Fukoku Life International UKSenior Fund Manager and Head ESG Fund
Jan. 2019 - Oct. 2024LondonI spent nearly 13 years as a long only investor on a European multi asset fund for this Japanese insurance company. Fukoku have over 300,000 customers in Japan and around 10,000 staff. There are 6 staff in London of which I was one. There are also offices in New York and Singapore. Beginning end 2011 during the Eurozone crisis and huge concerns over Greece, I have been picking stocks in the equities markets across OEDC Europe in Oil & Gas, Mining, Chemicals and many other sectors. I am a chemist by background, extremely helpful in mining, smelting, refining and now energy transition sectors. Through the years I progressed to Senior Portfolio Manager. I also was asked to head up the ESG fund starting 2018. The adoption of SDGs, huge investment wave in energy systems and many investing opportunities and pitfalls to negotiate have brought ESG, big mining and big oil closer together than most people like to admit. They are two sides of the same coin, how to keep the lights on whilst taking less out of the planet. Oil & gas demand is not going away, no matter what the climate nuts say. However, new, low GHG energy needs to be integrated correctly into existing energy systems (by big oil and transitioned utilities) at a cost acceptable to society and distributed economically with low pollutants at point of use (more batteries, mining and mid stream processing). Public equity markets have proven an exceptional training ground and learning experience on how to combine capital, corporate know how and science to bring a better energy future. Plus, at times, it was a lot of fun too.