FCLTGlobal Director Ariel Babcock speaks about her motivations for joining the FCLTGlobal team and the goals she hopes to accomplish during her tenure.
FCLTGlobal Director Ariel Babcock speaks about her motivations for joining the FCLTGlobal team and the goals she hopes to accomplish during her tenure.
A new addition to the team, Ariel Babcock is an equity investment professional with over a decade of experience in the financial industry. We spoke to Ariel about her motivations for joining FCLT Global, and the goals she hopes to accomplish during her tenure.
Q: Why did you decide to join FCLT Global, and what will you be working on?
Over the course of my career in the investment industry I’ve frustratingly witnessed the swing toward shorter term capital allocation decisions (by both companies and investors) and the value destruction that attitude has produced. FCLT Global’s mission to combat this short-termism really resonated with me because of that first-hand experience. I joined the organization primarily to help craft a ‘new normal’ investment regime that is rooted in long-term sustainable investment decision making principles. My first project looks closely at the issuance of public company earnings guidance, particularly quarterly guidance, in an effort to develop evidence-based solutions that can help shift the investor-corporate dialogue toward long term metrics. Ultimately, we hope that shifting the conversation longer term will shift investment time horizons accordingly.
Q: Tell us a little bit about you and your previous work experience.
I started my career in financial services as a trader and research analyst at a long-short financial sector focused hedge fund; then moved on to managing value focused mutual funds at both American Independence Financial Services and Calamos Investments. After over a decade on the buy-side, I left active management to handle investor relations, communications, and strategy at small-cap clean energy company Tecogen Inc.
Q: What are you looking forward to most about working at FCLT Global?
The founders and member companies that have joined FCLT include an impressive array of well-respected organizations. I most look forward to harnessing that expertise and driving data-backed progress on corporate communications, reporting, and capital structures.
Q: What are you hoping to achieve in your new role?
Getting the right people to the table and giving them the right data, insights and implementation tools to shift focus toward the longer term is a top priority. Eventually I’d like to go back to the investment world knowing that the landscape has changed for the better and that capital is flowing toward the best long term sustainable source of future value – I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think FCLT’s efforts could help achieve that goal.