Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Persuasive and meticulous, I am an insightful and client-facing sustainable investment analyst with 19 years’ international experience driving performance and growth in market share for equity investment and commodities trading specialists. My detailed grasp of performance drivers with particular expertise in climate and sustainability considerations, including reporting under the FCA’s SDR and TCFD frameworks, is complemented by the proven ability to engage effectively with a range of stakeholders on investment strategies and evolving market opportunities. In my role at Baillie Gifford as their sustainability expert, I guided investment decisions and ensured we obtained the FCA’s SDR ‘Focus’ label for the flagship, $1.5BN Sustainable Growth portfolio. I also engaged with the senior leadership teams of portfolio companies to assess and challenge on governance quality and energy transition / climate strategy credibility. As a thought leader, I educated clients and colleagues on regulatory changes and trained juniors on the integration of sustainability into broader risk analysis, as well as raising ESG literacy across the investment teams. My breadth of experience includes much broader Global Equity Analysis from five years at Walter Scott & Partners, in addition to years in commodity trading, notably with Trafigura in Geneva and Singapore. As well as demonstrating my adaptability and talent for quickly adding value, these experiences have refined my financial literacy and enabled me to translate the impact of a range of factors into actionable insights. I am an able presenter who communicates informative narratives to stakeholders from different backgrounds and with varying technical abilities. I am valued for my ability to build consensus, engaging diplomatically with differing views and challenging established market views constructively to achieve broader buy-in to strategies and trade ideas.
Selected to drive all sustainability-related investment activity for the Sustainable Growth portfolio with AuM of $1.5BN, I led engagement with portfolio companies, ensuring investments met prescribed sustainability thresholds during the investment research process. Contributing to research, portfolio oversight and stewardship, I also oversaw all regulatory reporting requirements and liaised with other sustainability experts to design and manage sustainability framework assessments.
Recruited into the 20-person investment team, we managed $100BN across seven strategies with 90% of assets in two global funds. I contributed to all investment decisions through discussion and debate, in a firm requiring unanimous consent before final investment approval. I also independently researched and presented new ideas to the team and monitored specific investments. Additionally, I was a member of the seven-person team providing investment and portfolio construction decisions for the regional strategy.
Headhunted with a senior colleague to join the physical coal desk, I led Atlantic coverage from Geneva, then Pacific coverage from Singapore as a member of a 20-person global team. Charged with growing the business from small legacy positions and taking on appropriate risk, I travelled regularly, working with colleagues in Australia, China, Colombia, Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, SA, Turkey and the US, driven by opportunities and requirements of a global product and local supply / off-take contracts.
My early career focused on portfolio support, risk monitoring, logistics coordination and cross-product trade execution within defined risk frameworks. I managed physical coal and related financial positions across European and global markets, predominantly supplying the company’s own power plants whilst also supporting third-party utility clients. I developed a good understanding of market and macro drivers, rapidly building my commercial expertise in a highly dynamic operating environment.
Mounbatten Internship Programme, worked on the equity trading support desk.