Responsible Investor’s Azizuddin and Mair win CFA journalism awards

Responsible Investor journalists, Khalid Azizuddin and Vibeka Mair, have won two major journalism awards from the CFA UK, the training and education body for investment professionals.
Azizuddin won the CFA UK Journalist of the Year Award for his groundbreaking coverage of the human rights issues involved in investment in Chinese surveillance companies.
His winning article from December 2018 was titled: Investors still bullish on Chinese surveillance stock despite human rights concerns.
It examined the ESG risks for the booming surveillance sector in a story that has since become a major international political and investor concern.
The CFA judges said the article “focused on the core CFA Program value of ethics – asking the question directly of whether we should be investing in countries where human rights abuses are as normal as economic growth”.
Mair won the CFA UK’s inaugural ESG Journalist of the Year award for her article, titled: Central banks and green finance: A policy revolution is taking place. The judges praised its “account of how the most important institutions are tackling the most important issue facing the planet.”
The CFA journalism awards are determined by reviews of multiple, anonymised submissions from leading national and investment publications.The winners are selected by CFA UK’s Journalism Awards judging panel, which this year comprised: Robin Black, CFA, Edward Caplin, ASIP, David Clarke, CFA, Laura Fauvel, CFA, Marisa Virseda, CFA and Yanrong Wang, CFA. CFA UK is the professional membership body for investment professionals in the UK and part of the worldwide network of member societies of CFA Institute.
Hugh Wheelan, Co-founder and Managing Editor at Responsible Investor, said: “We are immensely proud of the reporting that Khalid and Vibeka do as part of a great team of journalists at RI. We don’t shy away from the tough subjects on sustainable finance and we are always looking to be ahead of the curve on the major issues and trends that investors need to know about in this rapidly growing field. The winning articles by Khalid and Vibeka reflect this ethos, and then some. They’re both excellent, challenging journalists.”
The CFA awards for RI journalists follow that presented to RI Senior Reporter, Carlos Tornero, who won the Journalist of the Year (Investor Services) prize at the 2018 State Street Institutional Press Awards; it was the third time Carlos had won a State Street press award, dating back to 2014.
Azizuddin worked for a number of years in corporate strategy before retraining as a journalist. He is a graduate of Goldsmiths College at the University of London with an MA Degree in Journalism.
Mair is a Senior Reporter with Responsible Investor where she focuses on impact and social investment. She is also a mentor with The Student View, a charity that promotes journalism to help school children become creative and confident writers.