Our firm’s President and CIO - Equities, who is also a board member of the firm is the chair of our ESG Advisory Committee and has ultimate responsibility for oversight/accountability for our responsible investment practices. He is joined in the ESG Advisory Committee by senior executives whose functions are critical to overseeing and implementing our RI and ESG policies and practices including:
- Head of Global Equity Research
- Manager of External Research
- Head of Investment Grade Research and Cash/Short Duration Credit
- Head of Non-Investment Grade Credit Research
- Head of Corporate Social Responsibility
- Head of EMEA and Latin America
- Global Head of Marketing and Client Service
- Global Head of RFP, Marketing
- Principal, Private Equity
- Associate General Counsel
- And key portfolio managers who are leaders in the ESG/SRI fields (Co-Head of SRI Group, Co-Head of our Emerging Markets Debt Group)
The committee meets on an ongoing basis to discuss/review our firm-wide strategy of RI implementation and each member is responsible for cascading this strategy and carrying it out in his/her division whether it be research, client service, portfolio management, proxy voting , etc.
We made a conscious decision not to compartmentalize or isolate the function to one staff or department so that the opportunity and responsibility can be shared by a number of key players who are integral to our investment process.
In 2016 we felt it was important to form an ESG Working Group with representation across Research, Strategy, Marketing and Client Service and Product Management to discuss ESG related topics in depth and present findings to the ESG Advisory Committee as needed. The ESG Working Group meets bi-monthly or more frequently as needed and develops framework for ESG topics and works on related projects to maintain our momentum on our ESG goals as a firm.