Scottish Widows has appointed Eva Cairns as head of responsible investment and stewardship.
Cairns has 18 years of experience in responsible investing and climate strategy. She also has experience leading large-scale change projects and undertaking economic analysis.
She joins from abrdn where she held various roles, most recently as head of sustainability insights and climate strategy.
Prior to that, she was an economist at global engineering consultancy Halcrow Group (now CH2M Hill), where she focused on environmental and socio-economic impact assessment of energy and transport projects globally.
Cairns says: “I’ve been impressed by the leading stance Scottish Widows has taken on responsible investing and I am really looking forward to working with all the fantastic people I’ve met so far. After 14 years on the asset management side, I understand the challenges and opportunities of the sector and am excited about the new challenge to evolve, strengthen and implement responsible investing as an asset owner, for the benefit of our customers.”
Scottish Widows chief investment officer Kevin Doran says: “We’re aiming to halve the carbon intensity of all our investments by 2030 on our path to net zero by 2050 or sooner and we’ve already beaten our 2025 target – investing over £1.3bn in climate solution.
“Eva’s expertise and knowledge of the sector will be extremely valuable in helping us achieve on our ambitious strategy and we are look forward to working together on making ESG central to our future success.”