Ellena Damini

MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment, 2024

Ellena (Ellie) joins Green Templeton College, pursuing an MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce in Finance from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, graduating with highest honours in 2023.

Ellena led Carleton University’s student investment fund ($2.0M in assets under management on behalf of the Carleton University Endowment Fund), spearheading the integration of responsible investing and ESG principles across internal, asset, and portfolio levels. Research framing ESG as a financial sacrifice sparked Ellena’s interest in the nexus between value and values, fuelling her commitment to empowering the financial sector to deliver on the sustainability agenda.

Ellena’s interests include reshaping investment strategies in hard-to-abate sectors and advising on capital deployment to foster sustainable development. Moreover, Ellena is eager to research how impact investing can support the resiliency of Indigenous infrastructure globally.

Outside of academia, Ellena is a former competitive sailor where she competed at the Provincial and National levels in dinghy racing. Ellena is further passionate about ocean conservation, having helmed a sailboat around the British Virgin Islands when she was 18 years of age.

Get in contact with Ellena at: Ellena.damini@gtc.ox.ac.uk