Lindsey Stewart is Director of Stewardship Research and Policy at Morningstar Sustainanalytics, where he is a sustainability and governance specialist. Based in London he writes regularly about how institutional investors engage with companies and policymakers on environmental, social and governance themes and is a regular speaker on these topics. He previously was head of Stakeholder Engagement at the Financial Reporting Council and spent 8 years at KPMG in various engagement roles.

Our conversation starts with Lindsey’s unconventional background where he approached finance straight from school instead of via a traditional college degree.  He describes it as a “moon shot” and details his journey into a governance specialists role, and some of the disorientation he experienced once he “landed” on the moon. This leads to a discussion around socio-economic mobility and the profession more generally and we look at the scaffolding that can enable such moves.

We turn then to a discussion of the current state of sustainability data, where the world of engagement has moved to and challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the area of sustainable investing.