supply and demand for forest products, international timberland investment and emerging trends in forestland investing. The first eight weeks of the course will be a lecture format, and the remainder of the course will be a case study / project that will give students an opportunity to apply their knowledge in the analysis of an actual “deal”.

Students learn concepts and develop skills in natural resource economics including thinking about natural resources as capital assets with a specific link to quantitative measures that may be useful in assessing sustainability. Students gain a working knowledge of concepts necessary to apply capital theory to ecosystems and develop a skill set sufficient to build dynamic bioeconomic models that can help them approximate the value of changes in ecosystems. Students also learn computational tools in Excel and Rin dynamic optimization, which are useful for forward-looking decision-making. Application focus on natural resources and conservation questions.