iA Financial Group celebrates Clean50’s recognition of Alain Bergeron’s responsible investment work

iA Financial Group congratulates Alain Bergeron, Executive Vice-President and Chief Investment Officer, for his recognition through the Clean50 award as one of Canada’s top 50 Canadian leaders in sustainability. The selection was made from more than 1000 nominations received by Clean50, across Canada, covering multiple sectors of the Canadian economy.

The Clean50 awards are given to 50 people from the fields of business, academics and government and are based on accomplishments delivered over the prior two years. Clean50 leaders are selected from among those who have made outstanding contributions to a clean economy.

“In the past few years, we’ve made significant advances in responsible investment and this recognition from Clean50 belongs to the whole iA team, from our youngest talents to the executive team and our Board of Directors,” says Alain Bergeron. “I am proud to be able to contribute, together with a great team of managers and investment professionals, to achieving our responsible investment ambitions, in order to delivers solid risk-adjusted returns in the long run, and in the process, advance the importance of a clean economy.”

The Clean50 selection committee highlighted Alain’s contributions to creating sustainable investing opportunities for a resilient world. He has the oversight and responsibility for iA Financial Group investments ($100B as at July 2022), with commitment toward the UN-supported Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI). Under this commitment and Alain’s leadership, iA’s largest impact has been to strengthen its sustainable stewardship considerably across all investments at a rapid pace. In the last two years, iA has almost doubled the number of SRI funds from 10 to 18.

Alain also created a strategic position – a head of Sustainable Investing, which has been entrusted to Maggie Childe, a recognized leader in sustainable investment in Canada. Under the leadership of Alain and his colleagues, iA Financial Group has also formalized and published a Responsible Investment Policy and a Sustainability Bond Framework, with the goal of improving the company’s capacity to finance our sustainable development strategy and increase our level of engagement with environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. In 2022, iA Financial Group invested a total of $300 million of subordinated debentures, issued as the company's first sustainable bonds.

Sustainable development is one of iA Financial Group’s major areas of growth. For more information about iA Financial Group’s sustainable development strategy: https://ia.ca/sustainable-development.

About Delta Management Group / Canada’s Clean50
Leading ESG, sustainability and clean tech search firm Delta Management Group founded, and remains the steward of the Canada’s Clean50 awards, created in 2011 to annually identify, recognize and connect 50 sustainability leaders from every sector of Canadian endeavor, in order to facilitate understanding, collaboration and innovation in the fight to keep climate change impacts below 1.5 degrees C. Ancillary awards also recognize 20 Emerging Leaders and the 25 Top Sustainability Projects of the year, as well as bestow Lifetime Achievement designations.