The Sierra team finds it to be lucrative to be early to invest in new trends. We believe AI driven Chatbots from Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft will drive the need for consumers to use powerful wireless hearables such as the AirPod Pro creating a new medium of advertising, “voice.” First we had flat panel display screen advertising, then mobile and the next trend will be voice.
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Charles F. Michaels
Chief Investment Officer
Charles F. Michaels, CFA is the CEO and Co-founder of Sierra Global Management, an investment management firm launched in 1996 with holdings in publicly traded Climate Solutions companies across the globe. Sierra Global supports the energy transition by channeling capital to financially productive companies across a broad range of industries that cut carbon emissions. As a growth stock investor, Mr. Michaels was an early investor in wind, solar electric vehicles, and energy efficient companies in technology, building materials and heating & cooling.
Mr. Michaels was born in Madrid, Spain, and has lived in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Prior to Sierra Global, Mr. Michaels worked for Goldman Sachs in London and Zürich where he co-founded the Company’s European equities business. Mr. Michaels graduated from UC Berkeley in 1978 with a BS degree in Business Administration and from Columbia Business School with an MBA in 1986. While at UC Berkeley, he became deeply interested in what today is known as “sustainability.” This led to his support for the funding and founding of UC Berkeley’s Haas Sustainable Investment Fund in 2007.
He also sponsors the new Michaels Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Business at the Haas School of Business. Additionally, Mr. Michaels serves as an advisory board member for Columbia University’s new Climate School.
George Dallas
Advisory Board Member
George Dallas is Head of Content at the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI), a global network of leading academic governance scholars in both law and finance faculties. He engages with practitioners to link ECGI’s academic research content to professional application. Previously he served as Policy Director at the International Corporate Governance Network, an advocacy body whose investor members manage over $77 trillion in assets under management.
George is formerly Director of Corporate Governance at F&C Investments in the UK (now Columbia Threadneedle Asset Management) and was a Managing Director at S&P Global where he served in several roles, including as European Region Head and Head of S&P’s London office. George’s second book, Governance, Stewardship and Sustainability was published in its second edition by Routledge in 2022. George grew up in Georgia and has lived in London since 1988. He holds a BA, With Distinction, from Stanford University and an MBA from the Haas School of the University of California at Berkeley.
Brad Smith
Senior Analyst, Co-Head of Marketing
Brad Smith is a Senior Analyst with over 21 years of experience as a global investor and analyst across a broad range of industries. Mr. Smith has extensive knowledge in the Climate Sector as an early investor in the Solar sector back in 2006, the wind sector, and other industrial industries tied to energy conservation.
Prior to Sierra Global, he managed long-term growth portfolios for a valued group of high-net-worth clients and business owners at Wilmington Trust. Mr. Smith has extensive experience in the hedge fund industry, working as an analyst in New York and London.
He spent 10 years at Chilton Investment Company and built a repeatable investment process and valued network of global contacts. Brad has three children and is an avid golfer.
Dr Kellie McElhaney, PhD
Responsible Business Investment Advisory Group
Dr Kellie McElhaney, PhD is the Founding Director of the Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership (EGAL) and is on the faculty at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. A passionate believer in the potential and power of business to make positive change, Kellie has spent her career in that pursuit.
Through provocative thought-leadership, evidence-based storytelling, and courageous and bold action, Kellie has challenged and supported business leaders, organizations and students to address some of society’s biggest challenges.
Marcela Manubens
Responsible Business Investment Advisory Group
Marcela Manubens is an expert on human rights and social impact at Unilever and has immersed herself in numerous social impact roles. Ms. Manubens joined Unilever in 2013 and led the creation of its social sustainability strategy and global goals, resulting in the expansion of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, incorporating Enhancing Livelihoods three pillars: fairness in the workplace, opportunities for women, and inclusive business models.
Previously, she established one of the first Global Human Rights and Social Responsibility programs in the fashion industry at PVH.
Antonio Ciudad Casafranca
Climate Analyst & Head of Sustainability
Antonio Ciudad is a Climate Analyst & the Head of Sustainability. Born in Lima, Peru, he attended a German Peruvian school where he completed the German Abitur. He studied both Economics and Business at Universidad del Padfico in Lima and pursued his exchange-student program at Universitat St. Gallen in Switzerland. Mr. Ciudad recently received his MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley with a focus in Business Analytics. He was a Principal of the Haas Sustainable investment fund, a student run fund founded by Charlie Michaels in 2007.
Mr. Ciudad worked for over 5 years at Peru’s largest bank, Banco de Credito del Peru-BCP, where he held key strategic roles. Apart from his mother tongue Spanish, Mr. Ciudad is fluent in German, French and English having studied and lived in both Germany and Switzerland in different periods of his life. Volunteered for five years at PANSOY, an NGO that helps approximately 700 low-income microentrepreneurs build their food business with a socially responsible mission. Antonio is a lifelong passionate swimmer and athlete and set a national swimming record in Peru.
Susan DeCanio
CCO, Director of Operations
Susan DeCanio is the Chief Compliance Officer and Director of Operations and has been with Sierra since 1996. She is responsible for all settlements, reconciliation, and trading activities as well as compliance related aspects for the firm. She came to Sierra Global from Capital Investments International, a broker-dealer firm where she worked with analysts to gather research and assisted the sales team.
Ms. DeCanio holds a degree from Long Island University.
Brian Tsai
External CFO
Brian Tsai is the External CFO. For 17 years, Brian was the COO/CFO at a $3.5B multi-strategy fund, a $6B PE fund, and a $450M healthcare fund. While his portfolio managers were shorting broker dealers in 2007, he suggested and transferred $1B of assets to Northern Trust. Brian has been instrumental in automating and streamlining internal processes at Sierra and upgrading outside vendors. Brian began his career in portfolio management at JP Morgan Private Bank.
He is a graduate of Duke (BS, BA), Johns Hopkins (MA), and Fordham University (MS in Taxation).
Stefan Alb
Co-Founder, President, Head of Research & Trading
Stefan Alb is the Director of Research, focusing on a wide variety of industries. Mr. Alb was a founding member of Sierra’s investment team in 1996, and after leaving Sierra to invest on his own behalf in his home country of Romania in early 2005, he later re-joined the investment team in June 2008. In addition to his analytical responsibilities, Mr. Alb was in charge of trading and risk monitoring at Sierra from 1996-2000.
For two years prior to Sierra, he was a financial analyst in Goldman Sachs’s European equities department. While attending James Madison University, Mr. Alb worked as a financial analyst and consultant in the office of the President and CEO at W.R. Grace & Co., a Fortune 500 company focusing on mergers and acquisitions as well as company and industry analyses (1992-1994). Mr. Alb graduated with a B.S. in Economics from James Madison University in 1994 and is a Romanian citizen.
Stefan is the father of three children and is an avid runner.
Prof. Daniel Kammen
Climate Science Advisor
Professor Daniel Kammen, Climate Science Advisor, holds a Doctorate in Physics from Harvard and is a professor of Energy at UC Berkeley with parallel appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, Goldman School of Public Policy and the department of Nuclear Engineering. He is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab (RAEL). He has founded or is on the board of ten companies and has served the State of California and US federal government in expert and advisory capacities.
He served as Science Envoy for the Obama-Biden Administration in the State Department and was the Chief Technical Specialist at the World Bank for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency. Dr. Kammen has served as a contributing or lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 1999. The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for their report, Climate Change 2007, assessing man-made global warming.
