Features

Sustainable September: confirmed speakers for the investment debate

Published

10 years ago

July 31, 2014

Blue & Green Tomorrow

Russ Mould, Catherine Howarth and John Ditchfield have all been confirmed as speakers at Sustainable September’s Investment Debate taking place at the Royal Geographical Society on September 23.

The event will see two people arguing for and two arguing against the motion, “The purpose of investment is maximising financial return and nothing else”.

The debate will be Oxford-style, with each speaker being given a set time to state their opinion and then being offered the opportunity to answer questions and respond to the other speakers. The audience will be asked to vote before and after the vote to decide a winner.

Arguing for the motion will be Russ Mould, investment research director of AJ Bell and the former editor of Shares magazine. Before joining Shares in 2005 he had worked as both a fund manager and an equity analyst for many years.

Mould will also be joined by another speaker who will be announced shortly.

Speaking against the motion will be John Ditchfield, director and adviser at Barchester Green. Ditchfield is one of the UK’s leading advisers on environmental investments funds, and advises a number of large charitable trusts. He also chair of the Ethical Investment Association and a board member of UKSIF.

Catherine Howarth, chief executive of responsible investment charity ShareAction, will be joining Ditchfield. Howarth joined ShareAction is 2008, having previously been the founder and lead organiser of West London Citizen and was a senior research at the New Policy Institute earlier in her career. She is also a board member of Green Alliance.

Moderating the event will be Simon Howard, chief executive of UKFIF. Howard has over 20 years experience in the investment management industry and joined UKSIF last year.

The investment debate is part of a series that will also see thought leaders debate the topics of tourism, retail and energy throughout the month. Sustainable September will conclude with an all day conference set to take place on September 30 at Westminster Central Hall.

Tickets for all of the Sustainable September events can be purchased here.