CASY-MSCCN Jobs

Investment Management – ESG Research – VP/ED

London

3249782

The team is looking to hire an experienced ESG researcher, to support the team’s Head of ESG on delivering and developing the team’s ESG research efforts. The role will have broad responsibilities working across research, engagement and proxy voting as well as supporting the communication of the team’s ESG efforts to clients through marketing and client interactions. The hire will report into Head of ESG and work closely with the investment team, the ESG product specialist, the ESG data analyst, and the product specialist team.

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services.

As a market leader, the talent and passion of our people is critical to our success. Together, we share a common set of values rooted in integrity, excellence, and strong team ethic. We can provide a superior foundation for building a professional career – a place for people to learn, to achieve and grow. A philosophy that balances personal lifestyles, perspectives and needs is an important part of our culture.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management: International Equity Team

Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s (MSIM) International Equity team manages assets of c. US$54bn. The client base is global and a mix of high-quality institutions and intermediaries. The client base of the International Equity strategy is almost exclusively composed of US clients with the global strategies encompassing a broad global client base. The team of investors, headed by William Lock, manage four major strategies and variants thereof: Global Franchise, Global Quality, Global Sustain and International Equity, and more recently American and International Resilience strategies.

The global strategies offer long-term capital appreciation and earnings resilience, focusing on long-term compounders that deliver sustainably high returns on operating capital and pricing power. The International Equity strategy invests in a mix of high-quality compounders and value opportunities.

The Team

The investment team manages a highly disciplined, fundamental, evidence-based and bottom-up investment process. The emphasis is on a team-oriented and intellectually rigorous environment where there is open interaction and debate regarding potential and existing investments. There is a flat culture. The team is highly iterative in their approach to investment due diligence and analysis. The team is supported by dedicated portfolio specialists who focus on client facing activities.

ESG approach

The team aims to deliver investment returns for clients over the long-term and therefore think about corporate performance not just today or tomorrow, but over the next decades. In the global portfolios, they invest in compounders - high quality companies that can deliver long-term returns. The team believes that a company’s financial quality is intrinsically linked with its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices on issues that the team believes may be financially materially. How a company is exposed to and manages its ESG performance may therefore have a bearing on its ability to generate long-term returns. The team believes companies may struggle to deliver long-term returns if they don’t address potentially financially material long-term ESG risks. Equally, companies’ ability to manage and mitigate social and environmental issues may help open new markets, drive consumer loyalty, and improve employee retention and stakeholder engagement.

Because of the team’s focused investment approach – high conviction equity funds with a limited number of stocks – they are in a strong position to deliver deep high quality ESG research and active ownership. The team has a robust ESG integration approach led by the investors, who are responsible for the ESG research for the companies they cover and embed this into stock analysis and valuation where relevant, supported by the ESG specialists. The investors also engages actively with companies on financially material issues, including financially material ESG risks and opportunities, including controversies and thematic issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, labour and supply chain risks or talent management for companies where these issues are considered potentially financially material.

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What will you be doing?

The ESG research role has three main purposes:

• ESG Research Management: Supporting the Head of ESG in managing ESG research and integration to ensure high quality execution. This includes overseeing research and engagement strategy for the team, monitoring of ESG research outputs and maintain external research relationships from brokers to NGOs and industry initiatives.

• Research Production and Execution: Supporting the investment team to have a robust understanding of relevant current and emerging ESG risks and opportunities and their consequences for companies’ long-term financial performance. Grounded in high quality research, further support the investment team’s ability to actively hold companies accountable on the relevant financially material ESG risks and opportunities, including through direct company engagement and proxy voting. This includes production of insightful investment-relevant ESG research, supporting investors on companies, sectors, issues and broader teams; the development and delivery of engagements with companies both company-specific and broader thematic programmes; and working with the ESG data analyst to manage existing data providers and identify new useful data sets that can contribute to our ESG research efforts.

• Research Communication: Ensuring the investment team, the team, and clients can understand the ESG research and active ownership delivered within the investment team, through training, contributing to marketing material and joining client meetings globally.

What we’re looking for:

• The International Equity team is not prescriptive about prior experience; they have built an open-minded environment where they seek to work with individuals with a level of intellectual curiosity and capability beyond other investment teams. The individual could come from an existing asset manager or sell side research, where they have led ESG research or from a range of research focused backgrounds either within the financial services sector, from civil society, think tanks, and ESG-oriented consulting firms. The key factor is having a strong experience in analysing ESG risks and opportunities at a company level combined with a commercial and innovative mindset, which demonstrates an ability to maintain and develop a market leading ESG research approach.

• Demonstrable track record in developing and delivering ESG research on ESG issues, sectors and themes. We welcome experience with ESG equity and integration approaches, integrating financially material ESG research and engagement into investment processes, to support investment performance. This could include experience with analysis of corporate ESG performance and research in an investment context, such as through sector coverage and publication of company, sector, and thematic research. Experience with high-quality sectors such as life sciences, consumer staples, software and services and less cyclical and capital-intensive industrials would be welcomed. They must exhibit a highly analytical and detailed approach, within the context of overall portfolio philosophy and process.

• Experience with leading engagements with companies at a senior level, such as Chair / CEO / CFO as well as CSO (sustainability lead), on ESG issues. Experience with developing, leading, and executing thematic programmes of engagement across sectors would be useful, such as biodiversity, climate, or social issues such as product quality, talent management and human rights in supply chains.

• Ability to define and execute a strategic agenda within a highly collaborative environment. We welcome a creative thinker who is able to collaborate with a broad group of stakeholders. Clear communication skills and an ability to create simple frameworks and messages on complex ESG matters is essential.

• Commercial outlook and a strong interest and appreciation for different client’s ESG needs and interests to ensure the team continue to meet their global clients’ ESG requirements.

• Passion for ESG issues, a thorough understanding of the ESG landscape and a strong network within the wider ESG industry.

Flexible work statement:

Interested in flexible working opportunities? Morgan Stanley empowers employees to have greater freedom of choice through flexible working arrangements. Speak to our recruitment team to find out more.

Equal opportunities statement:

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunities employer. We work to provide a supportive and inclusive environment where all individuals can maximize their full potential. Our skilled and creative workforce is comprised of individuals drawn from a broad cross section of the global communities in which we operate and who reflect a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives, and experiences. Our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion is evident through our constant focus on recruiting, developing, and advancing individuals based on their skills and talents.

Job: *Asset/Investment Management

Title: Investment Management - ESG Research - VP/ED

Location: Europe, Middle East, Africa-GBR-GBR-London

Requisition ID: 3249782