Curtis Ravenel founded the Sustainable Business & Finance Group at Bloomberg LP and served as its Global Head from 2007-2019. Reporting to the Chairman, Curtis managed teams, in partnership with Financial Products and Media, responsible for a diversified suite of best-in-class sustainable business and finance products and services.
Under his leadership, Bloomberg integrated sustainability considerations into the firm’s operations globally and developed strategies to leverage Bloomberg’s Enterprise Products to evaluate sustainability-related risks and opportunities for its user base of finance professionals and other influential decision-makers.
Curtis created the Sustainable Business and Finance group at Bloomberg in 2007. The program began with a focus on internal operations and targeted operating efficiencies that created environmental and financial returns. Today, 75% of all Bloomberg employees are in LEED certified building, it gets 50% of its power from clean energy and it has improved its carbon and energy efficiency by 50%, resulting in over $120 million in net operating savings since 2008.
He led the launch of Bloomberg’s signature Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) product in 2009 and introduced New Energy Finance to Bloomberg, which it acquired in 2010 (he served on the deal team), making Bloomberg the first mainstream data provider to move into the sustainable investing field. His oversaw the team responsible for developing its Sustainable Fixed Income and Green Bond strategies, and Media products covering Sustainable Business & Finance. These businesses’ combined revenue have experienced an average annual growth rate of over 20% since inception and are now an important contributor to Bloomberg’s portfolio of products and services.
Prior to his role as Global Head of Sustainable Business & Finance, Curtis served as Financial Controller for Asia, managing accounting, tax, treasury and audit services for 23 legal entities with combined annual revenues exceeding $1billion USD. This was preceded by leadership roles in the Capital Planning and Financial Analysis Groups.
Earlier in his career, Curtis co-managed a small real estate development group, founded a microbrewery and worked with the Recycling Advisory Council in Washington, D.C. conducting Full Cost Accounting and Life Cycle Analysis work.
Curtis is a strategic leader, highly sought-after public speaker and expert on innovative issues of sustainability and climate-related risks and opportunities in the business, financial, regulatory and NGO communities. He co-led the landmark Financial Stability Board Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), an initiative established by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and chaired by Bloomberg LP founder and UN Special Envoy for Climate Action Michael R. Bloomberg. Curtis initiated Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Sustainable Finance portfolio in 2011 with a grant to establish the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), where he served on the board from 2012-2018. In 2018-2019, he served as the only non-European appointee of the European Commission’s Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance and was a founding member of the Secretariat of the U.S. Alliance for Sustainable Finance (USASF) and the UN backed Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI) comprised of leading financial sector CEOs. In addition to his service as a member of the Secretariat of TCFD, USASF, CFLI and SASB board, Curtis also served on the boards of The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (USSIF) and the Global Reporting Initiative for Sustainability Ratings (GISR). He was awarded a David Rockefeller Fellowship with the Partnership for New York City in 2011, appointed by the Obama Administration to serve on the US chapter of the G8 Advisory Board on Impact Investing in 2013 and received the Columbia Business School Exemplary Leadership Award in 2016. Curtis holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in History from Davidson College.