Helping drive our social impact through responsible investment

Here, Matthew discusses the importance of responsible investment at Australian Unity, how it sets us apart as an industry leader, and what Real Wellbeing means to him.

Tell us about your role?

I started in January 2022, in a newly created role for Australian Unity to create a unique, compelling, and coherent approach to responsible investment, stewardship, and ESG in line with our mutual structure, identity, and trusted brand.

A big part of my role is to implement Australian Unity’s ambition to be a recognised leader in responsible investment and stewardship (by which we mean a commitment to moral, ethical and prudent financial decision-making), and to build on our already well-established Community and Social Values Framework. I’m doing this through establishing a consistent set of principles for responsible investment management. This helps us to ensure we’re sufficiently bearing in mind the impact we’re making when we’re deciding to invest across our various Wealth products – by integrating our responsible investment and ESG principles into the decision-making process.

What led you to a career in responsible investment?

I had always wanted to pursue a career in funds management. I spent close to eight years in various trading roles across a couple of institutions throughout the early part of my career. I was then fortunate to get a position as an investment analyst at Uniting Financial Services (UFS). I actually thought I would only be there for a couple of years, as a steppingstone into another position at a larger organisation. However, it was nearly 22 years later that I left to come and work here at Australian Unity!

One of the first things they gave me to read when I started my role at UFS was the Ethical and ESG Investment Policy, which was first established in the 1980s. It certainly opened my eyes to the world of responsible investment and built a passion in me to pursue that opportunity. That led to me managing their balance sheet and multi assets funds with an Ethical and ESG lens and building on the corporate sustainability initiatives.

Why do you think responsible investing is important for Australian Unity?

Australian Unity’s brand ambition is to be the most trusted wellbeing company, which is supported by our ambition to become a leader in responsible investment and stewardship, focusing on corporate sustainability, ESG and practices aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

This will build on and enhance our existing Community and Social Value framework.

Rather than merely adopting current market practices in these areas, our strategy is to create a unique and compelling approach to responsible investment and stewardship across the business. For investors, this means greater opportunity to drive positive social impact as well as superior long-term investment outcomes.

What makes our approach distinctive is that we’re proactively managing and reporting on the risks associated with ESG issues. We believe this is essential for proper stewardship and leads to better risk-reward outcomes for investors. It will strengthen and accelerate the commercial development of our investment products.

What have you liked the most about working at Australian Unity?

I’m enjoying the challenge of working for a large organisation with such a diverse range of business units. Working with a great group of individuals to implement a responsible investment and sustainability framework is something I’m passionate about and I’m lucky to have found that here.

 

There is a huge opportunity for Australian Unity to leverage the Community and Social Values framework, further its development and be a market leader in responsible investment. I’m excited to be a part of that.

What does Real Wellbeing mean to you, and how do you feel this is supported?

Real Wellbeing for me is the impacts of having a positive attitude and the flow on impacts that has to my family and the broader community we live in. That’s not always easy in the society we live in, with constant work and family pressures, including the challenges of media/social media coverage/portrayal of events, which are often confusing and not always an accurate/correct coverage of events.

As an Australian Unity employee, the discount for travel insurance has been great. I obtained a quote last year which was extremely competitive, offered good coverage and easy to get access.