Fidelity has promoted Jenn-Hui Tan to the newly created role of chief sustainability officer.
Tan has been with Fidelity for 15 years and most recently worked as its global head of stewardship and sustainable investing for four years.
The new role will see Tan responsible for managing Fidelity’s corporate sustainability team alongside the sustainable investing team and driving consistent end-to-end governance of the sustainable approach across Fidelity.
This includes within its investment management, advisory and personal investment platform services and retirement solutions for more than 2.8 million customers and $728.6 billion in assets under management.
Fidelity’s approach to sustainable investing includes integrated ESG analysis, company engagement and industry collaboration with external ESG bodies.
He will retain management of the sustainable investing team, with the firm’s corporate sustainability team reporting to him.
Andrew McCaffery, global chief investment officer at Fidelity, said: “As an active steward of capital, we consider the longer-term consequences of our actions in both financial and societal terms – setting ambitious sustainability goals at an enterprise level is a core part of our approach to drive positive change.
“As the sustainability landscape continues to evolve in line with client and regulatory expectations, we believe it is important to have a single point of accountability across Fidelity to deliver a consistent, overarching sustainability strategy – setting policy and governing delivery of our sustainability commitments across our full business operations.”
ESG and sustainability have become hot topics for asset managers after ASIC announced one of its enforcement targets for 2023 is cracking down on greenwashing.
Between 1 July and 31 March 2023, the corporate regulator made 35 interventions in response to its greenwashing surveillance activities. This included 23 corrective disclosure outcomes, 11 infringement notices and the commencement of one case of civil penalty proceedings.
“All 35 of our interventions are aimed squarely at promoting fair and transparent markets so that retail investors and financial consumers are well informed and not misled on the ‘green credentials’ of investments and listed companies. We have ongoing surveillances and several investigations underway and anticipate further regulatory action,” said ASIC deputy chair, Karen Chester.
