St. James’s Place has hired Andy Ford as its new head of responsible investment, joining after six years at Aviva Investors where he was head of ESG investment directors.
Ford brings 20 years of experience to the role, including time spent at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, JP Morgan Cazenove, and Standard Life Investments in addition to his time with Aviva.
Joe Wiggins, director of investment research at St. James’s Place, said: “Andy’s experience and knowledge of the sector will help to strengthen our investment research and decision making. We are committed to using our size and scale to influence positive change with our fund managers and the wider industry. Our processes continue to evolve, raising standards and identifying where we can do better to meet client needs and improve outcomes.”
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Before Ford’s appointment, Sam Turner led the responsible investment team for four years. He will remain at St. James’s Place in a “broader role in the investment product team”, but continue to oversee implementation of SDR rules and sustainable product strategy, as well as policy engagement with the industry.
“Andy is a great hire, and his experience will help progress the ESG agenda within our fund manager research and monitoring,” Turner said.
“We have made great progress over the past few years, and now is the right time to bring together our ESG policies and frameworks to be much closer to our asset class teams under Andy’s leadership.”
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Ford will report to Wiggins in his new role, and develop the ESG oversight approach for external fund managers, as well as stewardship for SJP.
“I am delighted to be joining the excellent team at SJP,” Ford said. “I look forward to working to further embed ESG into SJP’s approach to manager selection and monitoring and developing the already high standard of stewardship activity,.”
