People Moves
First State Boosts Commitment To Responsible Investing With Senior Hires
First State Investments has appointed Will Oulton as head of responsible investment in London and Pablo Berrutti to the newly-created role of head of responsible investment for Asia-Pacific, based in Sydney.
Oulton reports to global head of product, Chris Turpin, and will be responsible for the firm’s global responsible investment strategy - with a particular focus on strengthening its responsible investment capabilities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Oulton has over 20 years of industry experience and joins from Mercer Investments London, where he was the head of responsible investment for EMEA. He is also the vice president of the European Sustainable Investment Forum and a director of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Forum.
Berrutti was formerly head of responsible investment at Perpetual in Sydney. He is also a director of the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia.
Globally, firms appear to be tapping into the responsible investment trend, evidenced by the increasing number of signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, for example.
While findings from Mercer in February highlighted that very few fund management strategies are able to boast top ESG ratings (view a related article here), a recent report from Calvert Foundation showed that a majority of advisors believe offering sustainable and impact investing services to clients could be a way of growing their businesses.
First State is the UK asset management arm of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Combined, they manage £97.6 billion (about $153 billion) in assets worldwide, as at 31 March.
