People moves

Redwheel makes two sustainability hires

Olivia Seddon-Daines joins from Somerset Capital Management and Katherine Velasquez Rodriguez from La Française Group

Redwheel (formerly RWC Partners) has expanded its sustainability team with two hires.

Olivia Seddon-Daines joins from Somerset Capital Management as senior sustainability specialist and will work with Redwheel’s investment teams to support training and development relating to stewardship and ESG integration, having oversight of related communications.

She has spent the past two and a half years at Somerset, joining the emerging markets boutique shortly after founding partner Jacob Rees-Mogg stepped down to join Boris Johnson’s cabinet.

Katherine Velasquez Rodriguez joins from La Française Group as responsible investment associate. She will focus on the identification and development of portfolio analysis tools and techniques to support responsible investment in practice.

Both join head of sustainability Chris Anker, who said: “With highly complementary skill sets and backgrounds, Olivia and Katherine are important hires for Redwheel, and bring to a close the first phase of our work to build a team devoted to collaboration, implementation and reporting of our responsible investment activities across our client portfolios.  I look forward to working with them both and, together, to delivering better outcomes for our clients.”  

AXA hires head of D&I

Amit Singh will work on the firm's global strategy

AXA Investment Managers has appointed Amit Singh as head of inclusion, diversity and engagement.

Based in London, Singh is responsible for driving the design, development, implementation and evaluation of AXA IM’s inclusion and diversity strategy globally. He reports to Pascale Demont, global head of talent and transformation.

Singh has been with AXA IM since July 2015 where he was head of human resources for Asia and Japan. He began his career at AIESEC in 2002 where he was responsible for the functioning and management of the international internship programme, first at a country level in New Zealand and Slovakia and later at a global level in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In 2005, he joined DHL as global diversity assistant in Bonn, Germany and worked in a number of roles including senior HR analyst for the Asia Pacific region, head of talent management for India and head of HR for Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and director of HR performance and programs for Asia Pacific from 2013 to 2015.

Aviva replaces governance committee member with Tumelo CEO

Georgia Stewart joins as a non-independent member

Aviva has appointed Tumelo CEO Georgia Stewart to its Independent Governance Committee (IGC).

Stewart, who replaces Robert Talbut, joins as a non-independent member due to Aviva’s partnership with pension engagement company Tumelo.

Emma Douglas, director of workplace savings and retirement at Aviva said: “Stewart’s passion for ESG and member engagement will help the IGC monitor Aviva’s ambitious net-zero carbon targets, both from a corporate and an investment perspective.”

Stewart added: “I am delighted to join Aviva’s Independent Governance Committee. I am passionate about ESG, stewardship and the representation of member voices in these forums. I also believe that the pension industry still has much to learn from the rapid change undertaken across the fintech sector such as transparency and connectivity initiatives like open banking or communication and behavioural science techniques like personalisation and gamification. I hope my background will bring a new facet to this committee as we undertake a holistic value for money assessment on behalf of the members we represent.”

Aviva hires co-manager for climate fund

Andrea Carzana joins from Columbia Threadneedle

Aviva Investors has hired Andrea Carzana to co-manage the Aviva Investors Climate Transition Global Equity Fund (CTGE).

Carzana joins Aviva from Columbia Threadneedle where he was an equities fund manager for ESG and sustainable outcome strategies. Based in London, he will work alongside Max Burns, co-manager of the fund since July 2021, and senior ESG analyst and climate specialist Rick Stathers.

Alistair Way, head of equities at Aviva Investors, said: “Carzana brings extensive experience in sustainable outcomes, including climate strategies. He will be a great addition and will further enhance our existing capabilities in sustainable outcomes as we continue to work with our clients to support the transition to a low carbon economy.”

Jupiter hires sustainability head from HSBC AM

Sandra Carlisle has worked in responsible investing for 16 years

Jupiter has hired Sandra Carlisle from HSBC Asset Management to a new role as head of sustainability.

Leaving her position as global ESG lead for the institutional business, which she has held since 2017, Carlisle will now head up Jupiter’s new corporate sustainability area, responsibly for rolling out the firm’s sustainability strategy across the business.

Carlisle has worked in responsible investing for 16 years, three in the board of the UN PRI, as well as heading up responsible investment at Newton Investment Management. 

Andrew Formica, CEO of Jupiter, said: “Sandra’s appointment signals our desire to continue to build and deliver a competitive and compelling offering in this crucially important area.

“I am very proud of what we have achieved to date and look forward to Sandra’s arrival and an exciting path ahead as the corporate sustainability team take us to the next level of further integrating our core principles throughout the business.”

Search ESG Clarity