Net-Zero Alignment in Equities: Introducing the Bloomberg Equity Paris-Aligned Indices

Andreas Hoepner

Full Professor of Operational Risk, Banking & Finance and Co-Inventor of EU Paris-Aligned Benchmarks

Professor Andreas G. F. Hoepner, Ph.D., is a Financial Data Scientist working towards the vision of a Conflict-Free Capitalism. While the vision is unlikely fully achievable, Andreas’ view is that anyone can strive to make a regular contribution to reducing abusive conflicts of interests and thereby enhancing the fairness of our society’s financial system. Formally, Andreas is Full Professor of Operational Risk, Banking & Finance at the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School & the Lochlann Quinn School of Business of University College Dublin (UCD), serves on the schools’ management team as Vice Principal for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), and is a named supervisor for UCD’s SFI Centre for Research Training in Machine Learning. Prof. Hoepner is serving on the European Union’s Platform on Sustainable Finance (PSF) as one of five independent members (i.e. appointed in personal capacity instead of representing a legal entity) with a focus on data availability and data quality. Prior to PSF, Andreas served as independent member on the Technical Expert Group (TEG) on Sustainable Finance. In his TEG role, he co-invented ‘EU Climate Transition / Paris-Aligned Investing’ by aligning investment strategies across asset classes with the IPCC’s 1.5°C trajectory (with no or limited overshoot). Before joining UCD in June 2017, Andreas was Associate Professor of Finance at the ICMA Centre of Henley Business School (2013-17), where he remains a Visiting Professor of Finance. He is also Visiting Professor in Financial Data Science at the University of Hamburg, serves as a board member of the Financial Data Science Association (having been its inaugural chair in 2015-16) and educates investment professionals as Scientific Co-Director of the Chartered Financial Data Scientist (CFDS) and the Certificate in Sustainable Investing and Finance (CSIF) of the German Investment Association (DVFA). He is currently serving on independent advisory/assessment committees for various entities including BJSS, www.ClimateDisclosure100.info, the female-led fintech start-up Datamaran, the Deep Data Delivery Standards (www.DeepData.ai), Finance Map, the French Social Investment Forum (FIR), IPE Awards (Categories: Climate Change Risk, ESG, Smart Beta), and Kempen (with emphasis on boutique SDG investing). Andreas received his PhD from St. Andrews in June 2010, where he was on faculty (2009-13). He co-founder and chair of two socially motivated enterprises: ReFine Research Project which gives social reporting awards to pension funds and Sociovestix Labs (SVL). Cofounded with Prof. Borth, Dr. Hees and Dr. Rezec as a spin-off from the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence [DFKI]), SVL is committed to fostering innovations in support of the Sustainable Development Principles while adhering to the Asilomar AI Principles. Prof. Hoepner also leads on data science for the ‘Cyber Readiness for Boards’ project funded by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (2019-20), advised the EU’s Joint Research Centre on the EU Ecolabel (2019-20), served from 2009 to 2016 as lead academic advisor to the United Nations supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and consulted for organisations such as CFA, CISL, EIB, Mistra or the World Bank. Andreas is the sole inventor of a US patent titled ‘Investment Performance Measurement’ (No. US8751357 B1). He also won several awards including a 2019 (with Oikonomou, Sautner, Starks & Zhou), 2015 (with Adamsson) and 2010 PRI Best Paper Awards. Andreas publishes interdisciplinary in journals such as Accounting, Auditing & Accountability; Brain & Behavior; Ecological Economics; Environmental and Resource Economics; European Journal of Finance; Journal of Business Ethics; Journal of Business Finance & Accounting; Journal of Economic Geography; Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money or Research Policy. He is co-editor of the Cambridge Handbook of Institutional Investment and Fiduciary Duty, co-organises knowledge transfer conferences such as Promoting Sustainable Finance at the European Commission or the EU Science Hub Summer Schools on Sustainable Finance (1st / 2nd) and co-edits special issues of academic journals on Econometrics & Financial Data Science (1st / 2nd / 3rd), GHG reporting and the EU’s Green Taxonomy. More generally, Prof. Hoepner’s research earned him, aged 33, an invitation to serve as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015 for 'exceptional contributions to the study of finance, particularly ...responsible investment'. Aged 37, he was the to date youngest recipient of the Irish Sustainable Finance Person of the Year Award. Andreas is most proud, however, about his record as Ph.D. and post-doc supervisor with more than ten students having successfully graduated into roles at Fidelity, ICMA Centre, MSCI, or the Universities of Belfast, Cardiff, Hamburg and Oxford. Besides these academic honours, Prof. Hoepner’s research and views have been covered in international media (TV, Radio & Print) including BBC (World Business Report, Business Live, Radio 4 today programme, Radio 5 Live, South Live), Bloomberg, Financial Times, New York Times, CNN, Guardian, Reuters, IPE, P&I and Canadian, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Indian & Swedish media. He has also presented his research to key academic audiences (e.g. AFA, EFA, FDSA), relevant asset owners (e.g. AP 1/2/3/4/6/7, APG, AQR, BPP, BVK, CDC, Church of England, DBU, EAPSPI, Elo, GPIF, IAPF, IFC, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Lothian, MP, NBIM, NIB, OTPP, Pension Denmark, PGGM, PKA, Unisuper, USS, World Bank Pension Fund), regulatory bodies (e.g. Bundesbank, Central Bank of Ireland, CSRC, EBA, EIOPA, European Commission, FCA, IOSCO, SEAI, UBA) and data science specialists (e.g. Bloomberg, FTSE, Google, ISS, MSCI). Selected content of Prof. Hoepner has been translated into Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Russian. An extensive record of Prof. Hoepner’s publications, roles, and outreach activities can be found on his CV, which also discloses the ISINs of his personal investments to practise full transparency around any potential conflicts of interest. In professional roles, Prof. Hoepner believes that traceable signals make wonderful decisions. Hence, he commits to efficiently executing exclusively effective engagements. When interpreting academic behaviour, Andreas follows the credo: evidence is discovered, theories are promoted.

JAS CHIMA

Product Manager - Multi-Asset Indices

BLOOMBERG/ LONDON

With over a decade of experience in banking and markets, Jas has extensive knowledge within the financial services industry. Jas started his career at RBS in corporate finance and made the transition into derivatives as a multi-asset structurer. With a focus on index-linked products, Jas drove the adoption of new products in Europe and developed new and innovative cross-asset index strategies. Jas went on to roles in business management and headed the equity derivatives sales-trading desk. Since joining Bloomberg, Jas has held multiple roles within multi-asset indices and led various initiatives to enhance our indexing capabilities.

LINGJUAN MA

Researcher

BLOOMBERG/ LONDON

Lingjuan Ma serves as a Quantitative Researcher at Bloomberg. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Lingjuan spent eight years as a research manager at FTSE Russell, where she was responsible for smart beta indices development, integrating ESG considerations into factor investing and investment research. Before joining FTSE Russell, lingjuan served for five years as a sell-side analyst at Citigroup Global Markets and Credit Suisse. She also spent three years at MSCI Barra where she developed equity factor risk models. Lingjuan holds a MSc degree in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics and a MA degree in Economics from the University of Saskatchewan.