Professional Background

  • Michael is a sustainable investing professional committed to the principle that sustainable investing is the cornerstone of a sustainable economy. Through his consulting firm, Riverbend Advisors, he works with the investment community to generate and fulfill greater demand for sustainable investing products and services.
  • Michael’s work also includes business development in solar PV and policy advocacy for clean energy.
  • He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is an active member of the CFA Society of Boston (until 2017 known as the Boston Security Analysts Society).  He:
    • created and chairs the program committee of the annual Sustainable Investing conference.
    • is a member of the Society’s Programs & Education Advisory Committee
    • co-chairs the Programs committee for the Society’s Women in Investment Management initiative
  • Previously, his interest in the role of finance in the development and commercialization of technology motivated him to earn a Masters Degree in Finance at Boston College’s Carroll School in 2005 while doing several consulting projects on technology-based economic development.
  • After graduating from Yale, Michael began his career and worked for twenty years at IBM.
    • He began in technical sales, where he also held staff and management positions.
    • Work with R&D-focused university and government customers led him to positions in IBM’s Education Industry, where he created and ran the research computing segment, focused on high-performance computing for leading research universities worldwide.
    • Michael then had the opportunity to re-establish and run IBM’s University Relations organization, responsible for developing technical and strategic partnerships with universities worldwide.

Education

  • MS in Finance from Boston College’s Carroll School of Business
  • BA in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry from Yale University

Family

  • Michael and Gloria met in college and have been married for 41 years.
  • Gloria is the Executive Director of the Needham Historiy Center and Museum where she has overseen significant growth in membership and participation and implemented many new programs, including several collaborative programs with the Needham Public Schools. She is also a member of the Needham Historical Commission.
  • Michael was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil and grew up on Long Island. Gloria was born on Long Island, lived briefly in Florida and then grew up in Connecticut.
  • They moved to Cambridge in 1982, when Gloria entered the PhD program in Archaeology at Harvard.
  • They moved to Needham in 1991.
  • Their daughter Madeleine graduated from Needham High School in 2010.  She and is now the head desserts chef for  Japonaise Bakery in Brookline.  While Japonaise is undergoing renovations, she has stepped in as a substitute food service worker for the Needham Public Schools.
  • Their son Adam graduated from Needham High School in 2016.  He earned a Bachelors of Music from Berklee College of Music in May 2020 with a major in  Contemporary Music and Production.  He lives in Allston with other musicians from Berklee where he composes, produces and performs as Gōst Pepper.