Active Ownership Analyst

Robeco is recruiting for a full-time Active Ownership Analyst within their Active Ownership Department at Robeco’s headquarters in Rotterdam.

Robeco is an active sustainable investor and a committed signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment since 2006. Robeco has a long-standing history in sustainable investing and is committed to drive positive change through being at the forefront in stewardship and its focus on ESG integration.

Department

The Active Ownership team is responsible for voting at annual meetings and actively engages in dialogues about environmental, social, and corporate governance topics with listed companies. The Active Ownership team fulfills a fundamental role in Robeco’s sustainability proposition and uses its resources to contribute to both investment results and to create societal impact; the Active Ownership team has a role to boost Robeco’s strategy on sustainable investing throughout the firm and associate Robeco with this externally. The team is also involved in Robeco’s exclusion policy. The team reports on all these activities internally and externally.

Position & Requirements

The Active Ownership Analyst works closely together with the team’s other Analysts, Engagement Specialists, and Investment teams in active dialogue cases.

The Active Ownership Analyst will be jointly responsible for the proxy voting process. Annually Robeco votes its shares at approximately 7,000 company meetings. Voting recommendations are insourced and customized to Robeco’s own voting policy. The analyst will be responsible for implementing Robeco’s voting policy, analyzing and deciding on how to vote on priority shareholder meetings. The proxy voting process is complex, requires systematic and accurate administrative execution and involves internal consultation within the team and with portfolio managers and analysts within Robeco. Due to the increasing number of shareholder meetings, increased client request for customization, process management skills are important. The workload increases during the voting season, which runs from March to June.

Outside the voting season, proxy voting takes less time, and the Active Ownership Analyst will join the Engagement Specialists in conducting the active dialogue with international companies. Robeco conducts active dialogues, often theme based, with international companies typically lasting for two to three years. The aim of these dialogues is to improve the long-term risk return profile and the sustainable behavior of these companies, in which Robeco’s clients hold investments. Also, the Active Ownership Analyst will be involved in projects for the team, often in close collaboration with one of the Engagement Specialists. Reporting on voting and on engagement is part of the function. Additionally, the Active Ownership Analyst is expected to play a key role in improving the proxy voting process in terms of efficiency and policy implementation. The Active Ownership Analyst will support the team in its working process and will be involved in various audits on those processes.

• The candidate has interest in corporate governance and sustainability issues.
• The candidate combines strong analytical skills and precision with sensitivity for relations and is a real team player.
• The candidate is self-motivated, diligent, and results driven.
• Accuracy and organizing, also under pressure, are necessary skills.
• The candidate has a master degree (or equivalent) and must be fluent in English.
• Writing skills and communication skills are well developed.
• Demonstrable affinity, knowledge of or experience with corporate governance is a must.
• A financial background is a pre.
• The candidate should have well developed Excel skills.
• As the team depends on the use of various ICT tools, the analyst must develop a basic understanding of and ability to maintain in-house built software.

About Us

As a Dutch asset manager operating globally, Robeco has always combined the best of both worlds. We have global reach and ambitions, while retaining our head office in our hometown of Rotterdam. Employees at Robeco share that combination: we hire and nurture people who can think internationally and put the client first, while keeping their feet firmly on the ground. We have strong links with academia, which underpin the research in our robust quantitative and sustainability investing strategies. Our people have backgrounds in finance but also in economics and geography. Likewise, as pioneers in emerging markets investing, our diverse backgrounds also add local knowledge. We offer an informal and flexible office atmosphere that gives people the room to be themselves, to grow and to perform to the best of their ability.