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Chitra Hepburn on investment returns

From Executive Passion Meets Pragmatism - Chitra Hepburn · · Collective Responsibility

“the whole point of the exercise is going to make a return and if you're not doing that then then you defeat the purpose of the fund and and it ceases to exist.”

Chitra Hepburn
Head of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Client Coverage - Asia Pacific, MSCI
Policy Impact investment returnsimpact investingESG funds

On , Chitra Hepburn, Head of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Client Coverage - Asia Pacific at MSCI, spoke about investment returns during Executive Passion Meets Pragmatism - Chitra Hepburn on Collective Responsibility.

Executive Passion Meets Pragmatism - Chitra Hepburn
Watch on YouTube at 5:04
Executive Passion Meets Pragmatism - Chitra Hepburn
Watch on YouTube at 5:04
About Chitra Chitra Hepburn is an international senior executive who has specialised in areas of Strategy and ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) in Asia for large corporations. Chitra's last role was VP Head of Corporate Communications & Sustainability for the Bayer Greater China Group and prior to that she was the Head of the Corporate Development Hub (Global Strategy unit within Bayer) with Bayer Material Science. Before joining Bayer, Chitra was heading up China Greentech in Shanghai, with a pioneering platform that created public-private sector collaborations with the largest corporations for partnership around sustainability, investment and innovation. For over a decade, Chitra’s career was primarily in investment banking (Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, WestLB) holding APAC regional roles in restructuring and strategy, having worked in Hong Kong, Singapore and Jakarta during her career, and has now been based in Shanghai for over 15 years. Chitra has a Bachelor's degree in Business & Finance and subsequently obtained her Master's in Environmental Economics from the London School of Economics. Chitra has a passion for languages and is fluent in over 8 European and Asian languages, including Chinese. Chitra has spoken at many public events on the topic of Sustainability to demonstrate the business case. About the #SustainabilityAmbassador Series Sustainability Ambassadors is a video series that we hope will not only engage and inspire you, but catalyze you and your organization into action: to identify those with the potential to rise and think outside the box, and build a collaborate community of such people that can help your organization forge new paths of longevity and evolve into something powerful. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with series, and follow us on social media to receive the latest updates on articles, videos, and more. For more insights on Sustainability Ambassadors, and to learn how to foster champions who can take your organization beyond business as usual, check out our Building a Sustainability Ambassador Network Report. http://www.coresponsibility.com/repor... About Collective Responsibility Based in Shanghai, Collective Responsibility is a strategic advisory firm founded by Richard Brubaker, one of Asia’s most recognized authorities on sustainability, innovation and responsible leadership. Founded with the fundamental belief that that a sustainable world can only be achieved through awareness of issues, finding tangibility in business cases, and development of cross-sector collaboration, Collective Responsibility acts as a knowledge base, catalyst and facilitator between stakeholders. Our mission is to: Create a knowledge base and catalyze discussion of issues related to the development of civil society, business sustainability and social development in Asia. Develop tangible interests, engagement and action on issues of sustainability (economic, environmental and societal). Build bridges between local and foreign resources to ensure knowledge transfer, program scalability and growth. Develop organizational capacity with the aim to help create stable and profitable enterprises. Follow Us: Website: http://www.coresponsibility.com Facebook:   / collectiveresponsibility   LinkedIn:   / collective-responsibility   Twitter:   / beyondbau   Weibo: http://www.weibo.com/p/1006065474445480 WeChat: http://www.coresponsibility.com/wechat/ Contact Us: [email protected] #ESG #Sustainability #Governance #CollectiveResponsibility
Chitra Hepburn

About Chitra Hepburn

Head of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Client Coverage - Asia Pacific · MSCI

Chitra Hepburn, head of Asia-Pacific ESG and climate at MSCI, said in February 2025 that the gender pay gap at "very senior levels" is not as wide as it is throughout the workforce. She stated that at the board level "there isn't that much disparity" and that board representation has increased year on year, with the region on track to reach a 30% milestone by 2026. Hepburn noted that regulations in Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong requiring at least one woman on the board have made a "massive difference" to statistics, while Australia and New Zealand lead at over 40%. She also highlighted a gap in women holding chair positions, which remains static at 9%, and said retention of women on boards is an issue, with women spending an average of 3.5 years on a board compared to their male counterparts. Hepburn added that sectors like healthcare have over 56% of companies with more than 30% women on boards, while information technology and communications have regressed to having more all-male boards. In a 2018 interview, Hepburn discussed her career trajectory from investment banking to sustainability, noting that she has lived in China for 17 years and observed the country's shift from "development on steroids" to a more sustainable pace. She said that finding like-minded people and carving out time for sustainability work were key challenges, and that seeing Shanghai's transformation kept her optimistic about change. Hepburn stated that "the whole point of the exercise is going to make a return" for funds, and that regulatory mechanisms have reduced compromises over time in ESG and impact investing.

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