Aviva Investors announced today the appointment of Phillipa Grant as Director of Sustainable Investments for its Real Assets unit, with responsibility for delivering sustainability outcomes for clients across the firm’s real assets sustainable fund range, providing advice to support with strategy development and investment decisions, alongside delivery and reporting within portfolios.

Grant joins Aviva Investors following eight years at consultancy, engineering and advisory firm AESG, most recently serving as a Partner and Global Director of Sustainability.

Alongside the appointment of Grant, Aviva announced two additional hires for its Real Assets Responsible Investment team, including Elizabeth Ortiz as an Associate, and Jeremy Ho as an Analyst. Ortiz, joins from KPMG, where she served as Assistant Manager, leading on climate strategy development for corporate clients, and will focus on developing and delivering client sustainability objectives across private markets asset classes. Ho, who formerly carried out research for hedge fund, private equity and ultra-high net worth family clients at Pyxis Wealth Advisors and proSapient, will be responsible for sustainability research and due diligence for Aviva Investors private lending business.

All three will report to Edward Dixon, Head of Responsible Investment, Real Assets, at Aviva Investors.

Dixon said:

“Our recent Real Assets Study showed that 57 per cent of institutional investors have a commitment to reaching net zero, so it is vitally important we have the resource and expertise to guide our clients and show how real assets allocations can align portfolios with those objectives. All three hires bring an enviable level of expertise from across a range of geographies and sectors to address this need and we believe they will materially advance the breadth and depth of our sustainability offering to clients.”