Pathfinder finds its mojo

Pathfinder was the big winner at the inaugural Mindful Money ethical investment awards.

Wednesday, June 30th 2021, 6:10AM

by Staff reporters

Pathfinder Asset Management took out top spot in two of the seven awards on offer at last night's awards ceremony held in Auckland. 

The manager, which specialises in responsible investment, won the awards for Best New Ethical Fund 2021 and Best Ethical KiwiSaver Fund Provider and was highly commended for its Best Ethical Retail Investment Fund Provider entry (see full results below).

The best adviser of the year award was won by Rodger Spiller of Money Matters. Spiller has been a pioneer in responsible investing.

The other two finalists were Peter Lee of the recently rebranded firm, Ethical Investing NZ, and Phil Aston from Rutherford Rede.

Mindful Money founder and chief executive Barry Coates says ethical investment has come of age and he was thrilled by the quality of all 48 entries.

"Mindful Money initiated these awards to celebrate best practice.

"This is particularly important for the investment sector since there is currently no requirement to validate claims of being ethical, green, responsible, or sustainable.

"It is one of the reasons we set up Mindful Money – to provide transparency and objective information.

"We hope that the celebration of these awards will drive best practice and raise the level of ambition for the sector as a whole," Coates said.

Unfortunately, about 30 people missed the awards due to the Level 2 Covid-19 lockdown in Wellington and a pause in the travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand.

"The awards show that standards are rising," said Coates.

"As several of the judging panels commented, the standard of entries is far higher than it would have been even two years ago.

"The bar for good practice is being raised, and quickly. Thank you to the 48 entrants. There were very good entries that judges would have liked to shortlist, but were unable to do so amongst a strong field."

Coates said he was grateful to the 26 judges who voluntarily gave their time to judge the entries.

“These inaugural awards have generated a huge level of attention.

"We are thrilled at the quality of the entries, the expertise of the judges and the support from our sponsors. We are looking forward to an even bigger and better awards event next year.”

Winners and highly commended:

Best Ethical Retail Investment Fund Provider
Winner: Harbour Asset Management
Highly commended: Pathfinder Asset Management

Best New Ethical Fund 2021
Winner: Pathfinder Asset Management

Best Impact Investment Fund
Winner: Community Finance
Highly commended: Impact Enterprise Fund

Most Effective Investment Fund for Climate Action (no overall winner)
Highly commended: Climate Venture Capital Fund
Highly commended: New Zealand Green Investment Finance

Best Ethical Financial Adviser
Dr Rodger Spiller, Money Matters

Best Media Reporting on Ethical Investing
Winner: Rob Stock, Stuff
Highly commended: Deleted documentary, Stuff Circuit

Best Ethical KiwiSaver Fund Provider
Winner: Pathfinder Asset Management

Tags: Adrian Orr awards Barry Coates Climate Venture Capital Fund Community Finance ESG ethical investments Harbour Asset Management Impact Enterprise Fund Mindful Money Pathfinder Asset Management

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