Advocacy Talking Points 10 November 2022
Modern Slavery Webinar Series - Tackling Modern Slavery through Investment Management
Presenting to you the Modern Slavery Webinar Series co-organized by CFA Societies Australia and Monash University! This second webinar focuses on how investors can identify and address exposure to modern slavery risks in portfolios.
Overview
Modern slavery, which involves practices such as forced labor and human trafficking, is becoming an increasingly important issue for investors, corporates and the broader society. Globally, there are estimated to be almost 50 million modern slavery victims, and more than half are in the Asia Pacific. Across the region, regulators and market participants are stepping up pressure on businesses to identify and manage modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains.
What’s to come in the legal and regulatory landscape, and what are the implications for asset owners, fund managers and the companies they invest in? What is the business case for companies and investors? What role does the investment community play and how are they addressing such risks? Where do companies see growing risks in the post-Covid world and what efforts are they taking to identify, disclose and prevent modern slavery?
Addressing exposure to modern slavery risks in investment portfolios has been a key challenge for investors. In the second webinar, we invited a panel of speakers from leading asset owners and fund managers in the region to discuss how they identified exposure to modern slavery in their portfolios and ways to address them.
Recorded on 10 November 2022
Duration: 59 mins
Speakers
Clare is responsible for AustralianSuper’s ESG and Stewardship program for the Fund’s listed investments. Clare works with the listed equities team during due diligence to identify material ESG risks and value drivers and engages with portfolio companies to improve ESG practices.
Clare has over 15 years’ experience working in ESG and Sustainability. Prior to joining AustralianSuper, Clare worked at TelstraSuper in the Sustainable Investing team and IFM Investors where she worked with unlisted infrastructure portfolio companies to accelerate sustainability performance and set carbon reduction targets. Prior to IFM Investors, she headed up the Sustainability Team at Transurban, where she developed the sustainability strategy, led a program to rejuvenate road corridors and set corporate environmental targets.
Clare sits on the Steering Committee of Investors Against Slavery and Trafficking. Clare holds a Masters’ degree in Corporate Sustainability and Environmental Management, Monash University and Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business (Management), Monash University.
Måns leads Ausbil’s ESG team who take an active approach to engaging Australia’s listed companies on environment, social and governance issues. As a trained equity analyst, Måns also leads Ausbil’s integration of proprietary ESG scoring, research and ratings within Ausbil’s top-down bottom-up valuation approach so that ESG is fundamental in all of Ausbil’s investment decisions. Måns has been with Ausbil since 2015. Prior to Ausbil, Måns was the Senior ESG Research Analyst at AMP Capital, following positions at Carnegie Investment Bank, Macquarie Bank and Accenture, having begun his career in 2004. Måns is well known for producing and presenting consistent, high-quality ESG research covering the Australian market, and he has published numerous, highly regarded insight papers on ESG issues.
In 2022, Måns was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for contribution to the responsible investment industry. He received a letter of commendation from Anti-Slavery Australia in 2019. Måns also holds a number of leadership positions in the industry, including: Director of RIAA (Responsible Investment Association Australasia); Chair of RIAA’s Human Rights Working Group; and is on the steering committee of IAST-APAC (Investors Against Slavery and Trafficking – Asia Pacific). He is also on the Australian Government’s Expert Advisory Group on Modern Slavery. Måns holds a Bachelor of Science (Major in Business Administration) and Master of Finance degree both from Gothenburg School of Economics, and an MBA International from Griffith University.
Bei Cui joined the Monash Centre for Financial Studies, Monash University as a research fellow in May 2019, after she received a Doctoral of Philosophy in Finance from the University of Hong Kong. She is a trained finance researcher, who is capable of conducting rigorous industry-relevant research of academic quality. Her primary interests include sustainable investment, climate change, modern slavery, Chinese and foreign capital markets, superannuation funds, and market microstructure. Her works have been presented at many international conferences and featured in major media outlets.
Arti Prasad is Senior Investment Strategist for the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation and works on the development and implementation of the Guardians’ Responsible Investment (RI) and corporate governance policies. Arti’s role includes integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investments, and portfolio monitoring of ESG breaches. Her specialisation includes due diligence of ESG risks and opportunities on the Guardian’s direct investments. She also leads on aspects of the Guardian’s Human Rights approaches in particular modern slavery. She also has specialisation in carbon footprinting and working at reducing the Fund’s exposure to both fossil fuel reserves and carbon emissions. Arti had been with the Guardians for five years, went overseas for 2 and half years and returned again in 2017.
Arti is also on the Board of the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia.
In the time away from the Guardians, Arti did a stint at the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), Brisbane Australia as the Head of Responsible Investment where she developed, lead and managed QIC’s RI policy and approach. Prior to joining the Guardians, Arti was Senior Policy Analyst at the Ministry for Environment, working on policy decisions related to business sustainability, water and climate change.
Arti has a Bachelors of Commerce Degree (Grad dip) from the University of Auckland, and Postgraduate Diploma in Economics and Finance from Massey University, New Zealand.
In 2014 Arti was named one of Chief Investment Officer magazine’s ’Top 40 under 40’ in the asset allocation world.
In February 2020, she also completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors course. Arti is currently part of the NZ Government Leadership Advisory Group on Modern Slavery.