Head of ESG Client Strategies, North America at Invesco – Glen K Yelton: ESG is Important for the Planet and For Us

Glen K Yelton is a leader in ESG with more than 20 years of experience in sustainable investing.

Yelton joined Invesco in 2019 as head of ESG client strategies for North America, and is currently based in Atlanta. He works with product teams to identify new opportunities in ESG, and contributes to building ESG strategies.

Yelton works in a 13-member team led by Cathrine de Coninck-Lopez, global head of ESG for Invesco. Previously, Yelton has served as the director of ESG and impact investing on OppenheimerFunds’ SNW Investment Team. SNW was an independent firm acquired by Oppenheimer that focused on building and managing customised and tax-efficient fixed income portfolios. In this role, Yelton led a team directly supporting Oppenheimer’s ESG and investment strategies.

Prior to joining the SNW team in 2015, Yelton managed the ESG research programme at IW Financial, a global ESG data and ratings firm. During his tenure, the firm developed and deployed several innovative data and ratings solutions. Before that, he oversaw ESG data collection at American Values Investments. Yelton has also provided competitive intelligence research for a variety of Fortune 100 clients across several industries, and served as an interrogator for the US Army and graduated from East Tennessee State University.

Invesco recently launched Invesco ESGintel, where its ESG team partnered with Invesco’s Technology, Strategy Innovation and Planning team to create a proprietary ESG ratings tool. The tool provides comprehensive coverage of ESG insights, metrics, data points and direction of change on over 8,000 companies.

ESGintel takes a sector materiality focus to select indicators to ensure a targeted focus on the issues that matter most for sustainable value-creation and risk management. This provides a holistic view on how a company’s value chain is impacted by ESG issues.

Invesco is committed to ESG investing as it recognises that ESG matters greatly to clients, communities and stakeholders. “It also matters to us,” says Yelton. “By 2023, our goal is to have 70 percent of our global assets to be ESG integrated and 10 percent of our AUM to be dedicated to ESG strategies.”

For Invesco, ESG investing is an essential part of the solution for a sustainable future and an important agent of change in driving a holistic perspective on the investment industry’s role. “Invesco’s commitment goes beyond delivering elements of ESG at a functional level,” says Yelton. “It goes to the heart of the way we are working with our clients to realise the value they seek.”