PIMFA ESG Seminar 2024

Maja joined PIMFA as Senior Policy Adviser, EU and Government Affairs in November 2018. She is a former diplomat, public affairs and policy official with extensive experience of international, European and UK government and policy operations.

At PIMFA, Maja is responsible for developing policy and implementing the associated advocacy work with key EU and UK institutions, including the European Commission, Parliament, and Council, HMG, and the FCA, on a range of European and UK legislative and regulatory issues.

Prior to PIMFA, Maja worked at the City of London Corporation as an European Policy and European Regulation Adviser, focusing on Brexit related issues and on strengthening the dialogue between the UK-based financial and professional services industry, the UK government, regulatory authorities, EU institutions and Member States. While in the diplomatic service, Maja worked on numerous policy initiatives, engagement strategies and advocacy efforts, including Croatia’s negotiations for membership of the EU and NATO.

Maja was educated at the University of Zagreb, Croatia.

Sacha Sadan is the Director of ESG at the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority). Facilitating the UK financial regulator to embed ESG across the wide spectrum of regulatory activities and reporting to the CEO.

He has been named a City Influencer by Financial News as one of the biggest 25 names who have been instrumental in shaping the UK’s financial services industry, and has also recently been appointed an Honorary Professor at the Alliance Manchester Business School at The University of Manchester.

Previously Sacha was Director of Investment Stewardship (10 years) and on the board at LGIM, one of the world’s largest asset managers. Sacha had responsibility for investment stewardship, including environmental, social and governance (ESG). He was recognised in the Financial Times as one of ‘the 30 most influential people in the City of London’. Sacha was previously a UK equity portfolio manager at Gartmore. He was voted the top-rated Pan European fund manager in the Thomson Reuters Extel awards.

He started his career at Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension fund. Sacha is a Fellow of CFA, CGI and a founding member of the UK Investor Forum.

Sam Turner is the Head of Responsible Investment & Proposition Strategy at St. James’s Place. Sam has been with the business for over 7 years, starting his career on the rotational graduate program and has spent the last 5 years building out our Responsible Investment Team.

Sam focuses on the Responsible Investment strategy, propositional direction and the integration programme of ESG within our investment management approach. Sam went to Cardiff University and studied Economics; he also has an MBA in Wealth Management from Loughborough University.

Hortense Bioy, CFA, is Global Director of Sustainability Research within Manager Research at Morningstar.

Based in London, Hortense leads Morningstar’s ESG research efforts globally, with the objective of educating investors and providing the tools they need to evaluate investments through an ESG lens. Prior to assuming this role in February 2021, she was responsible for Morningstar’s sustainability research in EMEA for three years.

Before transitioning to a dedicated ESG focus, Hortense was European Director of Passive Strategies Research. She led an award-winning team that provides research on ETFs and index funds. Hortense joined Morningstar as an ETF analyst in 2010 from Bloomberg where she was a financial journalist. She began her career as an M&A analyst at Société Générale in Hong Kong.
Hortense holds a master’s degree in finance from Paris Dauphine University and a postgraduate degree in finance from Paris Sorbonne University. She is also a CFA charterholder.

Matthew Jennings is Investment Director for Sustainable Investing. His role focusses on the development of Fidelity’s sustainable investing capabilities,and driving ESG integration within Fidelity’s investment process.

Matthew has 16 years of investment experience, and joined Fidelity in 2011. As Investment Director, he has covered a number of contrarian equity strategies, and helped to launch Fidelity’s sustainable fund range in 2019. He is a CFA Charterholder, and has completed the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing and Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership course in Sustainable Finance.

Jacob joined MainStreet Partners in July 2023 from Abrdn where he worked within the Multi-Manager team focusing on ESG and Sustainability. After he completed the CFA ESG, Jacob took responsibility for ESG data, analysis and reporting with a focus on identifying leading sustainability-oriented funds.

Jessica is an experienced financial services and funds lawyer. She advises a wide range of clients including asset managers, wealth managers, private banks, international financial institutions and charitable institutions on the full spectrum of contractual, transactional and regulatory issues.

Since joining Farrer & Co in 2012, Jessica’s work has focused on firms providing services to high-net-worth individuals (particularly wealth managers and private banks) and on regulated funds. Jessica has undertaken several secondments to a well-known UK wealth manager, giving her an invaluable insight into the unique issues faced by such institutions. She also regularly advises asset managers on UK authorised fund structures and charitable fund structures.

Jessica has recently been advising clients extensively on ESG regulation, including SFDR, UK SDR and TCFD reporting obligations. She is a thought leader in this sphere and has led a number of industry group roundtables.
A thoughtful and highly technical lawyer, Jessica has an open and collaborative approach which is valued by her clients and colleagues.
Jessica qualified as a solicitor in 2011.

Maja joined PIMFA as Senior Policy Adviser, EU and Government Affairs in November 2018. She is a former diplomat, public affairs and policy official with extensive experience of international, European and UK government and policy operations.

At PIMFA, Maja is responsible for developing policy and implementing the associated advocacy work with key EU and UK institutions, including the European Commission, Parliament, and Council, HMG, and the FCA, on a range of European and UK legislative and regulatory issues.

Prior to PIMFA, Maja worked at the City of London Corporation as an European Policy and European Regulation Adviser, focusing on Brexit related issues and on strengthening the dialogue between the UK-based financial and professional services industry, the UK government, regulatory authorities, EU institutions and Member States. While in the diplomatic service, Maja worked on numerous policy initiatives, engagement strategies and advocacy efforts, including Croatia’s negotiations for membership of the EU and NATO.

Maja was educated at the University of Zagreb, Croatia.