Impact investment specialists, Worthstone describe their Social Investment Academy Impact Awards as a celebration of “best practice in the retail impact investment sector” and an opportunity to champion those whose work is “leading the market in aligning retail investment strategies to achieve positive social and financial outcomes”.
We were honoured to be shortlisted in two categories at this year’s ceremony, and are delighted to announce that our company won the ‘Impact Award for Financial Advisory Firm’, which was presented to our managing director, Chris Welsford, by Elizabeth Chorley, chair of the UK Government’s Implementation Taskforce for Social Impact Investment.
We won the award because of our company’s overriding investment philosophy that places sustainability at the heart of our investment proposition, aligning our investment strategy to the UN Sustainable Development Goals; for our ‘Welsford Reports‘, and for the work that our ESG team has been doing over the past few years – employing detailed ESG (environmental, social and governance) screening to scrutinise companies in the funds included in our clients’ portfolios, and encouraging fund managers to hold these companies to account, if necessary, where we think they may be engaging in unsustainable practices.
The event was hosted at the The Conduit in London, on the 8th November, and the panel of judges – which was independent of Worthstone – were Jamie Broderick, former head of UBS Wealth Management; Abigail Rotheroe, head of Impact at Project Snowball; Russell Facer, managing director at threesixtyservices LLP; Evita Zanuso, senior director at Big Society Capital; and Aine Kelly, independent impact consultant at the Impact Management Project.
Alongside the awards ceremony, the event played host to a number of speakers, including a keynote speech by Katherine Brown from the World Economic Forum. Ayres Punchard’s managing director, Chris Welsford – who was also shortlisted for the ‘Impact Award for Individual Financial Adviser’ – delivered a short presentation which you can watch below:
