Priscilla Sims Brown

Company: Amalgamated Bank
Title: Chief Executive Officer
Industry: Financials
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Notable in 2023: Financed the fight against climate change, by seeking out investment opportunities in renewable energy and refusing to lend to fossil fuel industry.

As the blowback against ESG has intensified, big banks and some major asset managers have pulled back on their climate commitments. Bank of America recently reversed its position on lending to thermal coal companies, while JPMorgan, State Street and BlackRock pulled out of, or scaled back, their work with a major coalition of climate-focused investors. 

That's not a club of suddenly more timid financial CEOs you'll find Amalgamated Bank CEO Priscilla Sims Brown within. 

In 2023, the fossil fuel-free company doubled down on its net zero carbon emissions goals, refusing to lend to the fossil-fuel industry, seeking out investment opportunities in renewable energy, and working closely with local and federal officials to craft and pass pro-climate policies. For consumers, it launched the Climate Impact Debit Mastercard, which replaced 80% of the fossil-fuel derived plastics in most cards.

"People do care about where their money sleeps at night, as many say, and they do care about making sure that their investments are being placed in ethical places, whether that is related to climate, whether it's related to any number of other areas," Brown told CNBC in 2022. "That is a right that investors should have."

Brown is continuing a tradition for Amalgamated, a bank that is a century old and was formed by labor organizers to provide an alternative to Wall Street, growing to $7.9 billion in deposit assets and $54 billion in trust, custody and investment assets for clients that include nonprofit organizations, labor unions, advocacy groups, political campaigns and socially responsible businesses and individuals. It's the largest B Corp. in the banking sector.

Amalgamated was one of the first companies to cover costs for employees who had to travel out of state to have an abortion due to the Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling in 2022. 

Since 2021 Brown has also pushed the financial sector to support a merchant code for gun and ammunition sales as a way to place financial institutions front and center in the effort to prevent gun violence in America. Last year, the effort seemed to hit a wall when major credit card networks paused their work on the effort, but Brown never relented, and now there are signs that the rest of the industry is prepared to move ahead again after a California law mandated a code in the state.