Sustainable Investment team

Our investment process

The investment process seeks to generate strong returns from investing in companies aiming to deliver profits through positive social and environmental impacts. The fund managers look at the world through the prism of three mega trends – Better resource efficiency (cleaner), Improved health (healthier) and Greater safety and resilience (safer) – and then 22 themes within these.

If a company has significant exposure to one of the themes, the fund managers verify how sustainable the rest of its activities are. For each company, the fund managers determine the ESG factors that are important indicators of future success and assess how well these are managed, via the proprietary Liontrust Sustainability Matrix.

Companies in which the fund managers invest will have robust business fundamentals with a proven ability to deliver high returns of equity (RoE) through sustaining margins and asset turnover. Typically, these companies have a maintainable competitive advantage through scale, technology or business model.

The Liontrust Sustainable Investment team manages a broad range of funds across equities, bonds, and managed funds.

Sustainable Future

GF Sustainable Future US Growth Fund

The Ireland-domiciled and Article 9 Fund under SFDR applies the Sustainable Future process to find the opportunities for sustainable investing in the US.

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Sustainable Future

Sustainable Future Monthly Income Bond Fund

The Fund seeks to produce monthly income payments together with capital growth by investing at least 80% of the portfolio in corporate bonds.

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Sustainable Future

Sustainable Future Cautious Managed Fund

The Fund aims to deliver capital growth, as well as some level of income, over the long term (5 years or more) through investing between 40% to 60% of the portfolio in global equities and the rest in bonds, infrastructure and cash.

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Sustainable Future

Sustainable Future Corporate Bond Fund

The Fund invests at least 80% of the portfolio in investment grade corporate bonds denominated in sterling or hedged back to sterling.

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Sustainable Future

Sustainable Future Defensive Managed Fund

The Fund aims to deliver capital growth, as well as some level of income, over the long term (5 years or more) through investing between 20% to 50% of the portfolio in global equities and the rest in bonds, infrastructure and cash.

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Sustainable Future

Sustainable Future European Growth Fund

The Fund applies the Sustainable Future process to find the opportunities for sustainable investing in continental Europe and up to 5% in UK-listed stocks.

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Sustainable Future

Sustainable Future Global Growth Fund

The Fund invests between 90% to 100% in global equities, applying the Sustainable Future process to find the opportunities for sustainable investing in developed markets.

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Sustainable Future

Sustainable Future Managed Fund

The Fund aims to deliver capital growth, as well as some level of income, over the long term (5 years or more) through investing between 60% to 85% of the portfolio in global equities and the rest in bonds and cash.

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Sustainable Future

Sustainable Future Managed Growth Fund

The Fund aims to deliver capital growth, as well as some level of income, over the long term (5 years or more) through investing between 60% to 100% of the portfolio in global equities and the rest in bonds and cash.

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Sustainable Future

Sustainable Future UK Growth Fund

The Fund applies the Sustainable Future process to find the opportunities for sustainable investing in UK-listed stocks.

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Sustainable Future

UK Ethical Fund

The Fund uses a thematic approach to identify the key structural growth trends that will shape the global economy of the future and then seek to invest in well run UK-listed companies whose products and operations capitalise on these transformative changes.

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Sustainable Future

GF Sustainable Future European Corporate Bond Fund

The Ireland-domiciled and Article 9 Fund under SFDR invests in euro denominated investment grade corporate bonds or non-euro denominated corporate bonds hedged back into euros.

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Sustainable Future

GF Sustainable Future Global Growth Fund

The Ireland-domiciled and Article 9 Fund under SFDR invests between 90% to 100% in global equities, applying the Sustainable Future process to find the opportunities for sustainable investing in developed markets.

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Sustainable Future

GF Sustainable Future Multi-Asset Global Fund

The Ireland-domiciled and Article 9 Fund under SFDR aims to deliver capital growth, as well as some level of income, over the long term (5 years or more) through investing in global equities, bonds and cash.

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Sustainable Future

GF Sustainable Future Pan-European Growth Fund

The Ireland-domiciled and Article 9 Fund under SFDR aims to generate capital growth by finding the opportunities for sustainable investing across Europe, including in UK-listed stocks.

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Meet the team

The 18-strong team has been managing the Sustainable Future (SF) funds for more than 22 years. A key differentiator is the fact all the sustainable elements are fully integrated within a single team. The team, which has over 200 years of combined experience, is headed by Peter Michaelis, who was previously Head of SRI at Aviva Investors and has been managing the SF funds since launch. The fund managers all joined from Alliance Trust Investments (ATI) as part of its acquisition and were previously running the Sustainable Future fund range at Aviva Investors. The other lead equity managers are Simon Clements (who was formerly Head of Global Equities at Aviva Investors) along with Martyn Jones and Chris Foster who joined the management training programme at ATI as graduates. Fixed Income investments are managed by Kenny Watson (formerly at Ignis Asset Management), Aitken Ross and Jack Willis who also started their careers in the graduate scheme at ATI. Harriet Parker leads on engagement activities across the team.

Peter Michaelis

Peter Michaelis joined Liontrust in April 2017 as part of the acquisition of ATI, where he was Head of Investment. Peter has been managing Sustainable Investment funds since 2001 when he was promoted to lead Portfolio Manager at Aviva Investors. Read more

Simon Clements

Simon Clements is a fund manager who joined Liontrust in April 2017 as part of the acquisition of Alliance Trust Investments (ATI), where he had managed funds for five years. Prior to this, Simon spent 12 years at Aviva Investors (previously Morley Fund Management) where, most recently, he was Head of Global Equities. In his early career, Simon worked as a Portfolio Accountant and Risk and Performance Analyst before joining Aviva Investors in 2000 to help develop its global equity and SRI propositions. Simon holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Newcastle, Australia, and a graduate diploma in Applied Finance & Investment from Securities Institute of Australia. Simon is a CFA Charterholder.

Martyn Jones

Martyn Jones is a fund manager who joined Liontrust in April 2017 as part of the acquisition of Alliance Trust Investments (ATI) and became a fund manager in November 2019. Prior to Liontrust, Martyn spent five years at ATI, initially as a graduate trainee and then as an analyst with the Sustainable Investment team. Martyn has an MA (Hons) in Management from the University of Glasgow and a Masters in Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cambridge. Martyn has completed the IMC and is a CFA Charterholder. Read more

Chris Foster

Chris Foster is a fund manager who joined Liontrust in April 2017 as part of the acquisition of Alliance Trust Investments (ATI). Previously, Chris joined ATI through the management training programme after graduating with a First Class Honours degree in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Edinburgh. Chris is a CFA Charterholder. Read more

Mike Appleby

Mike Appleby joined Liontrust in April 2017 as part of the acquisition of ATI. Having started his investment career in 1992, Mike joined Aviva Investors in 2004 where he was a Fund Manager and then appointed Head of SRI Thematic Research. Read more

Harriet Parker

Harriet Parker joined Liontrust in April 2017 as part of the acquisition of ATI. Harriet started her investment career in 2004 at Aviva Investors and was also a Research Assistant at the Department of Economics and Centre for Market and Public Organisation. Read more

Laurie Don

Laurie Don joined Liontrust in April 2017 as part of the acquisition of ATI, where he was an investment analyst of global equities for seven years and he started his investment career. Read more

Kenny Watson

Kenny Watson joined Liontrust as part of the acquisition of ATI in April 2017. Prior to ATI, Kenny spent 15 years at Ignis Asset Management where he was responsible for sub-investment grade bond portfolios including the High Income Bond Fund. Read more

Aitken Ross

Aitken Ross joined Liontrust as part of the acquisition of ATI in April 2017. Aitken started his career on the Alliance Trust Management Training programme in September 2010 and completed an MA in International Financial Analysis (Distinction) at Newcastle University. Read more

Jack Willis

Jack Willis joined Liontrust as part of the acquisition of ATI in April 2017. Jack started his career on the Alliance Trust Management Training programme in September 2014 and completed an MSc in Finance and Investment (Distinction) at the University of Leeds. Read more

Hannah Muir

Hannah Muir joined Liontrust in April 2017 as part of the company's acquisition of Alliance Trust Investments. Hannah joined the Sustainable Investment Fixed Income team as an Investment Analyst, producing sustainability analysis reports. Read more

Mingming Huang

Mingming Huang joined Liontrust in June 2019 on the Sustainable Investment Equities team as a Portfolio Manager Assistant, providing analytical support for the team’s thematic analysis and engagement. This followed a 9-month internship with the team. Read more

Deepesh Marwaha

Deepesh joined Liontrust in September 2021 on the Sustainable Investment Fixed Income team. Deepesh graduated from the University of Strathclyde in Economics and Human Resource Management. He holds the IMC certificate and CFA Level I. Read more

Nancy Kondelidou

Nancy joined Liontrust in September 2021 on the Sustainable Investment Fixed Income team. Prior to this, she worked for a year in a fixed income data related role. Nancy holds the IMC certificate and CFA Level II. Read more

Ed Phelps

Ed joined Liontrust in September 2021 on the Sustainable Investment Equities team. Ed previously completed an internship in the Responsible Investment department at Redington. He holds the IMC certificate and CFA Level III. Read more

Sarah Nottle

Sarah joined Liontrust in September 2021 on the Sustainable Investment Equities team. Prior to this, she worked within the asset management industry in an operations role. Sarah holds the IMC certificate and CFA Level III. Read more

Connor Godsell

Connor Godsell joined Liontrust in November 2023. He is an Investment Manager on the Sustainable Investment team. Connor has seven years industry experience and has an MA (Hons) in Economics & Finance. Read more

Linnea Bengtsson

Linnea Bengtsson joined Liontrust in December 2023 on the Sustainable Investment Equities team as an Investment Analyst. Prior to this Linnea was an Equity Analyst within the Sustainable Equity team at Ninety One. Linnea graduated from Durham University with a BA (Hons) in Chinese Studies.

Sustainable Investment: Annual Review 2022

This year’s Annual Review from the Liontrust Sustainable Investment team assesses the challenging landscape 2022 presented for investors with volatility across almost every asset class and major macro-economic and political uncertainties – many of which are still ongoing. This environment has been especially challenging for those investing sustainably. And yet, looking to 2023 they are more excited about the prospects than they have been for years.

Click below to read the Annual Review that covers the Sustainable Future process, fund performance, and work across impact measurement and engagement during 2022.

READ ANNUAL REVIEW