ESG Investor’s weekly round-up of new hires in the sustainable investing sector.
Rathbone Funds has appointed Rahab Paracha as a Sustainable Multi-Asset Investment Specialist for the Rathbone Greenbank Multi-Asset Portfolios, reporting to Craig Brown and Kate Elliot. Brown is Senior Investment Specialist and Elliot is the Deputy Head of Ethical, Sustainable and Impact Research at Rathbone Greenbank Investments. Rahab, who joins from HSBC Global Asset Management, will be responsible for client relationship management and communication.
Global asset manager BlackRock has appointed Geir Espeskog and Emily Woodland as co-heads of Blackrock Sustainable Investing (BSI) for the Asia-Pacific region. Espeskog takes on the role in addition to running BlackRock’s iShares Asia Pacific Distribution team, while Woodland joins from AMP Capital, where she was Head of Sustainable Investment and Global Public Markets. Based in Hong Kong, they are succeeding Thomas Fekete, previously Head of Sustainable Investment Solutions for both EMEA and Asia Pacific, who will now focus solely on sustainable investment for EMEA.
Hedge fund Bridgewater Associates has appointed two Co-CIOs to lead its newly launched sustainable investing venture. Karen Karnoil-Tambour and Carsten Stendevad will be overseeing the design and implementation of investment solutions for clients focuses on meeting sustainability targets alongside financial performance. Karnoil-Tambour, who was previously Bridgewater’s Head of Investment Research, will remain a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. “Building portfolios that seek to deliver on both financial and sustainability objectives is not trivial, and requires a rigorous and systematic approach to embedding sustainability throughout the entire investment process. Karnoil-Tambour and I are excited to partner on deploying capital in this direction,” Stendevad said.
UK-based Equitile Investments has appointed Sylvia Solomon as Director of ESG & Business Development. Joining with 30 years of investment experience, Solomon has managed investment funds at Barings and Hermes. Most recently, was Head of Product Development at Gulf International Bank and is currently Chair of the ESG panel at the CFA Society UK. As Chair of CFA Society UK, she assisted in the design, development and launch of its Certificate in ESG Investing, which is the first professional qualification of its kind. “Solomon joining the team is going to help us further upgrade our ESG progress, making it more rigorous and better communicated. It’s great to have her on the team,” said George Cooper, Equitile’s CIO.
Canada’s Mackenzie Investments has appointed Andrew Simpson as Senior Vice-President and Portfolio Manager. Simpson will lead the firm’s sustainable investing boutique and will emphasise best-in-class ESG analysis. Most recently, he served as Director for Investment Management at Vancouver-based Vancity Investment Management. Mackenzie recently acquired Toronto-based environmental investment firm Greenchip Financial.
