Mamadou-Abou Sarr was named global head of ESG investing at Northern Trust Asset Management.
It is a new position “designed to meet increasing demand for responsible investing strategies in markets worldwide,” a statement from Northern Trust said.
Mr. Sarr, who was senior product specialist for global index management at Northern Trust, with a strong focus on environmental, social and governance, will continue to be based in Abu Dhabi, and will report to Wayne Bowers, London-based CEO and chief investment officer of asset management for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific.
The equity strategy team is picking up his duties.
Mr. Sarr's duties will include leading a cross-functional working group to develop ESG products and thought leadership
Mr. Sarr helped develop in the past year a set of three funds for the European institutional market that integrate ESG factors in the investment process and that have attracted $1 billion in assets. The funds include a specialty emerging markets index fund that excludes companies with extensive fossil-fuel reserves and companies with high greenhouse gas emissions and that was created last fall with $500 million in assets, including investment from 260 billion kronor ($38.6 billion) AP4, a Stockholm-based national pension fund.
Northern Trust has $58.4 billion in assets under management across a globally diverse set of ESG screened strategies, the statement said.
