The shareholder commons is
committed to fundamental
change in the capital markets
Founded in 2019, we are an independent non-profit organization that addresses social and environmental issues from the perspective of shareholders who diversify their investments to optimize risk and return.
mission and vision
our story
The Shareholder Commons (TSC) was founded by leaders with deep experience in sustainable business and finance. From different backgrounds, we came to the same conclusion: investors lacked an effective way to address the social and environmental harms that ultimately threaten long-term investment returns.
Traditional investor approaches often rest on the idea that better corporate behavior will always improve a company’s long-term financial performance. In practice, that claim is controversial—and many profitable business strategies impose serious costs on people, communities, and the planet. When companies or investors do act on these issues, the efforts are often too limited to make a meaningful difference.
We start from a different premise. In a highly interconnected global economy, the greatest risk to diversified investors is not whether individual companies maximize their own returns, but whether the economic systems those companies depend on remain stable and healthy. Climate change, inequality, and other systemic harms driven by corporate externalities pose a far greater threat to long-term portfolios than underperformance of any single firm.
Building on decades of academic and practitioner research, The Shareholder Commons was formed in 2019 to put these ideas into action. We pioneered a “portfolio-first” approach to shareholder engagement—one that prioritizes protecting long-term, diversified returns by addressing system-level risks.
Today, as system-level investing gains momentum, The Shareholder Commons is expanding its role. We are building the infrastructure and tools investors need to scale this approach and embed it into mainstream investment practice and culture.
OUR TEAM
Dan Osusky
Chief Executive Officer
Dan has spent more than a decade developing innovative frameworks for managing corporate and investor impact through multi-stakeholder processes. He joined TSC as the Chief Research Officer before his appointment as CEO. Prior to this role, Dan was the Chief Research Officer at the International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI), which grew out of the Impact Weighted Accounts Project of Harvard Business School. Before IFVI, Dan was Head of Standards and Insights at the international non-profit, B Lab.
At B Lab, Dan oversaw the performance standards for B Corp Certification and the B Impact Assessment, a social and environmental performance measurement and management tool that has been used by more than 100,000 businesses globally. At IFVI, he led the creation and development of the only independently governed public good methodology for impact accounting, which quantifies social and environmental impacts in monetary terms to increase comparability and decision-usefulness and makes it possible to understand links and tradeoffs between impact and financial performance.
He has a graduate degree in Philosophy, having previously taught Ethics at Texas Tech University, and undergraduate degrees in Economics and Philosophy from Wake Forest University.
Sophie Faris
Chief Operating Officer
Sophie joined The Shareholder Commons with 25 years of experience in non-profit organizations and civil service. Prior to joining the team, Sophie spent nine years at B Lab, the non-profit behind Certified B Corporations and the benefit corporation form. At B Lab, she led teams focused on business development, policy, and fundraising, and directly informed strategy and operations as a member of the organization’s executive team. Sophie joined B Lab from the Clinton Global Initiative where she led a team that advised foundations, philanthropists, and corporations in making ambitious, clear, and measurable plans to tackle global challenges. Sophie’s passion for systemic change and effective teams is rooted in her early career as a high school teacher in Oakland, California. She holds a Master of Science in Education from Cal State University and a Master of Public Health from Columbia University.
Mari Schwartzer
Director of Investor Engagement
Mari is the Director of Investor Engagement at The Shareholder Commons, where she works closely with investors to address system-level risks and support long-term market performance.
She joined TSC in 2024 with more than 16 years of experience in corporate engagement, ESG integration, and investor stewardship. Previously, Mari served as Director of Shareholder Activism and Engagement at a Boston-based socially responsible investment firm, where she led hundreds of engagements with senior corporate leaders globally and filed more than 350 shareholder proposals.
During her tenure, she built the firm’s advocacy program, co-developed its approach to social and environmental research, and advised the investment team on ESG implementation.
Mari holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida and a master’s degree from Simmons University. She has served on the leadership team of the Proxy Voting Working Group of the Racial Justice Investing Coalition and on the boards of her local Jewish congregation and InvestAhead (formerly the Thirty Percent Coalition).
Frederick Alexander
Founder
Rick practiced law for 30 years at Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell in Wilmington, Delaware, including four years as managing partner. During that time, he was selected as one of the ten most highly regarded corporate governance lawyers worldwide and as one of the 500 leading lawyers in the United States. In 2015, Rick became Head of Legal Policy at B Lab, where he worked to create sustainable corporate governance structures around the globe. He left that position in 2019 for a fellowship that led to the creation of The Shareholder Commons, where he served as CEO through mid-2026.
Rick serves as Director and Treasurer of the American College of Governance Counsel, and is a member of the Council of Institutional Investors Markets Advisory Council, and the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Delaware Corporation Law Council, the body responsible for maintaining the premier corporate statute in the United States, where he previously served as Vice-Chair and Chair and drafted legislation, including provisions prohibiting mandatory arbitration, enabling proxy access, implementing majority voting and authorizing benefit corporations.
Rick has testified before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Delaware General Assembly; he also served as consultant to the United States Department of Justice in Purdue Pharma bankruptcy matter. He is the author of Benefit Corporation Law and Governance: Pursuing Profit with Purpose (Berrett Koehler 2017).
Board of Directors
RICK ALEXANDER
Founder, The Shareholder Commons
ARIANE CHAN
Senior Director, Corporate Counsel Mgmt, ServiceNow, Inc.
JOHN HOEPPNER
Head of Strategic Relationships and Active Ownership of Investment Stewardship, Builders Vision
ANTHEA KELSICK
Principal, Nova Impact
JON LUKOMNIK
Managing Partner, Sinclair Capital and Adjunct Professor and Brandmeyer Fellow, Columbia University
SUSHEELA PERES DA COSTA
Principal, The Stewardship Centre
OUR FUNDERS
The Shareholder Commons has been generously supported by the following institutions:
as well as contributions from individual donors.
TSC is additionally grateful to the organizations who have contributed in-kind or reduced cost services in support of its mission. To date, these include but are not limited to Highwire, Cooley, Gasthalter, and Morrison Foerster.
Learn more about TSC on our guidestar profile
Together, we can fundamentally transform our financial system. Get involved today.