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Shu Yao
ESG advisor to VCs on climate and social justice, angel investor
Shu Dar Yao is a responsible investing advisor with nearly two decades of experience in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and impact investing across various asset classes.1 She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lucid Capitalism, a boutique ESG and impact investing advisory practice.56
Yao's career highlights include:
- Senior Advisor for ESG at Norwest Venture Partners and 500 Global56
- Head of Investments and Chairwoman of the Investment Committee at RSF Social Finance16
- Director of Capital Formation and Investor Relations at Social Finance, Inc.16
- Vice President for Inclusive Finance and Digital Acceleration at Citigroup16
- Investment Analyst in Infrastructure Project Finance at the World Bank's IFC16
She specializes in teaching financiers about social and climate inequality, supporting venture capital, private equity, and wealth managers seeking market-rate returns.13 Her work encompasses designing responsible investing policies, fund structuring, and preparing companies for public listing.1
Yao holds an MBA from MIT Sloan and a BS in Finance and International Business from NYU Stern.1 She has been recognized as a Global Impact Leader by the Sorenson Impact Center.1
Currently based in San Francisco, Yao remains active in the responsible investing community, moderating panels on ESG in Venture Capital and advising on climate action initiatives.24
Highlights
Hard to believe it’s been two weeks since Lucid Capitalism co-hosted a Responsible Tech Investing workshop for Confluence Philanthropy’s Advisors Forum in NYC. We focused on three key areas of AI harms, including algorithmic bias, climate risk, and labor exploitation.
The following day at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Compass Investors annual summit in Cape Cod, I moderated the “Navigating AI Risks and Opportunities” panel with Michael Kubzansky of Omidyar Network, Parasvil Patel of Radical Ventures, Kate Simpson of TrueBridge Capital Partners, and Scott Pittman of Mount Sinai Health System.
Amazing conversations, connections, and candid commiserations all around.
🌟 Actions to minimize Gen AI/tech harms: ✅ Expect reporting & transparency on AI risks: model cards and data cards as a minimum ✅ Be aware of liability gray areas: legal precedents have largely not yet been set! ✅ Leverage capital to cultivate opportunities for responsible tech: investing in where the puck is going, namely SaaS focused on AI auditing, watermarking, data provenance… etc.
🌟 Paraphrasing a few thoughtful comments: 💜 AI innovation raises all boats for the private sector, but not necessarily for everyday people. 💜 You don’t need to be a tech expert to ask your VC GPs about how their portfolio companies integrate the voices of different stakeholders, like workers. 💜 The risks and harms we see today with AI, and tech more broadly, are not new. But the level of attention arising from Gen AI hype creates new opportunities for action.
🌟Thank you Alissa Black for being an incredible co-host and MC, Anita Dorett of Investor Alliance for Human Rights for the fireside chat, and a brilliant team of AI Harms mini-workshop facilitators: 💡 Bias: Damini Satija of Amnesty Tech at Amnesty International / Head of Algorithmic Accountability Lab at Amnesty International USA, and Cecilia Young 💡 Labor: Alexandra Mateescu of Data & Society Research Institute and Danica Yu of Ford Foundation 💡 Climate: Jenny Wong of Mozilla and Kaileen Diep 💡 AI Office Hours: Oomi Pammit
#AdvisorsForum2024 #CompassInvestors
Getting good early vibes about co-hosting “Building Ethical Tech & Responsible AI” with Danica Yu of Ford Foundation, Alissa Black of Media Democracy Fund next week, June 11th, in New York City.
Anita Dorett of Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)’s Investor Alliance for Human Rights and I will be kicking off this 3-hour workshop with a fireside chat that will lead Confluence Philanthropy’s Advisors Forum attendees towards practical tools for ethical tech investing by the end of the day.
Special thank you to a girlboss crew of co-facilitators that we are collaborating with, including Alexandra Mateescu of Data & Society Research Institute, Jenny Wong of Mozilla, Damini Satija of Amnesty Tech and Head of Algorithmic Accountability Lab, Amnesty International USA.
Hats off to my Lucid Capitalism colleagues Cecilia Young, Oomi Pammit and Kaileen Diep for making this possible and our next stop on this ethical AI roadshow is Cape Cod.
Stay tuned for photos!
#AdvisorsForum2024 on June 11 in NYC.
