Treasurer Marlo Oaks on the Real Harm of ESGs

<p>This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, we are joined by Utah State Treasurer, Marlo Oaks. Later in the show, we check in with former Arizona Congressional candidate Mark DeLuzio, a Gold Star father, for a look at the true meaning of Memorial Day. Finally, Jeff Taylor of the Salvation Army calls in to discuss the homelessness crisis and what can be done to solve it. </p><p>-</p><p>Treasurer Marlo Oaks spent 17 years overseeing multi-billion-dollar portfolios, first at Farmers Insurance Group in Los Angeles (15 years, $24 billion) and then at Intermountain Healthcare (2+ years, $7.5 billion) in Salt Lake City. He oversaw the Treasury function at Intermountain, along with all the community portfolios, including Primary Children’s Hospital Foundation. He has experience managing foundation, endowment, healthcare/hospital system, insurance, defined benefit (pension), defined contribution (401K), taxable, and tax-exempt portfolios, including manager searches, due diligence, risk management, asset allocation, investment strategy, investment policies and guidelines, and reporting to senior executives and boards of investment committees.</p><p>During the 2008 – 2009 Financial Crisis, his portfolios’ performance were among the best in the country, outperforming the median corporate pension plan by 11.5% (funded status basis), representing $200 million in added portfolio value. The insurance pools were top performers among their peers, allowing the company to purchase AIG’s Direct Automobile Business, adding $4 billion to the portfolios, at the bottom of the market (March 2009). Treasurer Oaks began his career in Hong Kong on the derivatives desk at Standard Chartered Bank, a large British Bank with offices primarily in emerging markets.</p><p>As a volunteer, Treasurer Oaks served on the foundation investment committee at Utah Valley University for nine years. He also co-founded two non-profit organizations, the Stella H. Oaks Foundation that provides hope to single mothers through scholarships, and FIRST Utah Robotics a se