Fidelity International has appointed Jenn-Hui Tan, the firm’s global head of stewardship and sustainable investing for the last four years, to the newly created position of chief sustainability officer.
The change combines responsibility for sustainable investing and corporate sustainability under the same role, explains the global investment firm, which manages around $725 bn in assets.
This will ‘ensure consistent, end-to-end governance of Fidelity’s sustainable approach across its corporate operations and client service areas – including investment management, advisory and personal investment platform services, and retirement solutions,’ Fidelity says in a statement.
Tan’s previous roles at Fidelity include head of capital markets and corporate governance for the Asia-Pacific region and director of corporate finance. He joined the firm as senior legal counsel in 2007.
Prior to Fidelity, Tan worked as a corporate finance lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright, where he focused on capital markets transactions. He holds a law degree from the University of Durham.
‘Ambitious’ approach
‘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,’ says Andrew McCaffery, global chief investment officer at Fidelity International, in the statement.
‘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.’
Under Tan, Fidelity’s sustainable investing team has focused on four key thematic issues in its engagement with companies: effective governance, climate change, nature loss and social disparities.
Within these broader themes, Fidelity then selects sub-topics for greater attention. Key areas in 2023 include the just transition, heavy emitters and deforestation, according to the firm’s 2023 sustainable investing report.
