Redwheel has poached Somerset Capital Management’s ESG boss Olivia Seddon-Daines for its budding sustainability business.
Seddon-Daines, who joins as a senior sustainability specialist, is one of two new hires for Redwheel, with Katharine Velasquez Rodriguez coming on board as a responsible investment associate.
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.
At Redwheel, she will work closely with the investment teams to support training and development relating to stewardship and ESG integration and will have oversight of related communications.
Meanwhile, Velasquez Rodriguez will focus on identifying and developing portfolio analysis tools and techniques to support Redwheel’s responsible investment in practice. She was previously an ESG quantitative analyst at La Française Group.
Redwheel said the appointments mark the next phase of recruitment for its centralised sustainable investment proposition. The team was formed a little over a year ago, when Columbia Threadneedle’s Chris Anker came across to the business.
“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,” Anker said. “I look forward to working with them both and, together, to delivering better outcomes for our clients.”
Prioritising sustainability is one of several strategic changes at the 20-year old asset manager. Earlier this year, it shed its RWC Partners moniker as part of a visual rebrand, including a new website launch.
