“Responsible Investment Policies: Implementation and Challenges”

London Stock Exchange, Media and Business Complex, October 17, 2008

Speakers/Panelists:
George Dallas, Director Corporate Governance, F&C
James Gifford, Executive Director, United Nations PRI
Alex Popplewell, Global Co-Head of Responsible Investment, BlackRock
Rory Sullivan, Head of Investor Responsibility, Insight Investment

The purpose of this event was to present and discuss the implementation of responsible investment policies and the challenges they pose. The presenters lead some of the financial industry’s most renowned responsible investment teams, as well as developing the guiding principles. The event also included the introduction of a tool specifically geared to implementing responsible investment: RepRisk. To download the presentation, please click here.

For more information please contact Charlotte Mansson (, +41 44 350 6060).

Invited Speakers

George Dallas presented the key features of F&C’s responsible investment work and discussed its implementation of the PRI principles. F&C is a leading asset management firm with a global presence of more than £100 billion in AuM. To download the presentation, please click here.

James Gifford spoke about the United Nations' Principles for Responsible Investment and how their implementation is progressing across the industry. The PRI principles outline possible methods of incorporating ESG issues into mainstream investment decision-making and ownership practices. To download the presentation, please click here.

Alex Popplewell is both Managing Director and Global Co-Head of BlackRock’s responsible investment unit. He presented the firm’s responsible investment policy and experience. BlackRock is a leading asset management firm with more than US$1.4 trillion in AuM. To download the presentation, please click here.

Rory Sullivan is responsible for leading Insight Investment’s thematic research and engagement activities on social, ethical and environmental issues. Insight Investment is part of the HBOS Group and has more than £100 billion in AuM. To download the presentation, please click here.

“Norm-Based Exclusion: Evidence and Practice”

Park Hyatt Hotel, Zurich, June 13, 2008

Keynote Speaker: Kamil Zabielski, Council on Ethics of the
Norwegian Government Pension Fund

The purpose of this event was to present and discuss the benefits of norm-based exclusion, i.e. the process of identifying and excluding from investment universes companies that violate certain principles. The norms are typically based on international legal, ethical, social and environmental standards, as outlined in, for example, the United Nations' Global Compact.

The event commenced with an introduction to ECOFACT (presentation) by Olivier Jaeggi, ECOFACT President and Managing Partner.

We were then pleased to welcome Mr. Kamil Zabielski from the Council on Ethics of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund (formerly known as the Norwegian Oil Fund) as our keynote speaker (presentation, ethical guidelines). The Council is responsible for the implementation of the Fund’s ethical guidelines and deals extensively with norm-based exclusion in the areas of human rights and the environment on a day-to-day basis.

Martina Klose, ECOFACT Director of Product Management, introduced a tool specifically geared towards this approach, RepRisk (presentation).

The event concluded with a new and groundbreaking ETH study by Julian Kölbel (presentation, thesis summary), which shows that a company’s negative social, environmental and ethical performance appears to be predictive of its share price. Badly rated companies overperform short-term, but underperform long-term.

For more information please contact Charlotte Mansson (, +41 44 350 6060).

Invited Speakers

Kamil Zabielski is a senior executive officer at the Council on Ethics of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund – Global, Oslo, Norway.

The Council’s mandate is to assess whether companies should be excluded from the Government Pension Fund – Global on the grounds of acts or omissions that are in conflict with the ethical guidelines adopted by the Norwegian parliament. The Fund is the largest pension fund in Europe and one of the largest and fastest-growing in the world, with approximately USD 400 billion currently under management.

Julian Kölbel wrote a paper on the effect of negative reputation on the share price of constituents of the MSCI World index. His thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Didier Sornette and Dr. Ryan Woodard of the Department of Management, Technology and Economics – DMTEC, Chair of Entrepreneurial Risks ER, ETH Zurich.