Veris Founders

Veris was founded in 2007 by 5 courageous founders who had a vision to build a values driven wealth management firm fully devoted to Impact investing across asset classes.

Patricia Farrar-Rivas

Patricia Farrar-Rivas is Partner Group Chair, Founding Partner, and a Senior Wealth Manager at Veris Wealth Partners. She is also a Certified Investment Management Analyst professional. Patricia has been providing investment advisory and wealth management services since 1992.

Michael Lent

Michael Lent, Certified Investment Management Analyst®, is a founding principal and the CIO of Veris Wealth Partners.

David Hills

David Hills is a founding partner at Veris Wealth Partners. David started his investment career in 1983 and is a pioneer in Impact investing.

Anders Ferguson

Steve Fahrer

Steve Faher, Certified Investment Management Analyst®, is a founding principal of Veris Wealth Partners. He has provided sustainable investment advisory and wealth management services since 1994.

Patricia Farrar-Rivas

Patricia Farrar-Rivas is a founding principal and former CEO of Veris Wealth Partners. She has been providing investment advisory and wealth management services since 1992. Patricia is a principal consultant to the Envestnet Sustainability Platform and was a member of the Envestnet Advisory Board. Prior to Veris, Patricia led the effort by Silicon Valley-based public accounting firm, Frank, Rimerman + Co. to launch its new investment advisory subsidiary, Frank, Rimerman Advisors. She also co-founded the New York office of Progressive Asset Management in 1994.

Earlier in her career, Patricia worked with Veris co-founder Michael Lent and community leaders in Central America on economic development, local empowerment, and social justice. She realized the degree to which economic factors were embedded in the challenges they faced, and, as the responsible investing industry was emerging in the U.S., turned her attention to advising asset owners on the potential impact of their investment policies and decisions.

Patricia is currently a Board member of 18 Reasons, a community cooking school, empowering communities to eat good food every day. Her previous Board experience includes As You Sow, a nonprofit organization promoting corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, grant making, and innovative legal strategies. She also served as a member of the Standards Council for the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), a nonprofit that works on developing and disseminating industry-specific sustainability accounting standards for material, nonfinancial (ESG) information.

Patricia has been a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®) since 2000 and is a Certified Investment Strategist (CIS). She is also a member of the Investments & Wealth Institute™. Patricia is based in San Francisco, where she lives with her family.

Michael Lent

Michael is a founding principal and the CIO of Veris Wealth Partners. For 20 years, he’s been delivering financial planning and investment consulting services to high-net-worth families, family offices, and foundations. Michael has been recognized by the Calvert Foundation for his advocacy of blended-value community investing and is regularly cited by major media outlets such as AP and Reuters on matters pertaining to sustainable investing. Prior to Veris, he co-founded the New York office of Progressive Asset Management, the first full-service broker/dealer to focus on socially responsible investing.

Earlier in his career, while working on economic development issues in Central America, Michael realized that, for his work to achieve its full impact, he and his colleagues would need sustained access to new financial resources. So he began to focus his efforts on outreach, educating others who also recognized the important link between capital and social change. He now helps others use their resources to achieve personal financial goals while having a positive impact on the world around them.

Michael served as Chair of the Board of Directors of US SIF, The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, an association for professionals, firms, institutions and organizations engaged in socially responsible and sustainable investing. In addition, Michael is a member of the Investments & Wealth Institute™, which sets standards and practices for the investment management consulting profession. He received his Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®) designation in 2002. Michael also has a B.A. in Biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn, NY.

David Hills

David Hills is a founding partner at Veris Wealth Partners. David started his investment career in 1983 and is a pioneer in Impact investing. All the way back to when it was called Ethical Investing. Hills began his social activism against the Vietnam war, and later became committed in the fight against nuclear power at the Seabrook, NH, power plant. Never afraid to jump in, he was arrested four times for civil disobedience.

After 23 years as a Senior VP at A.G. Edwards, David was excited to bring his passion and clients to help launch Veris Wealth Partners in the Portsmouth, NH, office. David’s unique ability to blend humor, curiosity, and a genuine desire to help clients reach their goals, was a special part of the firm. His greatest satisfaction was experiencing clients’ joy at the positive impact their wealth could create in the world. What better job than that.

Having retired in the spring of 2017, he now finds himself busy with family, overseeing his family farm, the Emery Farm (North America’s oldest family farm), sailing, and being continually curious about all that he has yet to learn.

David is a Guarantor of MCE Social Capital, and serves on the Board of the Robinwood Center.

Anders Ferguson

Anders Ferguson is a founding principal of Veris Wealth Partners and previously led the company’s strategic marketing and business development. He is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier building sustainable companies and nonprofits since 1978. Anders specializes in sustainable alternative assets, capital formation, and business strategy. Prior to Veris, Anders chaired Uplift Equity Partners, a firm specializing in sustainable private equity. He speaks frequently about sustainable leadership and investing.

Anders is a principal consultant to the Envestnet Sustainability Platform. Headquartered in Chicago, Envestnet Asset Management is a leading provider of innovative practice management and asset management solutions for independent financial advisors.

In 1999, Anders achieved an important personal milestone with the success of a consulting company he founded. Rather than rush quickly into a new venture, he took time off to contemplate a deeper application of his business skills to his personal passion for social responsibility. Anders went on retreat to a small rural village on the border of Tibet and China where he witnessed firsthand the environmental impacts of an ascending Chinese economy. Forests were stripped of trees, rivers were dammed for hydro-electric projects, and the air in major cities was growing visibly toxic. All the good works of the small and medium-sized sustainable companies he advised were no match for what was occurring on a global scale. Anders knew he needed to engage major, mainstream business leaders in the next phase of his life’s work. With this in mind, he co-convened an extraordinary conference and NGO that brought together Fortune 500 executives and the Dalai Lama to explore the intersection of leadership, spirituality, mindfulness, and business performance. It was the beginning of a journey that continues to this day.

Anders is a co-founder of the Dalai Lama Fellows, Chair of Friends of The Oberlin Project, Oberlin College, and co-founder of the Global Leaders Academy. He was an advisor to the Evergreen Cooperatives initiative in Cleveland, OH, and served as a director of the National Cooperative Business Association and Foundation for 12 years. Anders studied agriculture at Purdue University and graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in History and Environmental Studies. He lives with his family in Leyden, MA.

Steve Fahrer

Steve Fahrer is a founding principal of Veris Wealth Partners. He has provided sustainable investment advisory and wealth management services since 1994. Steve specializes in financial consulting, portfolio management and community impact investing across all asset classes. Prior to Veris, he co-founded the New York office of Progressive Asset Management, the first full-service broker/dealer to focus on socially responsible investing.

In 1991, after 15 years in the leadership of a successful nonprofit housing and community development organization, Steve oversaw the development of a national network of community foundations. He came to believe that the failure of governmental programs to provide social services and raise the global standard of living required another path. He saw that by engaging more directly with project funding sources and the capital markets, he could generate even greater social impact. This led him to Progressive Asset Management and socially responsible investing.

Steve is a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®) with a long history of management and director-level roles within the nonprofit sector. His deep understanding of public and private philanthropy enables him to provide a broad range of client services that complement his wealth management skills. Steve serves on the Board of Directors of the Edward W. Hazen Foundation. He is the former Co-Chair of Bend the Arc, a Jewish Partnership for Justice. He also served on the Board of Directors for both the Tzedec Educational Development Fund and Tzedec Community Ventures, LLC. He is a voracious reader and enjoys kayaking. Steve lives with his family in Brooklyn, NY.

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