Meketa - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

Meketa is Medium Risk.

Meketa is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes. Meketa occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Medium Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	Lower Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	Lower Risk
Political Actions	No Data

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Meketa is a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment, incorporating ESG issues into investment analysis, decision-making, and other business practices (1)(2). However, the company has not publicly canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (3).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Meketa does not appear to discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs. The company’s charitable giving includes “Habitat for Humanity, the Surfrider Foundation, and Feeding America” (1)(2).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Meketa offers anti-racist and DEIB training to its employees (1). The company appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its recruitment and promotions. From its 2023 CRS Report: “Meketa embraces diversity across our workforce, through recruiting, career development, and retention” (2). From its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion page: “While Meketa has for many years been among the industry leaders in promoting DEI initiatives, we recognize this is an ongoing effort” (3). The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (4).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Meketa is a signatory to the CFA Institute’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Code, indicating its support of DEI in its recruitment, hiring, onboarding, and promotions. Furthermore, the company pledges to integrate DEI into its policies, promote DEI in the investment industry, and provide regular reporting on its DEI metrics to the CFA Institute (1)(2)(3). Meketa’s CEOs Stephen McCourt and Peter Woolley signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, which includes a commitment to promote DEI through bias education training in the workplace (4)(5). The company is a member of TOIGO, an organization committed to diversity in finance (6)(7). The company is a founding member of the Institutional Investing Diversity Cooperative, committing itself to specific actions that advance DEI within the governance and policies of the organization and the private equity industry more broadly (8)(9). The company is committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. It also supports DEI within its business practices, employing a DEI Committee (10). In 2020, the company launched a DEI questionnaire to gather data and evaluate how asset managers integrate DEI into their companies (11).