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The 9th Annual Paul D. Merrill Business Ethics Lecture, hosted by the University of New England’s Department of Business, will feature Joseph Keefe, president and chief executive officer of Pax World Funds; its investment adviser, Pax World Management LLC; and its majority-owned subsidiary, Pax Ellevate Management LLC.  Keefe will present “Investing as a Social Change Strategy,” which will be held Thursday, April 7, 2016, at 4 p.m. in the Eleanor DeWolfe Ludcke Auditorium on ɫ����Ƶ’s Portland Campus. A reception will take place at the ɫ����Ƶ Art Gallery immediately following the lecture. The event is free and open to the public.

Under Keefe’s leadership, Pax World has become one of the leading innovators and asset managers in the rapidly growing field of sustainable investing. Prior to joining Pax World, Keefe was President of NewCircle Communications, a strategic consulting and communications firm specializing in corporate social responsibility and public policy-oriented communications. He served as senior adviser for strategic social policy at Calvert Group from 2003 to 2005 and as executive vice president and general counsel of Citizens Advisers from 1997 to 2000. Keefe is a former member of the Board of Directors (2000-2006) of US SIF, the trade association representing asset managers and investors engaged in sustainable investing throughout the United States.

Keefe has written and spoken widely on the subjects of sustainable investing and women’s empowerment.  Recent thought leadership papers include “Gender Equality as an Investment Concept” and “Women and Impact Investing.” He is co-chair of the Leadership Group for the Women’s Empowerment Principles, a joint program of the United Nations Global Compact and UN Women, and also serves as chair of the Board of Directors of Women Thrive Worldwide, a leading non-profit organization shaping U.S. international assistance and trade policy to help women in developing countries lift themselves out of poverty.

Keefe was named by Ethisphere Magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics” in 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2015. In 2012, he was recognized by Women’s eNews as one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century,” where he was the sole male honoree, and in 2014 he was honored at the United Nations as one of five recipients of the Women’s Empowerment Principles Leadership Award. In 2015, Financial Times named him one of its “top feminist men” for his work helping women succeed in business and beyond.

He is a former Democratic nominee for United States Congress in New Hampshire’s First Congressional District and a former chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and member of the Democratic National Committee. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the College of the Holy Cross and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.

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