Harvard in Tech Spotlight: Matthew Arnold, Global Head of Sustainable Finance at JPMorgan Chase
I spoke with Matthew Arnold, Global Head of Sustainable Finance at JPMorgan Chase.
Matthew’s passion for the environment first stemmed from his love for the outdoors. After graduating Harvard Business School, he was deciding between 2 paths: entering investment banking or founding a nonprofit. He chose the latter, founding a nonprofit that aimed to show that environmental stewardship could be a source of competitive advantage for companies (which at the time in 1989 was quite a contrarian perspective). He worked closely with 150 business schools exchanging insights and learnings on the topic of sustainability in corporations. Larger companies hired his company to conduct training programs on sustainability for their employees. Ultimately, his company merged with the World Resources Institute, the world’s largest sustainability think tank, where he then became Chief Operating Officer.
After leaving the World Resources Institute, Matthew started an advisory firm, Sustainable Finance, to work with banks on evaluating and driving change in sustainability. He worked first with Citi and then with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and 60 of the world’s largest banks on their sustainability strategy. Sustainable Finance was acquired by PwC, and Matthew joined the PwC team to launch and grow their sustainability practice, scaling it to over 65 employees.
Matthew’s risk management, business development, and financial experience then led him to JPMorgan in founding and growing their sustainable finance group, where Matthew has been for the past decade. During this time, he has helped make JPMorgan a leader in the sustainable finance world. JPMorgan has invested over $200 billion in funding sustainable development goals, including in financing the Paris Alliance agreement with many other large, global companies. Matthew has also helped start JPMorgan’s impact finance group, built with both investment bankers and investors, investing over $120 million in loans and equity to support affordable housing, small business development, and many other critical areas beyond environmental sustainability.
Matthew shared his advice for building conviction, finding perseverance, and shaping career paths.
Let your mind and heart inhabit the same thing. Throughout Matthew’s career, he has seen around and beyond corners, working on impactful projects before their corresponding ideals became mainstream or broadly adopted. In building this conviction, Matthew underscores the importance of aligning your head and your heart. Conviction ultimately comes from the heart and is executed and acted upon by the brain.
Prioritize creativity and energy. When Matthew was building his nonprofit, he received funding from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which represented a meaningful turning point in their trajectory and brought on a highly credible partner for them which in turn opened many other doors. Recently, Matthew reconnected with his program officer at RBF who recalled that he decided to fund Matthew not because of his idea (especially given sustainability focuses were much less mainstream or widely accepted at the time) but rather because of the energy and creativity he and his cofounder displayed. Ultimately, ideas come and go, and it is impossible to predict the future or know which ideas will stick. What matters in the long run is the quality of the team executing behind it.
Stick with it. Through Matthew’s entrepreneurial journeys, there were so many ups and downs, but sometimes turning points are just around the corner if you work hard and long enough. For example, early clients for his advisory firm Sustainable Finance were incredibly hard-earned. Once Citi signed on with them and had a fantastic experience, Sustainable Finance grew rapidly by word of mouth, signing on one major bank after another.
Build a strong professional foundation. While Matthew has been incredibly grateful and proud of the impact he has created in the sustainability world throughout his career, looking back, if he could change one thing, he would have spent a few years after graduation developing greater professional grounding, learning the ropes at a larger company.
Step outside your comfort zone. Looking back on his time at Harvard College, beyond the community of incredible friends, Matthew most enjoyed the lab centric psychobiology program. In hindsight, he loved the lab work he was able to do and would have stepped outside his comfort zone and pursued science more vigorously from the start.
Be clear on your goals and know when it is time to leave. In building his nonprofit, Matthew’s goal was to drive corporate adoption of sustainability practices and create change through a global business school network. Once he achieved this, he merged the organization with World Resources Institute, an excellent and symbiotic partner that would help them scale. Similarly, in founding Sustainable Finance, Matthew’s goal was to transform Wall Street through integrating a greater focus on sustainability. After working with 60 of the world’s largest banks, he realized he had achieved this goal and sold the company to PwC. After a few years building PwC’s business, he set out to join JPMorgan where he could create even more impact in spearheading the company’s long term sustainability strategy and transforming them into a global leader in sustainability.
Each of Matthew’s roles was also catered to his skillset and cadence. In his early career years, he spent time building his own organizations, where he could move and learn more quickly and where he could have more agency. In his final career transition to JPMorgan, he was able to take these learnings to a larger organization that could create greater impact, prioritizing quality over quantity.
