The View From The Summit

Since 2016 I have been focusing on pure ESG research, after a 20 year career managing ESG research teams and working in business development. I am now in a sustainable investment consulting role, working principally on green real estate strategies, supporting asset management and index provider clients in London, Amsterdam, NYC and Singapore.

I was until October 2016 head of sustainability research at Group La Francaise and prior to that, managing director of Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, acquired by RiskMetrics Group in 2009, and now part of MSCI ESG Research. In that capacity, I was instrumental in building and leading the research team and expanding the market for Innovest research in the UK and continental Europe, adding 50+ clients.

During my six years at Innovest, I also led in the creation of a number of new investment products and toolkits, working with leading investment banks, pension funds and asset managers, such as USS, Henderson, HSBC, UBS, RCM, Threadneedle, BGI, Scottish Widows and Hermes.

In addition, I was fortunate enough to lead several ground-breaking advisory assignments, including the one which created the first Access to Medicine Index of global pharmaceutical companies. I also was instrumental in creating an industry-leading analytical tool for assessing companies’ performance in implementing the UN Global Compact, as well as the industry’s first sovereign risk product.

Prior to joining Innovest, I served as Managing Director at Core Ratings (a sister company to Fitch) and at PIRC, where I specialized in corporate governance, and ran a number of campaigns for the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum. I’ve worked as an environmental policy consultant for Ecotec and have industry experience at two publicly traded companies, BASF AG and Cape PLC.

I’ve enjoyed speaking at industry events including Carbon Disclosure Project launches in London and Frankfurt and have appeared on BBC News24, CNBC and Bloomberg TV, as well as running workshops on behalf of the UN Global Compact, and contributing book chapters to academic texts published by Cambridge University among others. I have a Masters in Environmental Management and an honours degree in European business studies.