Company: EQ Investors
Personal AUM: £1bn
Company AUM: £2bn
Career history
Damien acts as head of impact investing at EQ Investors, a B-Corp discretionary fund manager working with financial advisers across the country and focusing on sustainable investing.
He launched the EQ Positive Impact Portfolios in 2012 with a view to allow private clients to invest with an impact focus.
Damien has an MSc in Management from Reims Management School and an MSc in Wealth and Asset Management from ESCP-EAP Paris Business School. He is also a CFA charterholder, being a regular member of the CFA Institute and CFA UK Society.
Key areas of focus
My key focus has remained on achieving the dual objective of our strategies: generating compelling financial returns while achieving the stated sustainability objectives.
In a highly volatile market environment, where we saw headwinds for sustainable investors due to Trump backpedalling on sustainability, the defence sector materially outperformed while the healthcare theme remained under pressure. As a result, creating well-diversified portfolios to weather these uncertainties and challenges has been more important than ever.
Supported by a fantastic team of financial analysts, sustainability analysts and portfolio managers, we are happy with what we have achieved over the past 12 months and the changes and improvements we have made to our sustainable strategies.
From a sustainability perspective, stewardship is a key part of the impact we make and measure. I have happily contributed to this, via fund manager meetings and collaboration, as well as meeting with underlying companies.
It has been really important to ensure that all stakeholders keep hearing our passion and belief that a more sustainable world needs to be built to help achieve our underlying clients' long-term financial goals.
Finally, working with financial advisers, and supporting and brainstorming with investment managers across the industry, has kept me busy to share our perspectives but also learn about challenges and successes from the wider industry.
