How did you start down this career path?
A couple of my family members were already in the financial services industry, which led me to studying commerce at university. Early in my career, I realised I wanted to focus on investments and moved into an equities research role at a broking firm and completed the CFA exams. I have since worked for a range of organisations from global investment banks to family-owned investment businesses, which has provided me with broad experience. I have been fortunate to be part of the U Ethical team for over eight years now and work with some great colleagues.
What inspires you in your role/industry? Why?
Working for an investment manager that is a social enterprise and contributes the majority of their operating surplus to support community programs inspires me. It is also great to see significant industry collaboration to address major social and environmental issues such as modern slavery and climate change. I believe collective action drives more significant change on these issues than investment managers or asset owners engaging by themselves.
What's your approach to customer service that separates you from the rest?
U Ethical has a long history as an ethical investment manager managing funds since 1985 and listens to clients and other stakeholders on what ethical issues are important to them. This distinguishes us from many other investment managers that have recently added responsible investment or ESG strategies and this is not core to their business.
How do you innovate and stay ahead of industry trends?
Responsible investment continues to evolve, so it is vital to stay on top of industry trends. As such we are always looking for ways that we can improve our investment process. Ongoing training and development are strongly supported by U Ethical. This could be done in a range of ways formal courses, external research, investor days, company meetings, conferences, webinars, industry events or participating in working groups through organisations such as the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA) or the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).
What is the toughest challenge you've faced in your role? How did you overcome it?
The start of the global pandemic was challenging given a huge disruption to the way we worked together as an investment team and a dynamic investment environment. However, it was incredible how quickly U Ethical (and other organisations) were able to adapt through better use of technology and changing the work patterns to deal with the circumstances. Better sharing of information and regular communication between team members helped the U Ethical team get through this period.
What are some of your goals for the next 5 years?
We want U Ethical to continue to be an ethical investment leader and deliver strong investment returns for our clients. We also want to be able to step up stewardship activities in a focussed way. When we see larger listed companies adopt better policies and approaches on key social and environmental this will be beneficial to the broader community.
To learn more visit: https://uethical.com/
