Franklin Templeton believes that a benefit from the acquisition of Legg Mason is that the combined firm now has a deep bench in terms of ESG thought leadership.

The firm has set its Stewardship and Sustainability Council to capitalise on its increased ESG offering post-merger.

The Council will be co-chaired by David Sheasby, head of stewardship and ESG for Martin Currie, and David Zahn, Head of European Fixed Income, and Head of Sustainable Fixed Income for Franklin Templeton Fixed Income.

Mr Sheasby, based in Edinburgh, and Mr Zahn, based in London, have a great deal of ESG experience according to the firm, coming from an equity and fixed income perspective, respectively. Both will retain their current responsibilities within their respective investment teams as they take on this co-chair role.

After eight years with the firm, Julie Moret, global head of ESG, has decided to leave to pursue another opportunity.

“We aspire to become a global leader in stewardship and sustainability and we are excited to announce the formation of the Stewardship and Sustainability Council that will leverage the considerable ESG expertise embedded within our investment teams,” said Jenny Johnson, President and CEO of Franklin Templeton. “While the strength of our organization lies with the breadth and autonomy of our specialist investment managers, we also recognize that an organization of our scale can have tremendous positive impact by working collectively on stewardship and sustainability matters for the benefit of our clients.”

“I would like to thank Julie Moret for her dedicated leadership and contribution to the firm over the last eight years, and we wish her well in her future endeavours,” she added.