LGPS Central joins the sustainability headhunt

LGPS Central, a management partnership for eight UK local government pension scheme funds, announced two new roles in its responsible investment and engagement team last Friday. These will increase the RI&E team from four to six people.

The £45 billion ($61.2 billion; €52 billion) partnership is seeking to recruit a responsible investment manager who will focus on ESG integration in manager selection and monitoring and report to Patrick O’Hara, LGPS’s director of RI&E. O’Hara joined LGPS Central in January 2021 and was previously an ESG analyst at USS Investment Management and Aviva Investors.

LGPS Central also has an opening for a senior stewardship analyst who will join the RI&E team and report to Valborg Lie, LGPS Central’s head of stewardship, who reports to O’Hara.

LGPS Central is planning “a range of fund launches… for this financial year across numerous asset classes” and expects to increase its private markets exposure and launch new pooled funds over the next few years, according to the job description. It launched its first dedicated private equity pooled fund in 2019 as part of LGPS Central’s plan to deploy more than £2 billion to private equity, affiliate title Private Equity International reported. LGPS Central did not disclose the size of this vehicle but said it was funded exclusively by its pension fund members. Approximately 40 percent is committed to managers investing in the US, 40 percent to Europe and the remaining 20 percent in developed Asia, Ian Brown, LGPS Central’s head of private markets, told Private Equity International.

LGPS Central represents eight public pension funds based in the Midlands, UK: Cheshire Pension Fund, Derbyshire Pension Fund, Leicestershire Pension Fund, Nottinghamshire Pension Fund, Shropshire Pension Fund, Staffordshire Pension Fund, West Midlands Pension Fund and Worcestershire Pension Fund.