Dr. Daniel Yergin—a leading global authority on energy, economics and geopolitics, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The New Map—sits down with Brown Advisory’s Jane Korhonen to discuss the future of energy, and how that future may shape innovation, international relations and the economy in the years ahead. The stakes are high: Climate change is creating an urgent need for a lower-carbon economy, and the incoming Biden administration will face the daunting challenge of reigniting the U.S. economy in the wake of the pandemic, and energy may be a critical catalyst of that recovery.

We are grateful to Dr. Yergin for sharing his insights with us. The episode also includes a follow-up conversation between Jane and Brown Advisory’s Chief Investment Officer, Paul Chew, in which they discuss some of the implications for investors.

 

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Episode Introduction

Jane Korhonen: The coronavirus pandemic may be a once-a-century event – but it is crashing into what many consider the ongoing challenge of our time – climate change. This collision is “fueling” a slump in energy demand that is unparalleled since the Great Depression; at the same time, a combination of new technologies, consumer behavior and policy decisions are contributing to a surge in renewable energy. As the backdrop to this singular year in our lives and in energy markets, we recognize that the global economy is migrating to lower carbon energy sources. Yet, across the world, we still generate more than 80% of our energy from fossil fuels – oil, gas and coal. As an investor, I am constantly studying these trends to understand what they are telling me about how to make better investment decisions for our clients.

I’m Jane Korhonen and I’m a partner at Brown Advisory. When I want to understand what is going on with the global energy landscape, I turn to one of the world’s foremost thinkers on energy and its relationship to international politics and economics: Dr. Dan Yergin. Dan is Vice Chair of IHS Markit, one of the world’s largest research and information companies, and creator of CERA Week, the leading gathering of energy CEOs and policy makers from around the world. Dan is the author of numerous books, including "The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power" – for which he won a Pulitzer prize. And he just published a fascinating new book – "The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations".

In this time of global crisis, I wanted to sit down with Dan to understand what he’s thinking about and where he thinks we are going.

Read the Full Transcript

 

Guest

Daniel Yergin, Ph.D.

Daniel Yergin, Ph.D.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Author and Vice Chair, IHS Markit

The Pulitzer prize-winning author of The New Map, The Prize and The Quest, Dr. Yergin is vice chairman of IHS Markit and founded IHS CERA (now part of IHS Markit). He is an authority on energy, international politics and economics. His awards include Lifetime Achievement from the Prime Minister of India and the United States Energy Award for lifelong achievements in energy and the promotion of international understanding. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.

 

Host

Jane Korhonen, CFA

Jane Korhonen, CFA

Portfolio Manager, Brown Advisory

Jane is a partner and serves as a portfolio manager in the Washington, D.C. office. She is head of the firm’s Private Client Investment Committee and is responsible for balanced portfolios for both nonprofit and private clients. Previously at Brown Advisory, Jane was an analyst covering the health care and the technology sectors for both the Large-Cap Growth and Large-Cap Value strategies. Prior to joining Brown Advisory in 1994, Jane worked as an equity research analyst for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in that organization’s investment group.

 

Investment Commentary

Paul Chew, CFA

Paul Chew, CFA

Chief Investment Officer, Brown Advisory

Paul is a partner, a member of the Executive Team and serves as chief investment officer. He is responsible for leading the firm’s internally managed investment strategies and its open-architecture and asset-allocation efforts. Under Paul’s leadership, the firm’s core equity and fixed income capabilities have grown substantially, and he has also led the expansion of the firm’s platform of alternative investments, which includes venture capital, leveraged buyouts, energy, credit, real estate and hedge funds. While completing his MBA at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, he worked as a research associate for a finance professor specializing in asset allocation. Prior to business school, he worked as a cash manager in the international asset management department of J.P. Morgan.

 

 

Background Reading

 

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