State Street Global Advisors has hired former Blackrock ESG specialist Carlo Funk as its head of ESG investment strategy.
Funk will lead SSGA’s EMEA ESG investment strategy division, working with the ESG research and development, investment research and management teams to design ESG investment solutions for advisors, consultants and institutional clients.
His role will include assessing the environmental, social and governance impact on clients’ portfolios and identifying specific financial solutions to align with their ESG objectives, SSGA said.
Before joining State Street Global Advisors, Funk was responsible for the design and distribution of passive ESG investment solutions at BlackRock and acted as the EMEA-wide sustainable investing sales specialist.
Prior to this, Funk spent four years at JP Morgan Chase in New York and Frankfurt as a banking analyst.
Holding both a Bachelors and Masters degree in international business and finance from Maastricht University, Funk is involved in various industry working groups on sustainable finance, including the sustainable investment commission of DVFA in Germany and is guest lecturer at the European Business School on sustainable finance.
The hire follows State Street Global Advisors’ announcement last month that its ESG index equity fund had surpassed £1bn in assets.
Boston-based SSGA, the asset management arm of State Street Corporation, said its ACS multi-factor global ESG index equity fund had exceeded the £1bn AUM milestone is just over six months.
The company, which has over 30 years’ experience in ESG leadership, currently has around $206bn of ESG-specific assets under management, according to its website.
In total, the firm has $2.9 trillion assets under management as of 30 June 2019, making it the third largest asset manager in the world.