Phoenix Group (“Phoenix”), the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business today announces the appointment of Valeria Piani as Head of Stewardship, a newly formed position, as the company further enhances its responsible investment and stewardship expertise. Valeria will lead the company’s engagement and voting strategy, responsible for overseeing the evaluation of the stewardship capabilities of Phoenix’s Asset Management partners, and managing Phoenix’s growing in house Stewardship team.
With £300 billion of assets under administration and 13 million customers, Phoenix has a clear duty to take a responsible and sustainable approach to investment and engagement, with the appointment of Valeria as a key milestone in the evolution of its stewardship strategy.
Phoenix continues to make strong progress regarding its stewardship practices this year, under the wider umbrella of its responsible investment journey, which is embedded into the company’s core business practices. The company recently wrote an open letter to all of its Asset Management partners to outline the steps that it has taken on responsible investment and set the expectations of its partners including in addressing stewardship practices. The appointment of Valeria will help to accelerate Phoenix’s progress in this area.
Valeria has over 14 years’ experience in the industry, with a deep understanding of global stewardship and responsible investment practices, as well as strong record of accomplishment in leading engagement with companies. Joining UBS Asset Management in 2017 as Strategic Engagement Lead of its Sustainable and Impact Investing Team, Valeria led the company’s Climate Change Engagement Program with 50 oil & gas and utilities companies. Prior to this, Valeria was Associate Director at the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), where she worked for 9 years co-ordinating investor collaborative engagement activities with investee companies on a wide range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. During her time at the PRI, she oversaw 30 global initiatives with over 200 investors across an array of topics including director nomination, gender diversity, carbon emissions and human rights.
Sindhu Krishna, Head of Responsible Investment, said:
“We are delighted to be joined by Valeria, who brings with her a wealth of invaluable experience that will further enhance the Company’s stewardship strategy. Her deep knowledge and expertise of stewardship practices and responsible investment principles will benefit the company greatly, as we work to fulfil our responsible investment ambitions.”
Commenting on her appointment, Valeria Piani added:
“What attracted me to Phoenix Group was the strong ambition it has regarding stewardship and responsible investing, and I have no doubt the company can fulfil its aims. I’m excited to be joining a rapidly growing team and to support the company in achieving its aspirations.”
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Enquiries
Dilesh Sangaran
PR Manager
Phoenix Group
07974 604 323 / 0203 735 0942
Dilesh.sangaran@thephoenixgroup.com
Notes to Editors
About Phoenix Group
Phoenix is the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business, with £338 billion of assets under administration and c.14 million customers.
We are a growing and sustainable business with a clear purpose – helping people secure a life of possibilities. This means taking responsible and sustainable investment decisions, and using our presence and voice to advocate on behalf of the UK’s savers. We understand that our scale and expertise means that we have an important role to play for our customers, colleagues and our communities.
As life expectancy continues to increase and the pension landscape continues to shift, we will continue to be a safe and dependable ally in the journey to and through retirement for millions of customers, by providing the right guidance and products, at the right time, to support the right choices. We offer a broad range of products for people across all stages of the savings life cycle.
Our strategy focuses on delivering long term, sustainable value and, to fulfil our purpose, focuses on five key areas to ensure we respond to changing customer needs, manage our capital position well, create value, inspire our people, and put sustainability at the heart of our business.
Phoenix is a FTSE 100 company and we feature in the FTSE100 ESG Select Index. In 2020 we committed to our operations being net zero carbon by 2025 and our investment portfolios by 2050. We are playing an active role in helping to build back better and greener as we invest for the future. We are a Living Wage Employer and recognised as a Carer Positive Exemplary for offering the best support to colleagues who are carers.