SSGA fills ESG role with executive from CareSuper

State Street Global Advisors has appointed Xinting Jia to a newly created role of ESG investment strategist for the Asia Pacific.

Based in Melbourne, Jia, who joins from CareSuper, will work closely with clients in Asia Pacific to support the firm's ESG investment strategies and develop bespoke solutions to address ESG and performance goals.

Announcing the appointment, SSGA's global head of ESG and sustainable Investing, Karen Wong, said ESG investing represents over a third of the world's professionally managed assets.

"Xinting has extensive experience in sustainable investing in the Asia Pacific," she said.

"As institutional investors in the region advance along their ESG journey, the need to find the right ESG investment solutions is an urgent one. Xinting will work with them to understand the relationship between ESG integration and performance, the possibility of integrating stewardship activities to maximise outcomes, implementation methods to benchmarks, and address the ESG data challenges."

At CareSuper Jia led the firm's ESG policy formation, implementation, and stewardship.

Earlier, she headed up responsible investment in Asia at Mercer Investments.

At Mercer, Jia advised and helped Asian institutional investors integrate ESG factors into their investment processes.

A signatory of the UNPRI and a leader in ESG investing for more than 30 years, SSGA believes that identifying and systematically incorporating material ESG issues is integral to its role as fiduciaries of its clients' capital.

"Through strong engagement, voting, and thought leadership, it has seen companies respond to its calls to action to enhance diversity at the board level, strengthen board leadership and improve disclosure on sustainability practices," SSGA said.