Nest Sammelstiftung, the Swiss multi-employer pension fund serving small and medium-sized enterprises, has named Marc Novara as its new head of responsible investment and member of the management board.
At Nest, Novara will lead the implementation of the fund’s sustainable investment strategy, collaborating closely with the investment committee and his team.
“Overall, we are strengthening our sustainable investments division,” Gerold Bormann, Nest’s chief investment officer, told IPE, adding that a new head of investments joined on 1 June; the fund’s sustainability team was also expanded last month.
Novara joins from the Swiss National Bank (SNB), where he was a sustainable investment consultant. He brings nearly two decades of experience at the SNB, including 16 years as deputy head of global equities, followed by almost four years in his most recent role, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Nest, which manages pension assets for over 23,000 affiliated companies, has embedded responsible investment at the core of its strategy since its foundation 40 years ago. Its investment policy is centred around exclusions and active ownership.
Novara succeeds Ulla Enne, who spent a decade at the fund, initially as a socially responsible investor (SRI) specialist and, from 2018, as head of responsible investing and investment operations. During her tenure, Nest enhanced its stewardship activities, selecting Minerva as its proxy voting adviser for global equities and partnering with Inrate for voting on Swiss equity holdings.
Enne’s exit follows the departure of Nest’s chief investment officer Diego Liechti, who joined another Swiss pension fund for small- and medium-sized firms, PKG Pensionskasse, with the task to boost investments in private markets.
Additionally, Nest has also commissioned Inrate, in collaboration with research consultancy Infras, to develop a sustainability rating comparing companies by environmental and social impact.
The pension fund has recently refined its sustainability approach in private debt, introducing a sub-sector classification, defined sustainability criteria, and an annual independent ESG review to assess controversies across its portfolio.
The latest digital edition of IPE’s magazine is now available
No comments yet