Speaker Bio: Ed is Head of Sustainability for Aviva Investors’ private markets platform and leads the firm’s ESG and sustainability strategy across £50bn of assets under management. As direct investors with broad private markets capabilities Ed works across multiple asset classes including direct real estate, private credit and private equity. Ed has 22 years’ industry experience, starting his career as a carpenter in 2002 and progressing through consulting, development and project management roles at Landsec, Mace Consulting and Marks and Spencer. Ed is an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at Bayes, one of the UK’s highest-ranking business schools, and is a Non-Executive Director at 5Y Technology. At the end of the talk Ed will briefly share his career journey and learnings from along the way.
Talk Title: A Rough Guide to Sustainable Finance in the Private Markets
Talk Abstract: Sustainable finance - an oxymoron? In this talk Ed lays out how your own pensions and savings flow through into investments in the built environment and private companies, ending up financing the infrastructure you use every day, the homes you live in and your places of work. He explores the rise and fall of ‘ESG’ and discusses what it really means to be sustainable, and whether money really does make the world go round. Through case studies Ed provides detailed examples of recent investments made in the private markets, covering asset classes from real estate and infrastructure through to venture capital and carbon removals. Through funding governments and businesses, finance is shaping the world around you for better or for worse. Attending this seminar will help you to understand how finance might have an impact on the projects and companies in your career today and into the future.