Investment Consultant Mercer expands Responsible Investment team with six hires
Originally reported in Pensions Week 14th January 2008. Article by Hannah Williams.
Mercer has created the largest dedicated responsible investment consultancy team, following the appointment of six sustainability specialists. The analysts, who will join the company's advisory teams across the globe, have been recruited to cope with a growing demand from pension funds seeking advice on sustainability issues.
Danyelle Guyatt, principal on Mercer's responsible investment team, said "We have seen significant growth in demand from both [the UN] principles for responsible investment (PRI) signatories and other pension fund investors. A number of trustees have had a belief about responsible investment for some time, but have not decided a process of implementation. A lot of our work is to help direct that development.
Eric Gelfgren, formerly head of marketing and sales for Sustainable Asset Management, joins the group's European team as a principal, supported by Susanna Jacobson, who takes up the post of responsible investment analyst. Both Gelfgren and Jacobson will initially replace Emma Hunt, who is taking maternity leave.
Guyatt said "The PRI has had a contribution in growing demand in terms of providing a framework for asset managers in thinking about how they are going to implement responsible beliefs into the investment process." She added it was no longer just listed equity markets that were subject to responsible scrutiny, but a growing number of alternative asset classes, such as infrastructure, private equity and property.
The appointments take the number of members in Mercer's responsible investment team to 14, following six hires in 2007.
Jane Ambachtsheer, global head of responsible investment at the company, said "This growth reflects the extent to which responsible investment is evolving - from a niche area to one of our core lines of business."
The other appointments include Jordon Berger and Kelly Gauthier in Toronto, Xinting Jia in Melbourne and Meguimi Terayama in Tokyo. Alongside consultancy work, the team will be working on a major research project into climate change and the effect it will have on pension fund investments based on the model drawn up by Nicolas Stern.