The newly formed Sustainability Group will provide subject matter expertise to abrdn’s investment processes and support its sustainable investing value chain through generating insights; setting frameworks and standards; ensuring active ownership; and supporting product design and commerciality and client reporting and outcomes.

Previously Global Head of Responsible Investment, Amanda’s new role will see her sit on abrdn’s Investment Vector Executive for investments to ensure that sustainability remains core to its work, meeting clients’ needs and regulatory requirements. She will report to abrdn’s CEOs for investments, Chris Demetriou (UK, EMEA & Americas) and Rene Buehlmann (APAC).

To support her role, Amanda has made a number of key leadership appointments to the Sustainability Group, effective from 1st April:

Danielle Welsh-Rose, Head of Sustainability APAC and Head of Sustainability Specialists

In addition to taking on the newly created role of Head of Sustainability APAC, Danielle will lead the group responsible for ensuring that abrdn’s client proposition continues to evolve to meet current and future demand. She will also lead the development of abrdn’s sustainability training academy “Grow Sustainably”. Danielle sits on the Executive Leadership Team in APAC and is Head of Sustainability Institute – APAC*. Her previous role was ESG Investment Director (APAC).

Mike Everett, Head of Active Ownership

Mike will continue to lead abrdn’s Active Ownership team who work with teams across the investment vector to ensure that active ownership, including engagement and voting activities, remain at the heart of its investment process. His previous role was Head of Stewardship.

Eva Cairns, Head of Sustainability Insights and Climate Strategy

Eva’s team will lead the sustainability research, climate strategy and thought leadership for investments, through strong partnerships across abrdn. They will ensure that its research is core to sustainability standards, innovation and the client proposition. The team will continue to work with the abrdn Research Institute and across the research functions within each of the investment teams to ensure they capitalise on abrdn’s research capabilities. Eva’s previous role was Head of Climate Change Strategy.

Dan Grandage, Head of Sustainable Investing

Dan will lead efforts in building abrdn’s common approach to sustainable investing across abrdn. This will include setting the sustainability standards and building investment frameworks for the house and abrdn’s sustainability funds, with ESG integration remaining a core part of the investment process within asset classes. Dan’s previous role was Head of ESG, Real Assets in which he will still retain involvement and oversight of.

Amanda Young, chief sustainability officer, abrdn, said: “As client expectations continue to focus increasingly on material ESG matters, we must continue to evolve as an active asset manager to provide solutions which meet these expectations. As part of our on-going commitment to achieve this, and to invest sustainably, we have created the Sustainability Group which is a central component to our investment process.

“The Sustainability Group will continue to coordinate and set the abrdn house view and standards on sustainability matters including climate change, corporate governance, voting and active ownership to support the investment teams in delivering a coherent ESG integration and engagement strategy. More broadly, our strong leadership team will help drive abrdn’s Sustainable Investment approach forward, working to influence external bodies on governance, sustainability, engagement and regulatory matters.”

Brett Jollie, Managing Director, abrdn Australia, said: “At abrdn we integrate ESG considerations into every stage of our investment process, working closely with our companies, clients and regulators to help shape the world around us.

Client demand for Sustainable Investment products is evolving rapidly and The Sustainability Group will help ensure abrdn builds on its position as an ESG pioneer and market leader for the benefit of all our stakeholders.”

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Danielle Welsh-Rose,

Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) has announced its strategy to deepen its long-standing sustainability commitment in Asia Pacific, with the establishment of a new abrdn Sustainability Institute (Sustainability Institute) in the region.

As a global pioneer in sustainable investing, this initiative reinforces the company’s mission to enable its clients to be better investors, by driving sustainable investing and supporting the buildout of a resilient Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ecosystem in Asia Pacific.

ASI has almost 30 years’ track record of ESG integration. It has had sustainability resources located in Asia since 2007, currently with five dedicated ESG experts based in Singapore and Australia. The team has extensive experience in active engagement with companies and policymakers to promote ESG best practices, conducting ESG research and manufacturing ESG-embedded Asian investment strategies for its clients globally. The Sustainability Institute will further strengthen its existing regional ESG infrastructure.

As sustainable investing is gaining momentum in the region, ASI is committed to facilitating the industry’s development and directing clients’ money towards sustainable solutions. The Sustainability Institute will continue ASI’s work to proactively engage with policymakers to help shape the region’s ESG regulatory framework, support asset owners’ journey towards Net Zero, integrate ESG considerations in all investments and undertake active ownership activities. It will also develop more best-practice sustainability training and education for investors and distributors, deliver deeper Asia-centric ESG insights and utilise APAC-based resources to build a wider array of innovative sustainable investment solutions for its clients.

The Sustainability Institute will be a fully integrated sustainability innovation hub that brings together experienced ESG experts from its Asia Pacific business to drive sustainability outcomes for investors. It will comprise ESG investment professionals across asset classes and sustainability specialists from various business functions, including regulation, product development, distribution and corporate sustainability. ASI will continue to add ESG-dedicated headcounts as part of its strategy to deepen its APAC sustainability capabilities.

The Sustainability Institute will be led by Danielle Welsh-Rose, ESG Investment Director – Asia Pacific. It will be advised by a Sustainable Investment Advisory Board, chaired by its Asia Pacific CEO René Buehlmann. With one of the largest pool of ESG talents in the industry, it will also draw on the global experience of more than 30 on-desk ESG investment experts and its 20-strong Central ESG function.

René Buehlmann, Chief Executive Officer – Asia Pacific at abrdn, commented: “Asia is still far behind the rest of the world in deploying sustainable investment strategies, but is moving fast to catch up with client demand. Capitalising on our deep global and Asian ESG expertise, there is an opportunity for us to drive positive changes in the industry. Active engagement with companies, policymakers, industry partners and clients on ESG matters will be key to help build an impactful sustainable investing infrastructure in the region.”

Sustainable investing is a strategic priority for ASI. It aims to introduce a series of new sustainable and climate-focused strategies to Asian investors in the coming months. The Sustainability Institute will also work with its clients to customise sustainable solutions, enabling them to play their part in supporting the global transition to a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable low-carbon economy, whilst achieving net-zero goals.

ASI is one of the first asset managers in Asia Pacific to have fully integrated ESG considerations into its investments across all asset classes. As an active investor, over the years its Asian equity team has actively engaged with investee companies to drive better ESG standards and sustainable changes. Its partnership with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank aims to build an ESG ecosystem in emerging Asia – its Asian fixed income team has been at the forefront of leading direct issuer engagements to drive positive outcomes and enable capacity-building in the Asian credit markets to help attract ESG investments to the region.

In the private markets, ASI is a pioneer in Australia’s green infrastructure investments, having been a leading co-investor in some of the country’s first public-private partnerships for green and social financing projects that were worth over AU$3 billion.

In addition, ASI’s proprietary climate scenario analysis complements its investment team’s macro, sector and company research, providing a rigorous framework for managing climate-related financial risks and opportunities. This helps inform the fund managers’ engagement with companies on climate transition strategies, in order to build more resilient portfolios and improve long-term returns.

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Danielle Welsh-Rose,

Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) has urged Australian policy makers to increase paternity leave entitlements and reform tax for family second earners to increase the labour force participation of women and strengthen the performance of the Australian economy.

The call was made by the Aberdeen Standard Investments Research Institute (ASIRI) following the release of a research paper titled ‘A Woman’s Place; Boosting female labour-force participation to lift long-term economic growth’.

The paper is the first of five which look at the drivers of female labour force participation across 31 countries including Australia and New Zealand. It found a one-week rise in paternity leave on average increased female participation by 3%, unlocking greater human capital and improving productivity. While the benefits peaked at seven weeks, net positive effects can continue for months after, the research showed.

Stephanie Kelly, Senior Political Economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments said that similar to many other developed nations, Australia had work ahead of it to solve the problem of gender inequality in the workplace.

“There is an 11 percentage point gap in labour force participation between men and women in Australia. This is in spite of the fact that women rival and even outperform their male counterparts for average years of education, expected years of education and university enrolments,” Stephanie said.

“The stark contrast in educational attainment and participation raises the question: what can be done? Alongside changes to leave policies, we believe tax reform should be considered too. Our research found that systems that put a higher tax burden on second earners are associated with lower female labour force participation rates.

“This makes sense given women tend to be the second earners in dual income households. Australia’s tax system is set up so that second earners face higher net personal average tax rates than single earners – to the tune of about 5%. This is a clear area of opportunity, particularly because tax reform is applied by the government and so does not face the same take-up issues as leave policies.”

Stephanie added: “Women are far more likely than men to face a trade-off between paid work and unpaid work, including caring responsibilities, and when they do work, they do fewer average hours, fuelling the inequality. An employer considering two candidates of different genders may consciously or unconsciously favour the person least likely to leave. If all parents expect to take leave, these barriers to women entering and staying in the workforce should logically decline.

“But higher paternity leave is only part of the solution if men show reluctance to take it. Our research shows raising entitlements won’t close the gender participation divide. Policymakers and companies should consider paternity-leave policies alongside overall workforce policies – for instance, greater workplace flexibility and penalties for discrimination.

“There is clear ethical argument for greater equality in the workforce. However, there is a powerful efficiency argument as well – increasing the diversity and inclusivity of workforces can lift per capita incomes and growth by boosting utilisation rates as well as the productivity of the workforce by making better use of human capital.

“In a world where populations are aging and labour productivity growth sluggish, a stronger diversity and inclusion policy agenda by corporates and government could provide a much-needed shot in the arm for the global economy. By understanding the policy and other constraints that limit women’s full participation in the workforce, governments will be in a stronger position to devise solutions that address long-term growth challenges,” she said.

Danielle Welsh-Rose, ESG Investment Director – Asia Pacific  at Aberdeen Standard Investments, commented: “Diversity of gender, cultural background, and ways of thinking, paired with a culture of inclusion, is vital to companies successfully tackling complex challenges. At Aberdeen Standard Investments Australia, we have a clear and industry-leading position on diversity and inclusion within our investee companies, and parental leave arrangements is one part of our assessment of a company’s performance on diversity and inclusion, as part of broader corporate culture and governance analysis.

“We engage with companies on our expectations of greater gender diversity at Board and senior management levels and across the workforce generally in the companies we invest in. We urge company boards and executive teams to be gender balanced, which means at least 40% female and 40% male, with 20% any gender. We expect companies within the ASX100 to achieve this 40:40:20 gender balance on boards by the end of 2023, and companies outside the ASX100 to achieve this by 2025. Additionally, we expect all Australian companies to achieve 40:40:20 on executive leadership teams by 2027, to progress towards reporting on gender pay gaps, and to demonstrate pathways to greater cultural diversity.

“Clearly diverse and inclusive teams make better decisions, which is critical to driving better outcomes. As a responsible business, we are committed to retaining and promoting female talent. For example, our Australian Equities team is female-led and 60% are women.”

Further research instalments will be released on a quarterly basis through to Q1 2022. They focus on taxes, quantity and quality of female work, the benefit of female labour to the overall economy and the need for more data to address the issue.

The first paper titled ‘A Woman’s Place; Boosting female labour-force participation to lift long-term economic growth” can be found on the global ASI website on the designated ‘A Woman’s Place’ research hub that will be updated throughout the year as new papers are released.

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Danielle Welsh-Rose

Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) has strengthened its Australian and Asia-Pacific ESG capabilities with the appointment of Danielle Welsh-Rose as ESG Investment Director with regional responsibilities.

As well as supporting the integration of ESG factors into ASI investment decision-making in Australia and across Asia-Pacific, her role is to be an advocate for the importance of ESG capabilities with clients and potential clients across the region.

Danielle has more than 17 years’ experience in ESG leadership roles and has joined ASI from the Victorian Funds Management Corporation, where she was Head of ESG.  She reports to Euan Stirling, ASI’s Edinburgh-based Global Head of Stewardship and ESG Investment for functional responsibilities and to Brett Jollie, Managing Director – Australia for business matters.

Aberdeen Standard Investment’s global ESG team is one of the largest in the asset management industry, with a dedicated team of around 20 professionals and more than 30 specialists across the asset classes, supporting more than 1000 investment professionals.

Euan Stirling, Global Head of Stewardship and ESG Investment commented: “We are delighted Danielle has joined our ESG Investment team, which is growing in importance, as we continue to move ESG considerations further up the investment agenda in the Asia-Pacific region. Regionally as well as globally, we are committed to integrating ESG factors into all of our investment decisions because we believe that will ultimately generate the best long-term, risk-adjusted returns for our clients. Achieving this objective involves bespoke research and many engagements with companies and assets that we own directly. With Danielle’s depth of knowledge and experience, she is a strong addition to the team and will be invaluable in helping develop our influence for good in Australia and further afield.”

Commenting on her appointment, Danielle Welsh-Rose said: “Being able to work for an asset manager with the scale, level of expertise and the integrated, globally-sourced ESG capability that Aberdeen Standard Investments has is an exciting opportunity to advance ESG in the region. I am looking forward to applying that capability and having important conversations with Australian investors and those around the region as they consider their wider fiduciary responsibilities to generate positive financial outcomes.”

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