Aviva boosts real assets responsible investment team

Aviva Investors has expanded its real assets responsible investment team with three hires. Phillipa Grant, Elizabeth Ortiz and Jeremy Ho have joined the asset manager, reporting to head of responsible investment Edward Dixon. Grant joins as director of sustainable investments, while Ortiz has been appointed as an associate, and Ho as an analyst. Grant is a chartered engineer and previously worked at global advisory business AESG for eight years, latterly as a partner and global director of sustainability. In her new role, she will be responsible for delivering sustainability outcomes for clients across Aviva Investors’ real assets sustainable fund range, providing advice to support with strategy development and investment decisions, alongside delivery and reporting within portfolios. Ortiz has joined from KPMG where she was an assistant manager, leading on climate strategy development for corporate clients. In her role at Aviva, she will focus on developing and delivering client sustainability objectives across private markets asset classes. Ho will be responsible for delivering sustainability research and due diligence for the growing private lending business at Aviva Investors. He previously worked at Pyxis Wealth Advisors and proSapient, where he carried out cross-asset class research for hedge fund, private equity and ultra-high net worth family clients. According to research from Aviva, more than half (51%) of global institutional investors said the ability to evidence sustainability-related impact drives decisions to invest in real assets. Dixon said: “Our recent real assets study showed that 57% of institutional investors have a commitment to reaching net zero, so it is vitally important we have the resource and expertise to guide our clients and show how real assets allocations can align portfolios with those objectives. “All three hires bring an enviable level of expertise from across a range of geographies and sectors to address this need and we believe they will materially advance the breadth and depth of our sustainability offering to clients.” Image © Shutterstock