Sustainable Investment Team

Meet the team

The 17-strong team has been managing the Sustainable Future (SF) funds for more than 21 years. A key differentiator is the fact all the sustainable elements are fully integrated within a single team. The team, which has an average of 14 years of industry 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 headed by Stuart Steven, who was formerly Investment Director at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership. Stuart’s co-managers are Kenny Watson (formerly at Ignis Asset Management), along with 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

Stuart Steven

Stuart Steven joined Liontrust as part of the acquisition of ATI in April 2017. Stuart has managed multi-currency fixed income portfolios and investment teams since 1994, including at Britannic Asset Management, Legal & General and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership. 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 and is currently studying for the IMC. 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. 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. 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. Read more

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 20 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 he 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 fund managers invest in well-run companies whose products and operations capitalise on the transformative changes the Liontrust Sustainable Investment team has highlighted, may benefit financially from them and score well on ESG, business fundamentals and valuation. The managers believe identifying these powerful themes and investing in exposed companies can make for attractive and sustainable investments.

Funds managed by the team

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

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 investment grade corporate bonds that are sterling denominated or hedged back to sterling.

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Sustainable Future Sustainable Future Cautious Managed Fund

The Fund, which invests in global equities and bonds, identifies the key structural growth trends and then seeks to invest in well run companies whose products and operations capitalise on these transformative changes.

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Sustainable Future Sustainable Future Corporate Bond Fund

At least 80% of the Fund is invested in investment grade corporate bonds that are sterling denominated or hedged back to sterling using the Liontrust Sustainable Future investment process.

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Sustainable Future Sustainable Future Defensive Managed Fund

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Sustainable Future Sustainable Future European Growth Fund

The Fund identifies the key structural growth trends that will shape the global economy of the future and then seeks to invest in well run companies whose products and operations capitalise on these transformative changes.

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Sustainable Future Sustainable Future Global Growth Fund

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Sustainable Future Sustainable Future Managed Fund

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Sustainable Future Sustainable Future Managed Growth Fund

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Sustainable Future Sustainable Future UK Growth Fund

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Sustainable Future UK Ethical Fund

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Sustainable Future GF Sustainable Future European Corporate Bond Fund

The Fund seeks to maximise total returns (income and capital growth) through investing in euro denominated investment grade corporate bonds or non-euro denominated corporate bonds hedged back into euros using the Liontrust Sustainable Future investment process.

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