“We sit at the cusp of evictions and the huge societal toll it will take,’’ Aiyer said. “We’ll be asking banks, who’ve also expressed sympathy with racial injustice, what they’re doing about their business models. If they’re to be part of the solution, they need to get creative.’’
For some, the inequalities laid bare by the coronavirus and the public reckoning over police killings of unarmed Black people came as a revelation. But for Aiyer and many others, it was no surprise. She described the events as part of a “gradual unfolding of interconnected, cumulative crises” over the past two decades, including the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“We should not act like these are black swans,’’ she explained. “They are hidden in plain sight.’’
One example she provided of how Wall Street can perpetuate inequality is the financing behind the private prison industry. Another is how banks, at the consumer level, lay the foundation for discrimination every day, from credit scores to loan practices and the elimination of bank branches in minority neighborhoods.
“It’s a perpetual cycle,” Aiyer said. “Finance is the root.’’
Since the pandemic began, Aiyer has been running her firm from her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, she joined a march to protest racial injustice. She also managed to find a little downtime, vacationing in Cape Cod, taking virtual hip hop and jazz-funk dance classes, and brushing up on Spanish and her mother tongue of Tamil.
With an unassuming demeanor, Aiyer shies away from personal talk. She did say that her motivation to tackle injustice stems from feeling like an outsider, both before and during her time on Wall Street. Born in India, she lived in different parts of the country, having to navigate its myriad languages and cultures. She eventually moved to the U.S. in the early 1980s to study for an MBA at Harvard Business School, a rarity for minority women at the time.
When she began her career in finance—an industry dominated by White men—she recalls how she was passed over for key client accounts or even making presentations. “I always felt like the outsider looking in,’’ she said.
“We want to make sure companies are paying attention to what they are signing up to and paying for.”
In 2003, Aiyer started Boston Common, which is majority female-owned. The firm is part of a small army of ESG investors who buy shares in companies, then meet with executives to discuss everything from sale of surveillance technologies to environmentally harmful projects. If those discussions falter, they file shareholder resolutions that can be voted on at annual meetings, or divest altogether. Such environmental, social and governance investors often work in tandem with advocacy groups and each other.