Matt Christensen appointed Head of Responsible Investment for AXA IM

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) announces the appointment of Matt Christensen as Head of Responsible Investment, effective on May 2nd, 2011. He will be based in Paris and report to Christophe Coquema, member of AXA IM’s Management Board and Head of Markets & Investment Strategy.

“Matt Christensen’s appointment demonstrates AXA IM’s brand attractiveness and long-term vision as well as our willingness to position AXA IM as a serious player in the responsible investment field. I am convinced that Matt’s experience, network and reputation in the field of responsible investment will be an invaluable asset to AXA IM and speed up the integration of RI best-practices across all our areas of expertise”, Christophe Coquema commented.

Matt Christensen is a leading voice in the field of responsible investment, in which he has been working for nine years with great success. Prior to joining AXA Investment Managers, since 2002, Matt has acted as executive director of Eurosif, the leading European Responsible Investment think tank, grouping some 85 companies and representing assets totaling over €1 trillion. Previously, Matt has been a strategic consultant servicing FTSE 100 companies, before becoming business development director of the Motley Fool, a multimedia financial-services company. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School and an MA in International Political Economy from the Lauder Institute, both within the University of Pennsylvania.

Since 2005, AXA IM has been developing its “RI Inside” strategy, which aims to integrate ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) criteria into all of its platforms’ investment decisions and processes and to market innovative RI products such as the AXA WF Framlington Human Capital or the AXA WF Framlington Eurozone funds.