Delilah Rothenberg is a financial advisor and political activist. She is the co-founder and executive director of the Predistribution Initiative (PDI), an organization which pressures financial services providers to choose their investments in ways that advance left-progressive causes. Rothenberg has previously worked on a broad range of international government and private sector financial initiatives: an investment project run by the United States Agency for International Development, a United Nations investment planning working group, and financial firms such as Bear Stearns, among others. ¹

Rothenberg started her career in Democratic Party politics, working as an intern at the office of then-U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY). She went on to work for Bear Stearns, Citibank, and other major financial firms, eventually shifting towards jobs which involved pushing investments that aligned with left-progressive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. Shortly before she helped found PDI, she completed an economics fellowship with the Open Society Foundations, the flagship organization within the global activism network of left-of-center activist billionaire George Soros. ² She also sits on the board of For The Long Term, an activist group which pressures treasurers of state and municipal governments to adopt practices compatible with ESG priorities. ³

Views on the Financial Industry

Delilah Rothenberg has endorsed the idea that financial institutions should make environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives a priority when investing. She has also suggested that the United States government should enforce ESG principles by having the Securities and Exchange Commission require investors to disclose the extent of their compliance with ESG directives, particularly those related to left-progressive race and gender ideology. ⁴

Education and Career

Delilah Rothenberg attended New York University from 2000 to 2004, where she received a bachelor’s degree in history and African studies. After working as an intern for then-Senator Clinton, as well as for the New York Historical Society and a local left-progressive immigration advocacy group, she eventually began working for the financial giant Bear Stearns. She remained with the corporation until the 2008 global financial crash. ^{5 6}

Rothenberg continued to work in the financial industry, shifting her focus to investments in Africa and developing countries. She also joined Development Capital Strategies, an investment advisory firm which promotes ESG initiatives. In 2008, Rothenberg took a job with Citibank, where she was part of the institution’s “environmental and social risk management” unit, which monitored the bank’s investment practices to ensure their compliance with left-progressive policy goals. A year later, she transitioned to a business development role at a company selling African cosmetic products. In 2015, Rothenberg became a strategic consultant to Pegasus Capital Advisors, another firm promoting ESG in the financial industry, and the following year, she became the ESG manager for an Africa-focused energy company. In 2019, Rothenberg temporarily left the financial industry after being accepted to a fellowship with the Open Society Foundations, the primary grantmaking arm of the Soros Network. There, Rothenberg worked on left-progressive economic policy development. The same year, she co-founded the Predistribution Initiative and became its executive director. ⁷

The Predistribution Initiative (PDI)

Delilah Rothenberg founded Predistribution Initiative in 2019 together with a team of fellow financial industry representatives. The initiative claims to offer corrections to industry practices which do not fall in line with left-progressive policy and societal objectives, particularly those related to environmentalism as well as race and class business. The initiative also claims to be “reforming capitalism” and that the alleged lack of emphasis on ESG causes creates “systematic risks” for investors and financial managers. The PDI has a stated policy of hiring and promoting staff on the basis of race and other characteristics, and has indicated that its end result is a team with demographics that comply with left-progressive race and gender ideology. ⁸

1. “Delilah Rothenberg.” CFA Society New York. Accessed March 20, 2022. https://www.cfany.org/speaker-organizer/delilah-rothenberg/
2. Delilah Rothenberg. LinkedIn. Accessed March 20, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/delilah-rothenberg/
3. For The Long Term. Accessed March 20, 2022.

   https://www.forthelongterm.org/

4. Delilah Rothenberg. “Why the SEC should consider corporate and investor ESG disclosures.” Thompson Reuters Foundation News. July 19, 2021. Accessed March 20, 2022. https://news.trust.org/item/20210719165818-g9ylw/
5. Delilah Rothenberg. LinkedIn. Accessed March 20, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/delilah-rothenberg/
6. “Former Bear Stearns Fund Managers Arrested.” National Public Radio. June 20, 2008. Accessed March 20, 2022. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91724580
7. Delilah Rothenberg. LinkedIn. Accessed March 20, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/delilah-rothenberg/
8. “Overview.” The Predistribution Initiative.” Accessed March 20, 2022. https://predistributioninitiative.org/about