ESG Clarity is delighted to partner with City Hive and Morningstar Investment Management to launch a series of roundtables shining a light on corporate culture within the investment management industry.
The How to ACT: Corporate Culture Analysis 2.0 series will assess the current cultural landscape within the investment industry, and catalyse on improvements within organisations and the companies they invest in.
The roundtable series is in relation to City Hive’s Action, Culture and Transparency (ACT) kitemark which will enable companies to assess and measure their culture across six pillars:
- Change
- Integrity
- Commitment
- Engagement
- Culture
- Talent
City Hive CEO and co-founder Bev Shah said: “The ACT will help fund buyers and other stakeholders assess the heart and soul of the investment management company they are investing through moving beyond words to look at intent and behaviours.”
Campaign for Better Governance
The How to ACT roundtable series also feeds into Last Word Media’s Campaign for Better Governance, run by ESG Clarity, International Adviser, Portfolio Adviser, DiversityQ and Expert Investor. At a time of unprecedented interest in ESG-oriented investing and following a period when companies’ treatment of all their stakeholders amid the global pandemic has been under intense scrutiny, the campaign was launched to encourage the investment sector to practise what it preaches and ensuring that, alongside the businesses to which it allocates capital, its own governance is at the highest possible level.
The Campaign for Better Governance will allow the investment sector to shine the spotlight back on themselves and to ensure they too are continuing to operate for the greater good of their own stakeholders – the individuals who work for them, the businesses who work with them and, of course, all the people who entrust them with their savings.
In conjunction with Morningstar, City Hive and ESG Clarity are delighted to bring you Roundtable 1 (video above) of the How to ACT series, which focuses on how corporate culture is perceived within investment management and how fund selectors can integrate analysis of this in their due diligence.
Dan Kemp, Morningstar IM’s CIO, said: “I’m delighted to be involved in this project and take part in discussions that address the key challenges facing the investment management community today. Diverse thinking is at the heart of all functioning markets but other aspects of diversity that support these varied perspectives is lacking in the investment world.
“This ongoing lack of diversity was recently highlighted by Morningstar’s research showing that there still more funds run by ‘Daves’ than women in the UK. We now have an incredible opportunity to both improve diversity, equity an inclusion within our community and in doing so, deliver better outcomes for investors. I’m hopeful that ACT will make a meaningful contribution towards this goal.”
Roundtable 1 is moderated by Natalie Kenway, global head of ESG insight at ESG Clarity, and the panellists include City Hive’s Shah, Morningstar IM’s Kemp, Morningstar’s global director of sustainability research, Hortense Bioy, (who are all editorial panellists for ESG Clarity) Square Mile’s senior investment consultant Jake Moeller and head of manager research at Redington Nick Samuels.
Look out for the next webinar in the How to ACT roundtable series in the next few months.
City Hive is currently undergoing an extensive industry consultation period into corporate culture and those who would like to be involved can get in touch by emailing bevshah@cityhive.co.uk
