AllianzGI’s Christensen: ‘My kids understand what I’m trying to do’

Global head of sustainable and impact investing discusses bad timing and having faith in initiatives

Matt Christensen of Allianz GI

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Natasha Turner

Feeling proud of your work is what draws many people towards impact investing, according to Matt Christensen, who is speaking from experience.

“My kids don’t necessarily understand what I do but they understand what I’m trying to do,” he tells ESG Clarity.

“When I give demonstrable examples of investments, that’s the moment when it’s clear and I think, that’s why I do all this.”

Christensen heads up Allianz Global Investors’ sustainability and impact offering as a managing director at the firm, a job he was drawn to in part because of the firm’s €5.9bn sustainable and impact private markets fund range.

He has worked in the sustainable investing field for 20 years but started as an outsider. Seeing a job advertised to be a founding executive director at a sustainable investment think tank, he sent in an application, and after a European-wide search, was given a shot.

That think tank is the now influential policy body Eurosif, which, as well as advocacy, helps investors navigate the dynamic landscape of sustainability regulation.

Read the full interview in ESG Clarity’s June 2023 digital magazine.

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