In our latest Quick Fire, we chat with ECI’s Head of ESG, Fiona Moore, to talk about her career in private equity, whether she worries about an ESG backlash, and why lists help her to relax…
Q: You are coming up to your 5-year anniversary at ECI? How has it compared with expectations?
One of the reasons I joined ECI was because they did a very impressive sell of their culture – but I won’t lie, there was always the concern that companies can say anything they like about their culture when they’re trying to win you over! But ECI have delivered on what they told me about their organisation – it being low-ego, supportive, collaborative – in spades. And that has been tested, whether it was going into lockdown in my third week, or even how ECI have supported me to return to work since coming back from maternity leave in September. They are very consistent in how they think about supporting people. They are individuals who trust you to do your job, and are interested in and focussed on problem solving together. When everyone is aligned on that, it makes work incredibly enjoyable and rewarding.
Q: How has your role changed since joining ECI?
I joined ECI as Head of Marketing five years ago and then after having joined the ESG Committee in 2022, I was increasingly picking up more ESG work and now have a dual role, splitting my time equally between Marketing and ESG. You might ask if that is a natural fit, and to be honest those are very much two separate hats. While being able to communicate effectively is important in ESG, if you are doing too much marketing in your ESG work, there’s something wrong!
It has been a fascinating new challenge shifting into the ESG space. I have always been passionate about how companies can be a positive force for good, and in my view the climate crisis can only be mitigated by governments, asset managers and companies making progress together. Beyond my personal optimism for what can be achieved, I also believe the recommendations that we make to our portfolio companies are driven by good business practice and are value accretive. So, it’s fair to say my role has changed a lot over the last five years and is more interesting and motivating with each new project.
Q: Do you worry about a backlash to ESG, given the shifting global politics?
As someone who thinks the climate crisis will be the defining and life-limiting problem for the next generation, obviously any negativity that will hinder progress concerns me. I don’t want people to lose their homes to floods, hurricanes and fires, and when those things do happen, I hope people will move to action as they come to understand that this will happen more frequently, that our lives will become more difficult to insure, and we will increasingly suffer loss due to extreme weather. So, when that doesn’t happen, and instead commentators spend time discussing the backlash to ESG as a concept, that does sadden me.
But, despite all that, when it comes to the work I do at ECI, I genuinely don’t think about it too much. The label ESG is really just a way of describing preparing for the future. We would ask the same questions of a company as we do now, because we need to understand the risks and opportunities that will hinder or support their growth. At the moment, most of our LPs have clear ESG objectives and I don’t think any backlash from commentators has negated the strong global movement of asset managers to make progress on this topic, even if some in the US may be less vocal about it publicly. But even if they were less interested, it wouldn’t change the questions we ask and the progress we want to make, because we are not doing it due to some moral code we hold – we do it because it makes sense as a way of protecting and driving the value of our investments, which is our duty to investors.
Q: What does a typical day look like for you?
I would say managed to within an inch of its life! Having a dual role and returning four days a week post-maternity leave means that I must be very focussed and efficient in what I do. It can often involve jumping quickly between my two roles, so I tend to know what I’m doing each minute of the day before I start. It’s not a very cool admission, but my to-do lists are immaculate. They keep me sane when I get especially busy; I probably spend more time with my Trello board than is healthy.
As an example though, at the moment I am working with the ECI portfolio on their end of year ESG assessments, where we come up with a list of prioritised recommendations for what they are going to achieve over the next 12 months. I work closely with our Commercial Team to make sure those companies have the support they need to progress on those recommendations. For ECI, I am responsible for making sure the objectives set in our Impact Report are progressing, so today that includes starting projects to find ESG training providers, beginning the process of calculating our 2024 carbon footprint in support of our decarbonisation goals, and working with the ESG Committee to progress initiatives around DEI such as evolving our internship programme. Then on the marketing side, I have a call with our PR agency to discuss upcoming appointments across our portfolio, I am drafting an article on SME challenges in 2025 and creating our social posts for the next week. So, there’s no doubt it’s busy, but very varied.
Quick Fire with Fiona:
What did you think you would be when you were younger?
When I was five, I genuinely thought being a fairy was a profession and was very disappointed when I found out that no school existed to give me the required qualifications. Then post-university, I thought I would be a music journalist and did a number of freelance roles and sofa surfing for a while, before realising it was almost as unrealistic as the fairy idea…
What is your favourite film?
Either Roman Holiday or The Lego Movie.
What’s the best concert you’ve ever been to?
This is a hard one, as I probably have been to over 500 (I say probably…obviously I’ve got a list!) I’m going to say either Rolling Stones at Glasto as it was such a once-in-a-lifetime experience or The National at All Points East as I listen to them all the time. I clearly have the music taste of a middle-aged Dad.
What piece of advice do you like to give other people?
If you set your mind to it, you can do anything. What sets people apart isn’t so much what they can do, it’s whether they can do what they say.
