Stockholm (NordSIP) – Vanguard, one of the world’s leading asset managers, appointed Fong Yee Chan as its first Head of ESG strategy for UK and Europe. Chan will be based in London and report to Matthew Piro, head of Vanguard’s portfolio review department in Europe.
Prior to joining Vanguard, Chan worked at FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of London Stock Exchange Group since 2017, first as a Senior Product Manager and then as Director of Sustainable Investment Products since July 2020. Prior to that she worked as an ESG Product Director at eFront, atechnology provider for the private equity industry, and a Senior Manager at the UN Principles for Sustainable Investment.
The decision may suggest that Vanguard will start to focus more on ESG integration and sustainable investment. In a recent report, Majority Action, an NGO focusing on holding corporations accountable for their investments, criticised Vanguard for their lack of shareholder action on climate change in 2020.
According to the report, the asset manager “continued to undermine global investor efforts to promote responsible corporate climate action—despite their public commitments to hold corporate directors accountable in the 2020 proxy season.” The report argued that Vanguard was among a number of companies that “were just as likely to support management at utilities that had not made a net-zero commitment.”
