Ambienta, a sustainability-focused European asset manager, has made two senior appointments – William Kitchin becomes the Head of Business Development for Ambienta X, the firm’s public markets division, while Michele Romualdi has been appointed Head of Sales Italy.
Kitchin and Romualdi joined the firm in February and March 2021 respectively and will report directly to Nino Tronchetti Provera, Managing Partner and Founder of Ambienta.
Kitchin joins Ambienta from Titan Capital Management, where he has been Director of Marketing since 2018. Prior to this, Kitchin was Vice-President at Morgan Stanley, where he was responsible for due diligence and monitoring all European-based hedge fund strategies, having also previously worked at Russell Investments and Tremont Capital Management.
Romualdi has over twenty years’ experience in financial markets and joins the Company from Fidelity International, where he was Head of Institutional Sales in Milan. Before joining Fidelity, Romualdi spent fifteen years at Kairos Partners where he was the firm’s Senior Sales Director based in Italy. He started his career as a Client Advisor at UBS Italia.
In their new roles, Kitchin and Romualdi will focus on growing Ambienta X, the Company’s public markets division, which targets both institutional and private investors. Ambienta X Alpha, the world’s first absolute return strategy entirely focused on environmental sustainability, was launched in 2020 and currently has assets exceeding USD500 million. Investors in Ambienta X Alpha’s institutional vehicle include leading Italian and international institutional investors as well as family offices. Ambienta also has a vehicle in partnership with Banca Generali, Lux IM Alpha Green, to focus on Banca Generali’s private clients.
Ambienta now boasts an eight-strong team in public markets, based in London and Milan under the leadership of Chief Investment Officer, Fabio Pecce.
Since its foundation in 2007, Ambienta has continued to grow and invest in its people, creating a leader in environmentally-focused investments across asset classes. In the last 18 months, Ambienta has hired 19 new talents, opened a Paris office and doubled its Sustainability & Strategy practice. On the private equity side, Ambienta invests in companies driven by environmental trends, with a strong preference for majority positions and typical equity checks of EUR30 million-EUR100 million.
Nino Tronchetti Provera, Founding and Managing Partner of Ambienta, says: “I am delighted to welcome William and Michele to Ambienta. These appointments will help us deliver on our ambitions of growing Ambienta and launching further products with focus on environmental sustainability.”
William Kitchin, Head of Business Development at Ambienta X, says: “I am extremely pleased to be joining Ambienta as it continues to expand and grow its public markets division. I believe that sustainability-driven opportunities in public markets are at least as abundant as those in private markets, and I am very excited to take this investment philosophy to clients globally.”
Michele Romualdi, Head of Sales Italy at Ambienta, adds: “Italian clients have an increasing appetite for investing in sustainability, and I look forward to joining the European leader in sustainable investing and helping Ambienta expand, develop and grow for the years ahead.”
