Andy Braun, SVP & Portfolio Manager, PAX Large Cap Fund, Impax Asset Management met with Julie Cooling, Founder & CEO, RIA Channel to discuss the six mega trends paving the way for a more sustainable economy.
Impax Asset Management, a global leader in sustainable investing, centers its investment thesis around the transition to a more sustainable future. Leveraging fundamental research and industry expertise, the forward-looking active manager aims to identify companies well-positioned for a pivot towards a more sustainable economy.
While passive ESG strategies are often limited to historical weights and scores, Braun explains that an active strategy can more easily navigate and react to rapid changes in the investment landscape, while also investing in opportunities early, before the benefits of shifting trends appear in earnings statements. Braun points to six key themes or sustainability mega trends to watch over the next decade.
- Resource efficiency
- Vehicle Electrification & Autonomous Driving
- Revolution in Cloud Computing
- Clean Water
- Access to Finance
- Transformative healthcare
“We believe that there will be growth for those companies that are well-positioned in these trends and risks for those companies that are unable or unwilling to adapt,” says Braun.
The Pax Large Cap Fund is an actively managed blended core strategy. The all-weather fund is designed to deliver risk-adjusted long-term outperformance, and utilizes bottom-up stock picking and proprietary ESG research to identify strong, sustainable companies with attractive valuations.
Braun is Portfolio Manager of the U.S. Large Cap Strategy, which includes the Pax Large Cap Fund. Braun is also a member of the Pax Sustainable Allocation Fund portfolio management team, and a Portfolio Manager of the Pax ESG Beta Dividend Fund and the Pax ESG Beta Quality Fund. Prior to joining the firm in 2017, Braun was Managing Director on the value equity team at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where he led a team of 30 portfolio managers and analysts. Braun joined Goldman Sachs Asset Management as a Product Development Associate in 1993. He was promoted to Portfolio Manager in 2001 and served as Co-Chief Investment Officer from 2008 to 2014. Before Goldman Sachs, Andy was a Financial Analyst in the corporate finance division of Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. Andy has a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Harvard College and a Master of Business Administration in finance and economics from the Stern School of Business at New York University. To learn more, head here.