High flyer Caroline Escott joined Railpen on September 1 as senior investment manager for active ownership. At just 36, and a millennial in a senior role, she is a rarity in the six trillion-pound pension industry, not noted for diversity.
Of Maltese heritage on her mother’s side, she misses island vacations: “Wherever you are in Malta, you can see the sea. I live in south London and a very long way from the ocean and I miss it so much.”
At university she focused on economics with politics. “It sounds very cheesy, [but] I always hope to have a positive impact on the world around me.” She felt she could do this best through finance: “If you think about what makes the world go around, it is in large part flows of capital.”
Clutching a string of academic honours, including an MSc with distinction from the London School of Economics, her early career focused on parliament, working for three Conservative MPs, including David Willetts.
It was that feeling of being a bit closer to the beneficiary that made me think it would interesting to put some of the policies I have developed at the PLSA into practice
Caroline Escott, Railpen
She then became a policy wonk, most recently at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association. With three older brothers in financial services, it is something of a family business. “I do occasionally bump into one or another brother at the PLSA conferences, which is a bit surreal.”
At the PLSA, she has helped shape the regulatory framework while supporting the industry to get to grips with it. She declares: “We have done things. We haven’t just sat in a room and talked about them.”
Indeed, a practical guide for trustees she wrote on environmental, social and governance disclosures last year was the most downloaded piece of guidance in the history of the PLSA.
The industry body also published the first trustee diversity and inclusion guide. Ms Escott added: “We were the first organisation to publicly commit to 50/50 gender targets at all our conferences.”
She took on the additional role of trustee at Standard Life’s master trust in March at Covid’s height, becoming the UK’s second youngest to have such a role.
Ms Escott considers the position rewarding and fulfilling: “It was that feeling of being a bit closer to the beneficiary that made me think it would interesting to put some of the policies I have developed at the PLSA into practice” at Railpen.
Practice what you preach
At the Railways Pension Scheme investment manager, Ms Escott will be responsible for leading its active ownership work, which will include stewardship and voting rights. She will also be leading policy engagement on ESG and stewardship topics.
Investment woman of the year 2019, Ms Escott is an evangelist for diversity and ESG: “If you can tell a compelling story about how you are using someone’s savings to make an impact on the issues they care about [such as] climate change, or labour rights, or health and safety, that can go a lot further to making someone’s pension savings and investments seem real to them, in a way that a dry discussion of shortfall risks and security of assets doesn’t.”
Would a political career as an MP be her next move? “I would probably ‘never say never’,” she replies.
“If you are committed and enthusiastic as an MP, you probably have an incredible influence, but there isn’t a party where I currently feel at home.”
She adds: “There is so much interesting stuff happening in responsible investment and pensions. I hope to be in the industry for quite some time.”
