15 July 2022 – Impact Investing Adopters Forum all-stakeholder online event with the Impact Investing Institute, Redington and Tikehau Capital

From 'can’ to ‘should’: language matters when it comes to impact investing for pension funds.

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Pension funds should integrate impact when they invest – for risk, return and diversification reasons; however, language, perception and interdisciplinary confusion are big barriers.

Bella Landymore, of the Impact Investing Institute, touched upon how the understanding of fiduciary duty remains a blocker for pension schemes to invest with impact and how it could be reformed to facilitate this.

Charlotte O’Leary, of Pensions for Purpose, then hosted a discussion with Anastasia Guha from Redington and Simon Males from Tikehau Capital on where the barriers and solutions lie. If we have managed to convince the Investment Consultants Sustainability Working Group and many of the investment consultant and fiduciary managers to adopt the Impact Investing Principles for Pensions – the very people most pension funds rely on for investment advice – why is this still seen as out of scope for many schemes?

Who was this event for?

Anyone involved in the governance of pension funds or other asset pools at a Trustee Board or executive level either as a decision-maker or as a practitioner.

Speaker biographies

Bella Landymore, Policy Director, Impact Investing Institute

Bella LandymoreBella started working for the Impact Investing Institute as Policy Director at its launch in November 2019. She is a member of the Executive Committee and leads several of the Institute’s projects, particularly in the areas of policy, regulation, and pensions.

Bella joined the Institute from the UK government’s Inclusive Economy Unit, where she was a Senior Policy Advisor on impact investing. In this role, her projects included the Law Commission’s review of pension funds and social investment, and the subsequent policy and regulatory changes, and the Implementation Taskforce on growing a culture of social impact investing in the UK.

Bella started her career in the charity sector before joining UBS Investment Bank, where she worked in New York and London, latterly as an Associate Director for their equities trading business.

Anastasia Guha, Global Head of Sustainable Investment, Redington

Anastasia GuhaAnastasia is responsible for leading the firm’s global sustainability strategy. She joined Redington in June 2021. She is a sustainable investment specialist with over 15 years’ experience, 10 of which were at the United Nations-supported Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI), where her most recent role was as Director of Northern Europe Middle East and Africa, leading a team supporting over 200 asset owners in their implementation of ESG criteria in investment strategy, allocations, and stewardship decisions. Prior to the PRI she has worked at Euromoney Institutional Investor and Fidelity. She sits on the Advisory Group at Pensions for Purpose and is a working group member on the Glasgow Financial Alliance on Net Zero (GFANZ).

Simon Males, Executive Director and Head of UK Institutional Business, Tikehau Capital

Simon MalesSimon is Executive Director and Head of UK Institutional Business at Tikehau Capital, the €35.5bn global alternative asset management group. Simon has over three decades’ experience working within the UK institutional market, including leadership roles at global asset management firms such as Legal & General Investment Management, PGIM, Pictet Asset Management and F&C (BMO).

More recently, he founded Carrick Roads Capital Limited, an institutional consulting and capital-raising firm. Simon is a member of the Board of AIMSE Europe and has previously been a member of its Advisory Council since 2013. He is also a serving Trustee and Board Director of two UK Charities (North London Hospice and The Pemberton-Barnes Trust) and has previously served as a Trustee of a £130m UK Defined Benefit corporate pension plan.

Simon holds an MBA from London Metropolitan University and several Professional Qualifications, including the IMC.

Impact Investing Adopters Forum

The Impact Investing Adopters Forum is a member forum of pension funds, investment consultants and fiduciary managers at the forefront of sustainable finance. Adopters have committed to the Impact Investing Institute’s Impact Investing Principles – and advancing the impact investing agenda. The Forum is run by Pensions for Purpose in partnership with the Impact Investing Institute to advance the principles, share best practice and encourage more pension funds to invest with a positive social and environmental impact. The forum is sponsored by Tikehau Capital.

To join the Impact Investing Adopters Forum please email Charlotte O’Leary.

Pensions for Purpose

Pensions for Purpose exists as a bridge between asset managers, pension funds and their professional advisers, to encourage the flow of capital towards impact investment. Our aim is to empower pension funds to seek positive impact opportunities and mitigate negative impact risks.

For more information, please email Charlotte O’Leary.