ESG: Understanding Regulatory Product and Investor Trends

Deborah Fuhr is the managing partner and co-founder of ETFGI, an independent research and consultancy firm launched in 2012 in London offering a number of research subscription services. Previously, she served as global head of ETF research and implementation strategy and as a managing director at BlackRock/Barclays Global Investors from 2008 – 2011. Fuhr also worked as a managing director and head of the investment strategy team at Morgan Stanley in London from 1997 – 2008, and as an associate at Greenwich Associates. She holds a BS degree from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Fuhr was the recipient of the 100 Women in Finance 2017, European Industry Leadership Award as well as the 2014 William F. Sharpe Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to the field of index investing.

Fuhr is one of the founders and on the board of Women in ETFs, one of the founders and on the board of Women in ETFs EMEA chapter, is on the board of Cancer Research UK’s ‘Women of Influence’ initiative to support female scientists.

Gayle Bowen is the managing partner of the firm’s Dublin office and a member of the Asset Management and Investment Funds practice. Gayle has extensive experience advising asset managers on licensing options post-Brexit, the establishment of Irish regulated Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) and Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD)-compliant alternative products, and in relation to the global distribution and marketing of Irish funds. With particular proficiency in relation to cross-border mergers, she advised on the first re-domiciliation of a Jersey fund into Ireland, on the cross-border merger of two money market fund platforms, one of the first mergers effected under the UCITS IV procedures and recently advised a large Swiss manager on the cross-border merger of 22 UCITS funds between Luxembourg and Ireland. Gayle also provides AIFMD advice to offshore managers looking to sell into Europe and has advised a number of managers on the establishment of Irish funds to implement their impact investment strategies and has advised on SFDR compliance within these strategies.

Gayle maintains a high profile in the Irish Funds industry, currently serving as chair of the Irish Funds ILP implementation working group, where she engages directly with the Central Bank to represent the views of the industry. Previously, she was a member of the Irish Funds Brexit Steering Group, and is the outgoing chair of the Irish Funds Legal & Regulatory Committee, which liaises with the Central Bank, the Irish government, and European bodies to represent the interests of the Irish funds industry.

Rebecca has considerable expertise in equity markets from many years as an investment analyst, active fund manager and leader in business development. She joined State Street Global Advisors in 2016 as the Senior Equity Strategist to work with SPDR’s ETF Strategy & Research team in London. Her focus is on equities, sectors and ESG ETFs, providing thought leadership and investor insights. She writes the SPDR Sector & Equity Compass, and is responsible for the quarterly Sector Picks, as well as leading the drive on the growing ESG ETF range. Rebecca appears regularly on Bloomberg and CNBC TV programmes.

Rebecca’s previous role was at Hermes Investment Management where she helped to build the equities business and integrate ESG research and decision-making into the investment process. Prior to that, she was fund manager for over £1bn of active equity institutional portfolios and retail funds at Rothschild Asset Management and Insight Investments. She also served as an investment specialist at Threadneedle and started her career at former stockbrokers, BWD Rensburg, in Liverpool where she became a company director and led the internal research team.

Rebecca is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment and holds a BA (Hons) in Economics/Economic History from the University of Liverpool. She has passed the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing and the CFA Certificate in Climate & Investing.

Divya Manek, Director, is a Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Investment Grade Credit and Emerging Market Debt, Indexed Fixed Income in EMEA. She is also lead PM for BlackRock’s EUR Investment Grade Credit Paris-Aligned Benchmark Strategy, launched in June 2022.

Divya was previously at Santander Asset Management in charge of European Fixed Income (U.K.). Prior to that she spent seven years at Schroders working on flagship EUR/GBP credit mutual funds and managing segregated mandates.

Divya obtained a first-class engineering degree from the University of Mumbai in 2006, graduated top of her class at Cass Business School in 2007 and is a CFA Charterholder.

Nadia manages Bloomberg’s Global Regulatory and Climate solutions team. She also serves as an observer and previously co-rapporteur on the European Commission’s Platform for Sustainable Finance, is a member of the Green Technical Advisory Group for HMT UK and the Green Finance Industry Taskforce convened by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and sits on the Consultative Working Group (CWG) of the Coordination Network on Sustainability (CNS) for ESMA.

Nadia also supported the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission’s Technical Expert Group for climate related product disclosure and sits on the International Regulatory Strategy Group’s ESG workstream. Nadia was previously the Global Head of Entity Services, supporting regulatory product development for Bloomberg’s Entity Exchange platform.

She is a keen advocate for Women in FinTech and sat on Bloomberg’s EMEA Diversity Council. Nadia is also an ICMA mentor and coach under the 10,000 small businesses initiative. Prior to Bloomberg, Nadia worked at both JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, in a number of senior positions. Nadia is on the advisory board of Blockchain & Climate Institute.