This week, Financial News spotlighted the top leaders in European finance. The list featured 82 names from investment banking, asset management, law, accountancy, hedge funds, exchanges, trading firms, crypto and financial regulation.
Six hailed from the sustainable finance industry, including Steve Waygood, Aviva Investors’ chief sustainable finance officer, and Impax boss Ian Simm.
Not only have they led impressive careers and been genuine champions for sustainability, but they’ve also made some big accomplishments this year, despite a brutal time for the sector.
Catherine Howarth, CEO of ShareAction, kept up the pressure on the biggest global companies on issues spanning climate change and workers’ rights.
Representatives from the responsible investing charity rocked up to Barclays’ AGM in Glasgow to demand the lender stop bankrolling fracking projects, and led calls at Deliveroo’s AGM in the City for higher pay for its food delivery riders.
Peter Hugh Smith, CCLA Investment Management’s chief executive, also mobilised major investors on critical ESG issues, going toe-to-toe with Amazon following allegations the company was trying to prevent workers at its facility in Coventry from unionising.
Hugh Smith also made headlines for shunning Shein’s potential IPO on the London Stock Exchange, arguing that it risks making the UK “the market of last resort”.
Karin van Baardwijk, Robeco’s CEO, carried on with the Dutch asset manager’s UK expansion plans, including bolstering its ETF business.
Robeco has applied for a “fully fledged” asset management licence in the UK in a bid to attract a wider range of talent, particularly on the investment side.
Financial Conduct Authority ESG frontman Sacha Sadan also made the cut this year.
It was a make or break moment for the ex-Legal & General Investment Management stewardship boss as his major project, the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements, finally came to fruition.
Although it has been a less than auspicious start for SDR, with only two funds adopting one of the regulator’s green fund labels, initial feedback from the industry has been more positive than negative, and it’s still very early days.
Goodbye, for now
Now for some professional news. This will be the last Sustainable Finance newsletter I write for FN, which, after careful consideration, we have decided to wind down.
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Before anyone gets any ideas, let me set the record straight. This is not because of the anti-ESG backlash; ESG has gotten a bad rap over the past few years, but institutional money has been slowly but surely returning to green funds.
FN will be bolstering its coverage of the European wealth management industry, which is enjoying a renaissance, over the coming months.
I’ll be spearheading this initiative and putting together a dedicated wealth management newsletter when we go live on 4 November.
This is truly a bittersweet moment for me. I launched FN’s Sustainable Finance newsletter a few weeks after joining the paper in September 2022.
The lead story on my first installment was about how Liz Truss’s fossil fuel push risked creating complacency among the City’s top investors on tackling the climate crisis.
This led to a scoop about Schroders quietly excluding thermal coal companies from its portfolios.
Since then, I have written about a swathe of fascinating topics from bosses linking bonuses to ESG, how the City is tackling menopause, the shaky start for the FCA’s ESG labelling regime and Abrdn’s sustainability team overhaul. Subscribers to this newsletter have doubled from where they started.
While I am sad to say goodbye to my weekly Sustainable Finance newsletter, I am excited to embark on a new chapter at FN.
There is so much happening in the wealth management industry. From Consumer Duty to rampant M&A and AI disruption, it’s a veritable smorgasbord of exciting stories to sink my teeth into.
For me, this is also a homecoming of sorts. Prior to joining FN, I covered the UK wealth market for over six years, so I’m very much looking forward to reconnecting with some old industry pals and making new connections too.
To my readers, I want to say a huge thank you. Your support and feedback over these past two years means more than you know.
I hope that you will consider coming along for the ride and subscribing to my new Wealth Management newsletter.
I can guarantee you I will still be writing about sustainable finance and diversity… just in a slightly different context.
Until then, this is FN’s ESG correspondent signing off.
Write to Kristen McGachey at kristen.mcgachey@dowjones.com
