Clean Yield Staff

Shelley Alpern, Dir. of Social Research & Advocacy

Shelley joined Clean Yield as director of social research and advocacy in the fall of 2012.

A shareholder advocate for nearly two decades at Trillium Asset Management, Shelley led and participated in numerous advocacy campaigns, many leading to negotiated agreements with leading corporations. She has worked on a wide range of issues, including greenhouse gas emissions, corporate political spending, hydrofracking, LGBT workplace policies, and disclosure of equal employment data.

For her efforts in promoting inclusive nondiscrimination policies, she was recognized by the Gay Financial Network and Fortune magazine as one of the 25 most powerful lesbians and gay men in business in 2002 and by the Advocate magazine as “one of our best and brightest activists” in 1999. Her work on phthalates was recognized by the Silent Spring Institute in 2005 with the first ever Rachel Carson Award.

Shelley graduated the University of Pennsylvania some time in the last century, and later earned her master’s degree in public affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. She worked in the nonprofit sector in between, seeing it as a great way to earn the big bucks necessary to pay for graduate school.

Shelley lives in Salem, Massachusetts with her wife, Marjorie Kelly, where she gardens, cooks, home-schools a couple of cats, and will one day achieve physical fitness.

Eric Becker, Portfolio Manager

Eric is Clean Yield’s chief investment officer, overseeing our firm’s portfolio-management discipline.

Almost from the time he graduated from college in 1991, Eric has been engaged in social and environmental investing. He joined Clean Yield in 2009 after sixteen years as an equity analyst and portfolio manager for Trillium Asset Management in Boston. Rising to vice president, Eric was the lead portfolio manager of the $45 million Green Century Balanced Fund and the leader of Trillium’s small-mid cap and sustainable opportunities equity strategies as well as Trillium Sustainable Ventures, its private equity initiative.

Eric holds a B.A. in Comparative Religion from Haverford College and a Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the CFA Institute.

A proponent of sustainable agriculture, Eric is a founding member of the Slow Money Alliance, a network of investors, farmers and activists, and a founding board member of The Carrot Project, a sustainable agriculture finance organization. He is also senior fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program.

Eric and his two children live in Strafford, Vermont, where Eric enjoys beekeeping, birding, live music, and Patrick O’Brian novels.

Rian F. Fried, Portfolio Manager

Rian is a cofounder of the Clean Yield organization and president of Clean Yield Group, Inc.

Prior to founding the Clean Yield in 1984, Rian was the director of the Brockton Regional Economic Development Corporation. His employment history includes positions as the director of an agency that coordinated and funded economic data research projects, and six years in community action and social work positions.

Rian holds a master’s degree from Harvard University and a bachelor of arts from the University of Michigan. He has managed equity portfolios for more than twenty-five years.

Rian has served as a selectman in Stannard, Vermont, and is currently chair of the Planning Commission. He is also an elected justice of the peace. He has served on the board of the Vermont Community Loan Fund and many other boards of directors. He is currently on the board of Sterling College and the advisory board of People’s United Bank’s Socially Responsible Banking Fund. He also contributes financial columns to local and national newspapers and newsletters.

Rian’s hobbies include cross-country and downhill skiing, cooking, and historic preservation. He was born on March 2, 1948, and lives in Stannard, Vermont, with his wife, Rachel. They have one daughter, Dorigen.

Elizabeth Glenshaw, Portfolio Manager

Elizabeth is Clean Yield’s Managing Director. She came to us with 25 years of experience in SRI. Elizabeth started her career crafting a community-banking program for a Vermont bank that focused on ensuring access to credit for low-wealth communities. Subsequently, she worked for two SRI asset-management companies, managing portfolios for clients who wished to integrate their social values with their financial objectives. Elizabeth’s last position was with the Calvert Foundation, which assists non-profits in low-wealth and impoverished communities. She was instrumental in growing the organization from six to 38 employees, with a loan portfolio of $200 million.

In 1993, Elizabeth was first elected to the board of the Social Investment Forum, our industry’s trade association. She served for 14 years, several as VP. Currently, she is president of the board of the Vermont Community Loan Fund, serves as an advisor to Vermont’s largest bank, the Chittenden Bank, and is VP of the board of the Upper Valley Rowing Foundation. She also has an advisory seat with the Upper Valley Region of New Hampshire Charitable Trust.

Elizabeth received a BA from Marlboro College and is a graduate of the National Graduate Trust School at Northwestern University. She also has a degree in financial planning from Boston University. Elizabeth loves most sports and competes nationally in rowing. She and her husband Peter are raising three children in Lyme, NH.

Dorigen Hofmann, Portfolio Manager

Dorigen is a portfolio manager operating out of the Clean Yield office in Washington, D.C.

Immediately prior to joining Clean Yield in 2006, Dorigen was an assistant attorney general for the State of Washington. At the attorney general’s office, she worked on litigation and client advice regarding natural resource management, land use, real estate, public records, and administrative procedures. She has also spent time in Beijing working on land development issues, and she worked for a variety of U.S.-based environmental nonprofits and government agencies.

Dorigen has over 20 years of experience with Clean Yield, although most have been as a volunteer. The daughter of co-founder Rian Fried, her first job, at age seven, was licking stamps and sealing envelopes for the Clean Yield newsletter. Her investment interests vary widely, but she is particularly interested in community investing and the powerful impact it can have on communities around the world.

Dorigen holds a juris doctor from the University of Washington and a bachelor of arts from Washington University in St. Louis. She resides in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Jon. She can frequently be found cross-country or downhill skiing, hiking, tap dancing, gardening, and playing ultimate frisbee.

Valerie Martin, Office Associate

Valerie is Clean Yield’s office operations associate, based in our Norwich, Vermont office. She brings to Clean Yield a longtime personal commitment to leading a sustainable lifestyle both at home and at work.

Valerie combines an extensive administrative/operations background with strong graphic design experience. She came to us most recently from Tele Atlas, a digital mapping and navigation solutions company, where her role was to provide sales & training support to staff, including the managers of sales-forecasting and training. Prior to that, she honed her graphic design skills at Orvis, the sports-equipment company, where she helped design the catalogue.

Moving to this area nearly a dozen years ago, Valerie eventually settled in Lebanon, NH, with her partner Dennis and her two children. Outside of work, Valerie is active with the a cappella group Harmony Night. Never shy of interesting things to do, she also enjoys riding her motorcycle, gardening, reading, crocheting, hiking, sailing, cooking with her daughter, and watching her son play sports.

Valerie received a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with a major in Graphic Design, from the University of Connecticut.