Second F&C RI specialist leaves prior to sale

Enrico Ponzone, product specialist for RI fund sales takes redundancy.

by Hugh Wheelan | July 24th, 2008

F&C, the UK fund manager, has parted company with a second member of its responsible investment team in as many months with the departure of Enrico Ponzone, a sales executive specialising in its ethical stewardship and climate change funds as well as its reo engagement overlay service.
Ponzone had only been with F&C for just over a year since joining in 2007 from Italian firm Osif, where he advised companies on corporate responsibility strategies. It is understood that he is taking redundancy from F&C and currently considering future options.
Last month, F&C’s director of governance and sustainable investment, Robert Barrington, announced he was leaving to become director of external affairs at Transparency International, the anti-corruption NGO. Barrington had been with F&C for six years after joining from from Earthwatch, the international environmental charity.
In January this year, Friends Provident, the UK life assurer, which owns 52% of F&C, announced that it was seeking to sell its majority stake in the fund manager and hoped to complete a deal by the end of the year. Friends Provident said the F&C business was profitable but did not fit its revised corporate strategy.
F&C runs one of the world’s biggest responsible investment teams, including 17 governance and sustainable investment analysts. The team manages about £3.4bn (€4.3bn) in assets, roughly 3% of F&C’s funds under management.
The fund manager this week released its reo report on engagement with companies during Q2 this year on environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks. It held discussions with 245 companies in 34 countries on specific concerns and voted at 1845 shareholder meetings.