Stockholm (NordSIP) – Big Green Tree Media AB is proud to announce that Julia Axelsson (pictured) has joined the organisation as Senior Research Director, starting on January 3, 2021. She is a welcome addition to the team behind NordSIP, who is expanding its breadth of activities and has already undertaken two new exciting projects.
Prior to joining NordSIP, Axelsson has accumulated more than 20 years of experience in asset management, in Stockholm and Beijing. Most recently, she completed a program in Sustainability Studies about Sustainable Development in the Global Context at the University of Linköping, after returning from a sabbatical in Dongguan, China, during which she has further strengthened her writing and teaching skills. Until 2018, she worked in Risk Management at Länsförsäkringar and Manager Selection at Ålandsbanken. Previous positions include portfolio management, asset allocation and portfolio analysis at both Nordea and Kaupthing Bank as well as Head of Client Service group at Nordea. Julia is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.
“After working for many years on the investment side, from a portfolio manager, manager selection and risk management perspective with a strong desire to generate positive impact through investments, I have now decided to take a more active role in voicing the many issues that are still at hand. I’m excited to join NordSIP who has grown fast as the reference point in the Nordics for sustainable investing news and analysis,” says Axelsson.
“With her multi-faceted background and deep experience of the asset management space, Julia is a perfect fit for our fast-growing company. She will enable us to increase our reach and our research capabilities while strengthening our message. In 2021 we expect to push the bar higher when it comes to holding the industry accountable for its progress (or lack thereof) and I am convinced that she is the right person to drive this effort. Having met Julia about 7 years ago already and worked with her in the context of Kvinnokapital, the Swedish network for women in asset management she founded in 2013, I know how hard-working, passionate and convincing she can be when tackling issues close to her heart,” says Aline Reichenberg Gustafsson, Editor of NordSIP and Managing Director of Big Green Tree Media.
In 2020, NordSIP has received the mandate from Swesif, the Swedish Sustainable Investment Forum to provide secretarial and communication services to enable this fast-growing non-profit organisation to fulfil its members’ expectations. Thanks to its operating board of directors, Swesif proposes regular high-value events and working groups on the most current and pressing issues related to sustainable investing in the Nordics. While this collaboration already represents a significant increase in NordSIP’s activities, in the same year, Gustafsson has also co-founded Sustainable Investment Training Associates (SITA) a platform that provides high-quality interactive sustainable investment training both off-the-shelf and custom-made.
“Given our agenda to drive investors to take more sustainable decisions, we couldn’t pass on the opportunity to help Swesif grow its activities and reach. In parallel, we had the fantastic opportunity to join two exceptional partners in the SRI space to provide high-quality education on sustainable investing, an area where unfulfilled demand is stronger than ever,” says Gustafsson.
Mike Tyrrell, founder and CEO of SRI-Connect, a networking and sustainability-focused research-oriented platform for sustainability professional worldwide, which currently counts more than 6,000 members is one of the co-founders of SITA, together with Willem Schramade, founder of Sustainable Finance Factory, co-author of Principles of Sustainable Finance and executive education teacher at the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University. Both Schramade and Tyrrell have extensive prior experience from the finance industry, which enables them to produce educational programs that are both highly engaging and relevant to today’s investment professionals.
“Last autumn, we already successfully delivered two 2-day courses to GPW, the Warsaw Stock Exchange on the Fundamentals of Sustainable Investing. Providing an interactive experience to an 80+ audience has been a challenge, but we picked up the gauntlet and we obtained a high satisfaction rate from the students. Bringing our expertise to markets where most actors are still taking their first steps in the realm of sustainability is extremely motivating. We can’t wait to get going and build up our offering in 2021,” Gustafsson concludes.
Featured image © NordSIP