‘After a tumultous year, where next for ESG investing?’ investor and diversity campaigner Baroness Helena Morrissey in conversation with Dr. Dyedra Morrissey Oxford SDG Lab Programme Manager

Baroness Morrissey DBE

financier, diversity campaigner, member of the House of Lords, author and mother of nine

Helena has worked in financial services for over three decades, originally as a fixed income portfolio manager. She was CEO of Newton Investment Management for 15 years, Chair of the Investment Association from 2014-17 and became Chair of FTSE250 firm AJ Bell in 2021. She has been appointed Chair of Fidelis, an innovative specialist insurance company that declines to insure businesses that do not meet certain ESG standards. Helena is a Fellow (Governor) at Eton College, where she also chairs the Endowment Committee. She has introduced a new Responsible Investing Policy for Eton since taking over as Chair last summer.

Helena is well known for her work on inclusion and diversity. In 2010, she founded the 30% Club, a campaign for better gender-balanced boards. Since then, the representation of women on FTSE350 boards has risen from less than 10% to almost 40%. There are now twenty 30% Clubs throughout the world. Helena chairs the Diversity Project, aimed at improving diversity across all dimensions in the investment industry.

Helena entered the House of Lords in September 2020 and was appointed a Dame in 2017 for her work on improving diversity in financial services. She was named one of the 25 most influential City figures over the past quarter of a century by Financial News (2022).

Helena has written two books: A Good Time to be a Girl (William Collins, 2018) and Style and Substance, a guide for women who want to win at work (Little, Brown Books, 2021). She is married with nine children.