ACG Orlando's ESG Update

As a leader in BDO’s global ESG & Sustainability services and a member of BDO’s global private equity and corporate finance teams, Karen inspires and drives sustainable, value enhancing solutions for private equity and corporate clients ensuring best-in-class client service.

Karen is an accomplished strategic corporate finance advisor with more than 30 years of experience working across each stage of the M&A life cycle. She brings insight and innovation to complex transactions and operational finesse to maximize synergy capture and sustainable value creation. Karen engages the expertise of subject matter experts across the BDO platform to design agile, transformational solutions to help companies achieve top line growth, operational excellence and enterprise risk mitigation across the organization. Her industry experience includes serving clients in fintech, entertainment, media & broadcasting, healthcare, software, and technology sectors.

Hugh is the Head of BSR’s Financial Services practice and partners with companies across sectors. He advises institutional investors, corporations, and other capital market participants on corporate sustainability strategy, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and risk management, and stakeholder engagement. 

Prior to joining BSR, Hugh was a senior director at Ceres, where he led investor engagement with global institutional investors representing over US$20 trillion in assets under management (AUM). Hugh connected key climate change topics, including land use change and water risks, to investment portfolios and company supply chains to help investors and companies achieve climate change goals.  

Hugh has over 15 years of investment management expertise in various roles. At the US$250 billion AUM Florida State Board of Administration, he worked on corporate governance, ESG risks across asset classes, and risk management. He also worked at Morgan Stanley, where he provided investment management and consulting services.  

Hugh is a veteran of the US Air Force. He holds a BA in History and International Affairs from Florida State University and an MBA from Nova Southeastern University.  

Based in Charlotte, as ESG Strategy Executive for the Global Commercial Bank (GCB), Erin works to align GCB ESG efforts to the broader Enterprise wide Bank of America ESG goals. In her current role, Erin focuses on front line unit banker activation including banker preparedness and client engagement as it pertains to social impact, net zero engagement and overall ESG strategy. Erin joined the Bank in 2016 and most recently served as Senior Vice President and LIHTC Syndication Senior Relationship Manager for the Community Development Banking group.

Before joining the Bank, Erin worked in New York City, starting her career in the KPMG Audit Real Estate Financial Services Practice where she served as Lead Senior Representative of the Northeast. Following KPMG, Erin spent three years working at JPMorgan Chase as a Real Estate Financial Manager in charge of more than $6 billion of office and industrial real estate assets.

Erin earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, with a concentration in Accounting, from Fordham University; a Master of Business Administration in real estate, corporate finance and strategy from New York University, Stern Executive MBA Program where she served as Class Representative and Co‐Chair of the NYU Stern Executive MBA Council; and a Certificate of Achievement in sustainable finance and ESG investing from New York University, Stern Executive Education.

Erin served as a Class 9, 2019 participant in Charlotte’s Leading Under 40 Program, an initiative run by Charlotte’s Community Building Initiative organization. She currently serves on the board of CommunityLink and Mosaic Development. Erin is actively involved with ULI Carolinas including participation as a mentor in the ULI Women’s Leadership Initiative Mentorship program, Bank of America Better Money Habits Lead Champion, Bank of America Black Professional Group, and she leads a Power of 10 Women’s group of 15 Women within the Commercial Real Estate Bank. Erin is also a 2021 Columbia University Women in Leadership participant, NYU Stern Women in Business and is a Trees Charlotte Volunteer and Ambassador.

Erin was a Women’s Basketball D‐1 scholarship point guard, Student Athlete representative and team captain for the Fordham University Lady Rams. She enjoys international travel, sports and fitness, hiking, volunteering and spending time with family.

Anibal Montes is a Senior Associate and the Director of ESG at WM Partners, LP, a private equity firm based in Aventura, FL that targets buyout opportunities within the health and wellness industry. Previously, Anibal worked in the Financial Sponsors Group at J.P. Morgan in New York City, where he covered  private equity firms and their founders. Prior to that, he covered Ultra-High Net Worth clients in Latin America also at J.P. Morgan in New York City.

Mr. Montes graduated from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and earlier from Miami Dade College. He enjoys playing tennis with his wife and running with his dog Twix.