Tanya Khotin

Focus Areas: Sustainability, ESG/Impact Investing, Policy Action

Over more than 30 years, Tanya has worked in both the traditional and sustainable sides of the management consulting and finance industries. Her career has been driven by a unique personal story and desire to make a positive global impact.

Tanya and her family immigrated to the U.S. from the Soviet Union in 1975, as political refugees who retained hope for their country and wanted to participate in any positive change. When Mikhail Gorbachev’s administration allowed refugees to re-enter Russia – the same year that Tanya graduated from UC Berkeley – she was the first of her family to do so, as an interpreter for Soviet American citizen diplomacy groups. She attended Columbia Business School to gain the skills she needed to help advance Russia into the global economy. And she launched her post-MBA career at Bain & Co.’s Moscow office, to work with regional government officials on privatizing large industry.

Once a stock market emerged in Russia following privatization, Tanya joined the New York office of a local brokerage (later acquired by UBS Investment Bank) to introduce Russia to U.S. Institutional investors. At UBS, Tanya expanded into other Emerging Markets, and as Head of Sales and Managing Director, she led her growing team to become the top ranked bank covering the region. In 2006, as UBS was looking to expand its franchise in Russia, Tanya was asked to run the Russian equities business in Moscow. She led the business through the Global Financial Crisis, as well as Vladimir Putin’s increasingly autocratic behavior. By 2009, Tanya also recognized that neither Russia nor the banking sector was moving in a direction that aligned with her career vision.

Returning to New York, Tanya identified sustainable finance as a path to leverage her skills and experience toward a new professional goal – addressing environmental and social issues. Through her firm, “Khotin Impact Strategies,” she guides institutions toward greater impact through investment strategies and philanthropic programs. Tanya’s clients have included the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, The Finance Hub, UN PRI commissioned Inevitable Policy Response, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Wespath, Church Investment Group, and others.

Since 2017, Tanya has served on the Board of the Norcross Wildlife Foundation as Treasurer and Chair of the Investment Committee. She led Norcross through a management turnaround as Acting CFO and set the endowment portfolio on a path to 100% ESG / impact. Closer to home, Tanya joined her Coop building’s Board to introduce sustainability strategies, and became an early pioneer of electronics, textile, and food recycling in 2014. The Coop’s electrification process is underway.

Leveraging her field experience to advance the next generation of practitioners, Tanya is very excited to serve as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia SIPA.

Education

• MBA, Columbia Business School
• BA, French Language, Literature, and Civilization, UC Berkeley