The CFO Coalition for the SDGs (sustainable development goals) met in person for the first time earlier this month at the UN Global Compact SDG Investment Forum in Paris.
One taskforce member, Jill Klindt, chief financial officer at global software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform Workiva, spoke to the meeting about SDG-aligned investments and the telecom, media and technology sector, emphasizing that collaboration on environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting is essential if private capital is to be mobilized to finance the UN SDGs.
“Thinking holistically about ESG reporting is still new for a lot of people,” she tells Euromoney after the forum, speaking from the Workiva headquarters in Ames, Iowa. “The event illustrated how ESG-aligned investments are crucial to business transformation. I wanted to highlight how small and mid-size companies can take a meaningful action through innovation and tech investments.”
Klindt, an Iowa State University alumna who has lived in Ames since graduating, joined Workiva in 2008, having previously worked at CitiMortgage and Wells Fargo.
She draws on her experience moving from large firms to startups to think strategically about scale. “Very small companies will have a different focus and different needs, so you have to think about how to shift resources as you grow,” she says.
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