-
Yolanda Courtines
, CFA
- Equity Portfolio Manager
United States, Institutional
Change
Our stewardship investing team aims to identify and invest in ESG leaders and/or companies measurably improving their ESG practices. They believe companies focused on ESG in conjunction with financial fundamentals have the potential to develop competitive advantages and increase their value.
Creating a flywheel effect
Seeking sustainable returns and stewardship
Our stewardship investment team believes companies that sustain attractive returns on capital can focus on positive ESG outcomes, leading to potentially higher stock prices and enabling further investment in stewardship. This may help generate a virtuous cycle, or flywheel effect, improving both profitability and stewardship over time.
Data-driven, fundamental research
The goal is to identify ESG leaders or companies measurably improving their ESG practices. We use analytical frameworks and proprietary rating systems, in addition to fundamental research and engagement.
Constructive dialogue and engagement
This investment team believes that working with companies to improve practices and focusing on the full set of stakeholder considerations helps them better assess management depth, risk controls, and innovation potential.
UNIQUE PERSPECTIVES
Meet the Manager
“Find out how Portfolio Manager Yolanda Courtines uses her cosmopolitan background and language skills to identify companies with outstanding steward practices.”
— Yolanda Courtines, CFA, Equity Portfolio Manager and Chair, Investment Stewardship Committee
Meet our stewardship investing experts
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Mark Mandel
, CFA
- Equity Portfolio Manager
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Carolina San Martin
, CFA
- Director, ESG Research
Insights
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Insights Posts
Shareholder activism in Japan: Integrating ESG within the investment process
In the final article within our series on shareholder activism in Japan, ESG Analyst Soo Ho Jung shares how the Japan equity team integrates ESG to help realize value for investors.
Quick Take
2024-09-30
Building resilience: Key questions equity investors need to ask today
Yolanda Courtines explores how equity investors can re-assess the resilience of their core portfolio against higher interest rates and more adverse macro conditions.
Article
2024-08-31
Our commitment to net zero
We share our client-centric, engagement-driven approach to net zero by 2050, including our investor toolkit and measurement processes.
Continue reading
Whitepaper
2024-08-31
Shareholder activism in Japan: How our engagement approach drives value
Equity Portfolio Manager Katsuhiro Iwai introduces the Japan equity investment team's approach to engagement, sharing a number of successful recent case studies.
Quick Take
2024-08-31
Activism – History and evolution in Japan
Investment Specialist Toshiki Izumi examines the history of shareholder activism in Japan, with particular emphasis on the differences between current and historical attitudes toward activism.
Quick Take
2024-06-30
2022 Sustainability Report
We appreciate the opportunity to share our approach to advancing sustainable practices across our investment, client, and infrastructure platforms.
Report
2024-04-30
The value in valuing employees
Companies able to adapt and respond to challenges in the labor market will find themselves well positioned for the future, say Equity Portfolio Managers Yolanda Courtines and Mark Mandel.
Article
2024-03-31
Assessing the impact of climate resilience
Oyin Oduya and Louisa Boltz discuss the case for impact solutions focused on climate adaptation and share high-level guidelines to help overcome the associated measurement challenge.
Article
2024-02-29
ESG integration in public and private markets
Two ESG leaders discuss why ESG matters for investors, and how their teams help inform the investment process. They also share their priority research and engagement topics for 2023.
Video
2024-02-29
Key updates to Wellington’s 2023 proxy voting guidelines
We periodically update our guidelines in an ongoing effort to help Wellington's investment teams vote proxies in our clients' best interests. Read about key updates for this year from two members of Wellington's ESG team.
Quick Take
2024-02-29
Focusing on value amid rising global challenges and opportunities
Our Sustainable Investing (SI) Research Team offers a high-level view of 2023 research and engagement priorities.
Article
2023-12-31
URL References
Related Insights
Reports and policies
FAQS: Stewardship investing
In this context, the definition of stewardship includes the ways in which companies balance the interests of multiple stakeholders, including employees, consumers, vendors and suppliers, local communities, and the environment, in their pursuit of profits. How a company incorporates ESG risks and opportunities into its corporate strategy also matters.
In our view, any ESG issue that has the potential to affect the financial outcomes of a company or other issuer may be considered “material.” In general, we see ESG risks as strategic business issues that can affect the long-term value of the securities we invest in on behalf of clients. Material ESG issues vary by sector. Wellington’s ESG Research Team has developed materiality frameworks and models to help our investment teams more accurately understand which ESG issues are likely to be most material to value creation at the security and portfolio level.
The team assesses stewardship by watching how successfully company boards and management teams balance the interests of people and the environment as they do business.
ESG ratings and research are integral to the ESG Research Team’s processes and function. Shared via a central collaboration tool, the ESG ratings, rationales, and commentaries help our investment teams assess the risks and opportunities they believe are most relevant to their investment process and to the individual issuers they may hold.*
*All investment teams at the firm can access the tools and dashboards discussed. Investor usage typically depends on the types of approaches the investor manages, or their specific areas of coverage. Investors managing portfolios in accordance with ESG- and SI-specific strategies, those incorporating ESG into their fundamental process, and those managing in accordance with client guidelines and regulations are typically the most frequent users of these tools.
We believe that ESG issues are strategic business issues that can affect the long-term value of a security. Therefore, as with any other form of risk analysis, integrating ESG analysis into the investment process may help investors identify both opportunities and sources of material financial risks, which may alter their investment thesis about a given security. Companies or issuers with high degrees of ESG risk can potentially face higher costs associated with regulation, litigation, consumer preference, or investor behavior.
Explore other sustainable and ESG investing opportunities
Seeks to invest in issuers that we believe contribute to a lower-carbon future, can help the world adapt to a changing climate, or are well positioned to manage transition and/or physical risks
Seeks to invest in issuers whose core products, services, or projects provide environmental and/or social solutions in a differentiated way, with the goal of driving measurable positive impact alongside financial returns
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