Christine Chow joins team that has doubled in the past year as firm expands on sustainability and ESG efforts.
Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) has appointed Christine Chow as Head of Active Ownership. She will officially join the firm on 1 April from HSBC AM, where she had been Head of Stewardship since September 2021.
In her previous role, she was responsible for implementing a comprehensive stewardship programme and won the ‘Sustainable and ESG Investment’ woman of the year award. In her new role she will report to Jeroen Bos, the firm’s Global Head of Sustainable Investing.
Bos told ESG Investor that Chow “brings a wealth of experience” and will provide a stronger sense of direction to the team.
“I joined around a year ago to really accelerate sustainability at CSAM,” said Bos. “In active ownership, we already made a couple of hires last year, and now with Christine coming on board in April that team has doubled in the last 12 months.”
Bos added that Chow’s appointment will further accelerate engagement at the firm.
The growth in headcount has been accompanied by an increase in engagement-related activity. CSAM has more than doubled its voting volumes in the last two years, according to Bos, with a 75% uptick in 2022.
Chow’s experience will also be key in boosting voting and engagement across asset classes, said Bos.
The appointment of Chow is one of a series of moves to bolster CSAM’s sustainability and ESG capabilities. Along with the Active Ownership team, the firm has two other pillars: Sustainability Research and ESG Integration, headed by Dominik Scheck.
The firm recently appointed Nisha Long as Head of Sustainability Research. The purpose of this pillar is to do internal research into the sustainability angles of the companies the firm invests in across its strategies, including income and fixed equities. The firm expects to make the most hires to this team in 2023.
CSAM made one additional ESG integration hire in Q4 2022, with the firm planning on building out the team further this year. This team’s responsibilities include product development, incorporating ESG data, monitoring and compliance processes, and marketing.
“Hopefully when we look back in two years’ time, we will have seen the momentum significantly increase and we will have been able to make a positive impact for both our clients and society,” added Bos.
Previously, Chow held roles at Schroders, Aon, Federated Hermes and IHS Markit. She was an Adjunct Professor in Finance at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and is an Emeritus Governor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Currently, she is an appointed adviser to the Hong Kong Accounting and Financial Reporting Council, the independent regulator of the accounting profession.
