Cornerstone Capital

About Cornerstone Capital

Cornerstone Capital Group was established in 2013 by Erika Karp, a Wall Street veteran with over 25 years of experience in finance. Karp founded the firm to merge the disciplines of finance and economics with the goal of fostering a more regenerative and inclusive form of capitalism. Before launching Cornerstone, she was the Managing Director and Head of Global Sector Research at UBS Investment Bank. Her extensive background includes chairing the Global Investment Review Committee at UBS and serving on its Securities Research Executive Committee.

The firm operated as a New York-based, SEC-registered investment advisor focused on sustainable and impact investing. Its primary mission was to help clients achieve specific environmental and social impact goals without compromising investment performance. Cornerstone catered to a diverse client base that included families, individuals, foundations, endowments, and other financial advisors. The company's business model revolved around developing and managing customized investment strategies tailored to the unique financial and impact objectives of each client. This involved in-depth, proprietary research to identify emerging environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues that could affect long-term investment performance.

A key offering was the Cornerstone Access Impact Framework™, a proprietary methodology designed to measure and report how investments align with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This tool translated the 17 SDGs into investable opportunities across 11 access-related themes, allowing clients to see how their portfolios contributed to specific global challenges. In December 2019, the firm launched the Cornerstone Capital Access Impact Fund (CCIIX), a liquid, low-minimum, all-cap global thematic fund. This fund provided broader access to impact investing strategies that were traditionally available only to institutional and high-net-worth investors.

In a significant milestone, Cornerstone Capital Group merged with Pathstone, an independently operated advisory firm, in March 2021. At the time of the acquisition, Cornerstone managed approximately $1.1 billion in assets. The merger was a strategic move to combine Cornerstone's specialized expertise in sustainable investing with Pathstone's broader range of services and larger platform. Following the merger, Erika Karp joined Pathstone as its Chief Impact Officer, continuing her work in the impact investing space. Other key personnel, including Chief Investment Officer Craig Metrick and Chief Impact Strategist Katherine Pease, also transitioned to the Pathstone team.