F&C ASSET MANAGEMENT The Most Reverend Justin Welby joins as President, with five other members
LONDON, 12 February 2015 - F&C Investments is pleased to announce that its new Responsible Investment Advisory Council is complete with six experts in ethics and sustainability appointed to advise F&C on these issues. The creation of the Council follows the re-launch of F&C's market- leading Responsible Investment capability in 2014, which brought together F&C's broad range of products and services to meet an increasing demand for responsible investment solutions.The Council will help F&C maintain the integrity of the standards by which the ethically-screened funds in its Responsible Fund range are run by providing advice on ethical and sustainability criteria. It consists of six experts who are leaders in their fields and bring international experience across responsible investment, environmental, social and ethical issues:
The Most Reverend Justin Welby joins the Council as President. He was Chair of the previous Committee of Reference, which advised the F&C Responsible Funds range until the end of 2014. Justin became the Archbishop of Canterbury in March 2013. Prior to the church, Justin spent 11 years in the oil industry.
Howard Pearce is Chair of the Council, as announced in October 2014, and will chair each quarterly meeting. Mr. Pearce is a leading figure in the responsible investment world. Between 2003 and 2013 he was the Head of Pension Fund Management for the Environment Agency Pension Fund (EAPF) and an advisor to its Pensions and Investment Committees. He now runs his own consultancy, HowESG Ltd.
Rosey Hurst joins the Council and is an expert in labour standards. Ms. Hurst was one of the founders of Sedex, the responsible supply chain initiative which now counts more than
36,000 members. She is also the Founding Director of Impactt, a supply chain consultancy.
She has conducted extensive international fieldwork in Bangladesh, China and India.
Annemieke Wijn, based in Germany, was a pioneer for sustainable sourcing standards in the coffee industry in which she spent the majority of her career since 1976. Ms. Wijn is now active in NGO board positions, including most notably the Rainforest Alliance.
Ylva Lindberg was a member of the Council on Ethics for the Norwegian Pension Fund for five years and brings a deep understanding of the complexities in assessing companies' performance against ethical standards. Ms. Lindberg has more than fifteen years of business experience and is the founding partner of SIGLA, providing sustainability consulting services to Nordic corporations.
Martin Smith is part of F&C's Executive Management Committee and Head of Product Management. Mr. Smith joined F&C in 2001 as a UK equity fund manager, later becoming Head of Equity Research and then Head of Specialist Equities.
www.fandc.com
"My role and that of the Council's is to ensure the responsible investment fund range remains true to the spirit of its underlying principles," said Justin Welby, President, F&C's Responsible Investment Advisory Council. "I am particularly pleased to continue my involvement with F&C, and have seen from my previous experience how the fund range has benefited from the rigour and expertise of the Governance and Sustainable Investment team.
"In the 30 years since F&C launched Europe's first responsible investment fund, new ethical and sustainability issues have emerged and evolved, and investment criteria must continue to develop also. The way people's pensions and savings are managed should not be isolated from their personal values," Justin continued.
"We are delighted to have such high-calibre experts on board to create a strong F&C Responsible Investment Advisory Council, including Justin Welby as president. Together they bring international experience and in-depth understanding of emerging environmental, social and ethical issues. We welcome their support in ensuring F&C and our fund range remain at the forefront of responsible investment, and continue to meet the demand of investors who are increasingly seeking solutions and products in this area."
F&C's Responsible Fund range includes a broad range of investment options, from ethically- screened UK and global equity offerings through to thematic funds, screened fixed income and sustainability-orientated emerging market equities.
The new fund names are as follows:
ENDSNew name |
OEICs |
F&C Responsible UK Equity Growth Fund |
F&C Responsible UK Income Fund |
F&C Responsible Sterling Bond Fund |
F&C Responsible Global Equity Fund |
SICAVs |
F&C Responsible Global Equity |
F&C Responsible Sharia Global Equity |
Commingled (Cayman) |
F&C Responsible Emerging Markets Equity ESG Fund |
F&C Responsible Emerging Markets Equity ESG Screened Fund |
www.fandc.com
F&C is focused exclusively on managing money for its clients. It manages assets for a combination of insurance clients, institutional investors, intermediaries and private individuals. F&C invests across all major asset classes - equities, fixed income and property - and has specialist expertise in asset allocation, alternative investments, liability driven investments, multi-manager, private equity funds and Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) Investing. The F&C Group includes F&C REIT, a global real estate asset manager.
F&C has a rich heritage that dates back almost 150 years and can be traced back to the founding in
1868 of the Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust.
F&C is a part of BMO Global Asset Management, a global investment manager delivering service excellence from 24 offices in 14 countries to clients across five continents. BMO Global Asset Management had approximately US$272 billion in assets under management, as of October 31,
2014. BMO Global Asset Management is a part of BMO Financial Group (NYSE:BMO), a fully diversified financial services organisation with C$522 billion total assets and more than 47,000 employees as of October 31, 2014.
Past performance should not be seen as an indication of future performance. The value of investments and income derived from them can go down as well as up as a result of market or currency movements and investors may not get back the original amount inve sted. The information, opinions estimates or forecasts contained in this document were obtained from sources reasonably believed to be reliable and are subject to change at any time. F&C Group Companies may from time to time deal in investments mentioned herein on behalf of their clients. The source of information in all graphs is F&C unless otherwise stated. F&C Management Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority FRN: 119230 F&C Management Limited is a member of the F&C Group. The F&C Group is wholly owned by BMO Global Asset Management (Europe) Limited, which is itself a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Montreal. F&C, the F&C logo, REO and the 'reo' logo are registered trademarks of F&C Asset Management plc. F&C Investments and the F&C Investments logo are trademarks of F&C Management Limited. © Copyright F&C Management Limited 2014. All Rights Reserved. Neither this document nor any part of it may be reproduced by any party whether by photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means or otherwise without the prior approval of F&C Management Limited.
F&C Management Ltd accepts no liability in respect of the information or any views expressed herein which may be subject to c hange without notice at any time.
-30- Media Contacts:
Richard Janes
Director, Communications Richard.janes@fandc.comTel: +44 (0) 20 7011 4298
fandc.sc@fticonsulting.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727 1888
www.fandc.com
|
distributed by
|
