Scottish Widows has announced that Eva Cairns has joined this week as Head of Responsible Investment and Stewardship.
Eva brings 18 years of experience in responsible investing and climate strategy, as well as leading large-scale change projects and undertaking economic analysis.
In her former role as Head of Sustainability Insights and Climate Strategy at abrdn, Eva was responsible for leading the firm’s sustainability research team and climate strategy for investments over the last six years. She has also co-authored a number of climate related papers including on net zero investing, climate scenario analysis and the credibility of net zero targets.
Eva has been actively involved in driving responsible investment best practice across the pensions industry, advocating for a policy environment that enables investing in line with sustainability goals.
Before joining abrdn in 2010, she worked as an economist at global engineering consultancy Halcrow Group (now CH2M Hill), where she focused on environmental and socio-economic impact assessment of energy and transport projects globally.
Eva said: “I’ve been impressed by the leading stance Scottish Widows has taken on responsible investing and I am really looking forward to working with all the fantastic people I’ve met so far. After 14 years on the asset management side, I understand the challenges and opportunities of the sector and am excited about the new challenge to evolve, strengthen and implement responsible investing as an asset owner, for the benefit of our customers.”
Kevin Doran, Chief Investment Officer, Scottish Widows, said: “We’re aiming to halve the carbon intensity of all our investments by 2030 on our path to net zero by 2050 or sooner and we’ve already beaten our 2025 target – investing over £1.3bn in climate solution.
“Eva’s expertise and knowledge of the sector will be extremely valuable in helping us achieve on our ambitious strategy and we are look forward to working together on making ESG central to our future success.”
