Bridgewater Associates (Bridgewater), a global leader in institutional portfolio management and the largest hedge fund in the world, has launched a new sustainable investing venture.
Karen Karniol-Tambour and Carsten Stendevad will serve as Co-Chief Investment Officers (Co-CIO) for Sustainability, overseeing the effort, including the design and implementation of investment solutions for clients pursuing sustainability goals alongside their financial targets.
“Sustainable investing is a strategic priority for Bridgewater and for our clients,” says David McCormick, CEO of Bridgewater. “Understanding the economic impact of environmental, social, and governance issues has always been crucial to our study of how economies and markets operate, and it is an increasing priority for our clients to achieve financial goals as well as have environmental and social impacts in their portfolios. With Karen and Carsten, we are deploying some of our leading investment talent and the power of our systematic investment approach to address these challenges.”
“Social and environmental issues are increasingly important to economies and markets due to their impacts on fiscal and monetary policy, capital flows and investor behaviour,” says Karen Karniol-Tambour, Co-CIO for Sustainability at Bridgewater. “In tackling these issues, we are leveraging Bridgewater’s 45 years of experience conducting deep, systematic macro research and converting that understanding into scalable investment solutions for our clients.”
Stendevad adds: “In recent years, we have seen a fundamental shift in the investment community, with the expansion of objectives from risk and return to also include impact. Building portfolios that seek to deliver on both financial and sustainability objectives is not trivial, and requires a rigorous and systematic approach to embedding sustainability throughout the entire investment process. Karen and I are excited to partner on deploying capital in this direction.”
The venture will also include the creation of a new Sustainable Investing Committee that will be co-chaired by Karniol-Tambour and Stendevad; Karniol-Tambour will also remain a member of the firm’s broader Investment Committee (the body ultimately responsible for overseeing all of Bridgewater’s investment strategies). The group will also be responsible for embedding sustainability considerations, as appropriate, into the firm’s investment processes and partnering with clients on their sustainability priorities. Daniel Hochman will serve as Head of Sustainability Research and as a member of the Sustainable Investing Committee, and Lauren Hardardt will serve as the Chief Operating Officer for the venture.
