Ester Nafee

In 2021 Ester Nafee moved to the Netherlands, in 2022 she joined PGGM. As an Associate Investment Manager she loves looking at investment opportunities and maintaining strong relationships with general partners. 

From Vienna to Rotterdam to PGGM
‘I studied International Business in Vienna, followed by a Master of Finance & Investments in Rotterdam. Afterwards I returned to Vienna to start my career in Mergers and Acquisitions in an advisory boutique, focusing on sectors such as Industrial Machinery and Automotive. In 2021 I moved back to the Netherlands and worked for an advisory firm focusing on Life Sciences before joining PGGM in 2022. I immediately liked the nice atmosphere in the Sustainable Development Investing (SDI) team and believed – and still believe - in their investment strategy. We invest in companies and funds that aggregate different companies. The type of companies we invest in are active in the sectors of Climate and Healthcare and focus on making a positive impact on the world.’

Improving standards and practices
‘I think impact investments should be seen as structural investments that push and sustain the economy of today and tomorrow by mitigating negative effects of major events such as climate change, decreasing populations and decreasing supply of fossil fuels. If these issues are not addressed, the outlook for the economy will be quite negative, which will affect our future returns. There is a direct connection between the focus that we as a society give to impact investments and the general returns and prosperity that we will be able to enjoy as a society in the future.

Fortunately regulatory requirements continue to increase which is pushing companies and funds to change and really start thinking about their impact and about integrating essential ESG practices in both the DD and holding phases. We have seen many general partners embracing this change and improving their standards and practices.’

Change is needed, also for our beneficiaries
‘Investing in impact is important; often institutional investors try to hide behind the fact that they should purely focus on providing a return for their beneficiaries. In our experience one thing does not preclude the other; we can provide the standard returns to our beneficiaries while also making a positive impact – as seen by the fact that our investment process is exactly the same as for non-impact investments. The reality is that a large amount of capital will be needed for the climate transition. As institutional investors we are one of the limited large capital providers and we are needed to make a change. In addition, also from a return perspective institutional investors cannot continue investing with the false assumptions that major events like climate change, an elder population and limited supplies of fossil fuels will have no impact on the economy, and as a result on our non-impact investments. If we do not tackle these challenges today, our investments of tomorrow will suffer as well, which will have a negative impact for our beneficiaries.’

Published 04-10-2023