Sustainability team and resources

Our sustainable investing team has been structured to enable abrdn to make investment-critical decisions with a comprehensive top-down and bottom-up view of sustainability.

Our global efforts are led by our Chief Sustainability Officer, Amanda Young. She is supported by her global Sustainability Group, which makes up abrdn's Sustainable Investing leadership team.

The Sustainability Group focuses on four key pillars: delivering insight, investment frameworks & standards, active ownership, as well as client & commercial focus. They are the subject matter experts that derive insight across sustainability trends and sets standards on matters across the firm including our investment process, compliance, voting policy, engagement and corporate sustainability. They are governed by the board of abrdn, the management and oversee sustainable experts throughout the business.

The Sustainability Group also launched their centres of excellence within key regions - Asia Pacific and Americas. They deliver solutions, insights and regulatory oversight specific to these diverse markets with a dedicated leadership and team structure.

Amanda Young

Chief Sustainability Officer

"By assessing companies against our stringent quality criteria, we are confident about delivering sustainable, reliable long-term returns for our clients."

Amanda Young

Chief Sustainability Officer

Global Sustainability Group

Amanda Young

Chief Sustainability Officer

Amanda Young is the Chief Sustainability Officer for the Investments business at abrdn, where she leads the sustainable investment strategy for the firm and the Investments business Sustainability Group. She has over two decades of experience in responsible investment. Previously, Amanda held positions at Newton Investment Management, CCLA Investment Management and Rabobank International.

Amanda graduated from Lancaster University with a BSc in Psychology and has completed the University of Edinburgh Business School’s Executive Women’s Leadership Programme. Amanda led a workstream for the UK Government’s Taskforce on social impact investment and co-Chaired the Scottish Purposeful Business Commission. She is a board director for Social Investment Scotland’s SIS Ventures fund and the deputy Chair of the Sustainability and Responsible Investment Committee of the Investment Association. She served on the board of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) and chaired the FTSE Russell ESG Advisory Committee.

Amanda has appeared on the Financial News top 100 most influential women in European Finance for 5 years. She was the inaugural winner of Women in Investment Awards Sustainable & ESG Investment Woman of the Year in 2021 and was on Financial News’ inaugural Fifty Most Influential in Sustainable Finance list in 2022.

Andrew Mason

Head of Active Ownership

Andrew Mason is the Head of Active Ownership within the Investments Vector Sustainability Group. He is responsible for the active ownership activities undertaken by our Stewardship team. He manages the production of our Stewardship Report and our interaction with the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) on stewardship matters and our relationships with a number of external stakeholders including, for example, the Investor Forum and the Investment Association. Prior to joining abrdn, Andrew worked on the development and implementation of environmental, social and ethical risk policies in the banking sector. Andrew is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and the University of Cambridge.

Dan Grandage

Head of Sustainable Investing - Sustainable Investing Frameworks & Standards

Dan Grandage is Head of Sustainable Investing at abrdn. Dan supports abrdn’s global investment vector to enhance investment performance through integrating ESG and sustainability in the investment process via the creation and oversight of standards and market-leading frameworks.

Danielle Welsh-Rose

Head of Sustainability Investment Specialists, APAC Sustainability Institute, and APAC Sustainability

Danielle Welsh-Rose is Head of Sustainability Investment Specialists, APAC Sustainability Institute, and APAC Sustainability at abrdn. Danielle is responsible for driving ESG strategy in Asia Pacific. and supporting the integration of ESG factors into investment decision-making in Australia and across Asia-Pacific, and advocates for the importance of ESG capabilities with clients and potential clients across the region. Danielle joined abrdn in 2019 from the Victorian Funds Management Corporation where she was Head of ESG. Previously, Danielle held senior consulting. ESG and corporate sustainability roles at Sustainability Advisers and VicSuper. Danielle has over 20 years of industry experience, and holds a Bachelor of Arts from Monash University, a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance from Kaplan, a Masters of Environment from The University of Melbourne, and a Masters of Laws (Juris Doctor) from Monash University.

Eva Cairns

Head of Sustainability Insights and Climate Strategy

Eva Cairns is the Head of Sustainability Insights and Climate Strategy within the Investments Vector Sustainability Group. She is responsible for leading abrdn’s Sustainability Insights team to establish abrdn’s views across our key sustainability themes, including abrdn’s climate strategy and approach to net zero. Eva has published a number of climate related papers and articles including ‘Investing in a changing climate’, our Net Zero Directed Investing strategy and she co-authored abrdn’s thought leading climate scenario analysis white paper. She is also actively involved in climate industry initiatives to drive forward industry best practice. Before joining the Investments Vector Sustainability Group, Eva worked at Standard Life Investments and managed a team of Business Analysts, focused on projects related to the investment process, risk and research. Eva joined Standard Life Investments in 2010 from Halcrow Group Ltd (now CH2M Hill), a global engineering consultancy, where she worked as an Economist focused on environmental and socio-economic impact assessment of energy and transport projects. Eva graduated with an MSc in Economics with Distinction from the University of Edinburgh where her dissertation focused on the social cost of carbon. She also obtained the Professional Risk Management (PRM) certification in 2014.

Asset class sustainability specialists

The Sustainability Group works together with sustainable experts that are embedded in our asset class teams across equities, fixed income, multi-asset and our real asset teams.

The asset class specialists integrate thematic and regulatory insight from the Sustainability Group, as a critical part of their portfolio creation and investment process. They also base sustainable investing best practices on guidelines developed by the Sustainability Group. This includes our active engagement, proxy voting and reporting processes.

Sustainability team and resources