American Century hires ESG head from Schroders

American Century Investments, a $347 billion investment manager, has named Sarah Bratton Hughes head of ESG and sustainable investing.

Hughes is responsible for driving and executing the asset manager's sustainable investing strategy and the management of its ESG research platform and active ownership practices.

American Century opened an Australian office in 2018. It currently manages almost $3 billion on behalf of Australian institutional and intermediary investors.

She joins from Schroders where she was as global head of sustainability solutions.

Previously, Hughes served as an investment director at Schroders, an associate product manager, and a product executive.

Earlier in her career, Hughes held roles at J.P. Morgan Asset Management and JPMorgan Chase.

"Over the past five years, we have made tremendous progress in our environmental, social and governance efforts, building a solid foundation, deepening our ESG knowledge and developing innovative tools and resources," said American Century's investment chief Victor Zhang,

"As we look ahead, we want to accelerate our sustainable investing efforts and believe Sarah will help take us to that next level.

"In hiring Sarah, we have added to our team a talented ESG and sustainable investing leader with a distinguished reputation in the industry."

Hughes was named on Crain's list of Notable Women on Wall Street and won the Markets Media Women in Finance award for Excellence in Sustainability.

Additionally, she has written on  US sustainability policy as well as social sustainability topics globally.

American Century's controlling owner is the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, a biomedical research organisation.

The investment manager directs 40 percent of its profits to the Institute's efforts to defeat life-threatening diseases.