Sean Cudahy
For AU alumna Pooja Aier, Kogod ‘18, embedding sustainable practices into the fabric of major corporations is at the heart of her work. And the best part of the job is the moment the advice truly catches on.
“You see people get that lightbulb moment where they realize ESG and sustainability can be critical to building resilience and achieving long-term financial success," she said. “Catalyzing the conversation and seeing that reaction are my favorite parts of the job.”
As an early hire on Bain Capital’s global environmental, social, and governance—or “ESG”— team, Aier has these conversations daily as she works with companies to develop business models that are good for business, the planet, and the people living on it.
“We are embedding ESG factors into our value creation strategies,” she said of her work. “We’re educating company leaders and helping them take the first step to becoming more sustainable over time.”
Though carving out ESG expertise was not entirely on Aier’s radar from the outset, it’s clear that making a difference was.
I’ve always been passionate about having a positive impact, driving sustainability, and protecting the planet.”
Pooja Aier
ESG Senior Associate, Bain Capital
It’s a set of passions reinforced by her undergraduate education: Aier graduated from Kogod in 2018 with her BS in Business Administration, specializing in finance.
She specifically recalls drawing inspiration from a university honors program course focused on climate change, policy, and politics, not to mention the university’s emphasis on creating changemakers—a mantra more formally codified just a year after her graduation in AU’s seven-year strategic plan entitled “Changemakers for a changing world.”
So how did she get here a mere five years after graduating?
Learning ESG “from the ground up”
Along with Aier’s Kogod coursework, in-semester and summer internships during her undergraduate years helped lay a foundation for her business acumen, largely setting the stage for her current role.
Following time at the then newly-created Obama Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund, Aier’s successive internships in JP Morgan Chase’s private wealth management and asset management divisions helped spawn her first post-graduate role at the financial services giant, focused on private equity.
Such diverse early-career experience was a feather in Aier’s cap when her supervisors asked her to lead in developing a first-ever ESG framework for JP Morgan’s private equity group. This expansive project ultimately proved her most lasting impact at the company.
But it wasn’t easy.
“It was mostly learning from the ground up,” Aier admitted, recalling countless hours of studying, reviewing other corporations’ ESG strategies, attending conferences, and meeting with staff to foster buy-in on the framework she ultimately presented—and later saw adopted.
Looking back, there’s no doubt this achievement was a turning point in her career.
“It was a really good way for me to create a niche for myself and become an expert in something people otherwise didn’t know much about,” Aier said.
With tangible results and valuable experience now complementing her passion for enacting change, Aier began considering new opportunities as she hoped to dive deeper into the realm of ESG. As she did, she encountered an online job posting for what turned out to be her eventual role at Bain Capital.
Hired to a brand new global team, Aier has worked with Bain Capital’s private equity team to integrate ESG practices into their strategies and business models.
Aier focuses heavily on climate efforts as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). She spends significant time collaborating with investment teams and portfolio company leadership, identifying resources and strategies for everything from building sustainable facilities to developing more planet-friendly products—all while taking steps to make each employee feel engaged and valued.
However challenging the mission, it’s one Aier says “hits all the boxes” as a young professional who hoped to both work in the financial sphere and also enact positive change.
I love that I’m able to work in and learn from the fast-paced nature of a financial institution, while working towards a mission I believe in.”
Pooja Aier
ESG Senior Associate, Bain Capital
It’s also not lost on her that the need for skillsets like the one she’s honed over the last several years is snowballing.
An increasingly relevant career path
Aier was just the third member of Bain Capital’s global ESG team when she started in the spring of 2021. Today, the team is comprised of close to a dozen members. It’s perhaps a microcosm of the growing demand for positions in this sphere—a proliferation she believes is only beginning.
“I think in the sustainability space, we need people to pitch in from all angles to solve large problems,” she said. “I think the need for resources dedicated to sustainability will continue to grow exponentially.”
Such is the reason she applauds AU’s efforts to bolster its focus on sustainability.
In addition to being named the eighth best green MBA program by Princeton Review, Kogod’s MS in Sustainability Management program is the only one of its kind inside a US business school. As Kogod’s fastest-growing graduate program, students emerge from the program prepared for a career in social sustainability, managing for climate change, and business fundamentals.
The program’s business sustainability track includes coursework in the fundamentals of ESG and sustainable entrepreneurship, both of which are critical parts of Aier’s work today.
A decade after its inception, the curriculum is headed for a significant shift in academic year 2023-24. On top of a rebalancing of core and elective courses to provide students greater flexibility, new courses will focus on sustainability analytics, entrepreneurship, and finance, plus ESG investment.
For students and young professionals still searching for their career direction, Aier sees this as a lucrative and stable path, noting how proposed government regulations, such as those related to sustainability reporting, could see ESG-related opportunities continue to grow for years to come. (Kogod periodically offers a Sustainability Reporting and Analytics course, which Department of Accounting Professor Ajay Adhikari taught this past spring).
“I see sustainability as an exciting and flourishing field to work in. Countries and corporations are setting ambitious goals to decarbonize and become more sustainable,” Aier said. “These are long-term issues that people will need to figure out … and I think we are just getting started.”