LGIM hires impact expert to replace Sacha Sadan as stewardship head

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) has appointed an impact investment specialist as its Head of Investment Stewardship, replacing Sacha Sadan. 

In a sign of the growing focus on real-economy impact, the $1.8trn asset manager has poached a UN expert in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to head up its engagement efforts with companies. 

Kurt Morriesen will join LGIM in January from the United Nations Development Programme, where he spent the past three years as a Senior Adviser for Impact Investments and SDGs. Before that, he was a Senior Manager for Impact Investing at the Principles for Responsible Investment for three years – during which time he authored the Impact Investing Market Map to help investors find impact opportunities in listed equities. 

Morriesen also spent time as a consultant in South Africa, working with the executives of mining companies to help improve their sustainability strategies. Between 2009 and 2013, he was a Senior ESG Analyst at The World Bank, where he focused on ESG risk in the Middle East and North Africa, and designed a fund to invest in ‘pro-poor’ infrastructure investments in India and Pakistan. He has also worked for the World Bank’s for-profit arm, the International Finance Corporation, designing ESG metrics. 

LGIM’s sustainability team has lost two of its biggest hitters this year. In July, Sacha Sadan stepped down after more than a decade as the firm’s Director of Investment Stewardship to become the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s Director of ESG. Morriesen is his replacement and will report to CEO Michelle Scrimgeour. Earlier this month, RI revealed that Meryam Omi, LGIM’s long-standing Head of Sustainability and Responsible Investment Strategy, is also leaving to take the reins at a new, non-profit decarbonisation body.