As the UK's largest annuity provider, Phoenix Group needs little introduction from a savings and retirement perspective. Yet as an investment powerhouse, Phoenix has never been very vocal and indeed visible. That has quickly changed in the last 18 months since the group appointed Michael Eakins as its chief investment officer.
Since his appointment in June 2020, Eakins has established Phoenix Asset Management through a string of new hires especially in the illiquid space which led to a 67% year-on-year increase in illiquid asset origination to £1.3bn ($1.8bn) in H1 2021.
He raised Phoenix's visibility as an institutional investor by attending numerous forums, like COP26, and speaking at both the Labour and Conservative parties' annual conferences.
Eakins was also instrumental in embedding ESG considerations into the investment process. And perhaps unsurprisingly he says that one of his proudest moments of 2021 was the publication of an open letter to Phoenix's asset management partners laying out how it expects them to help the insurer reach its net-zero ambition.
"Being clear in how we expect to work with our partners to ensure that we work collaboratively to tackle the biggest issues our planet faces will be key to how we tackle climate change. The response from our partners has been fantastic and shows the desire to create positive change throughout the industry," he says.
The outcome of decarbonising the economy will play out over several decades, and arguably way beyond 2050. Asked if it is hard to start a fight he might not be able to see through, Eakins says: "I recognise it must seem easy for us to set a target that is so far in the future, when we personally will not have to deliver it. However, we will be personally accountable for the 2025 and 2030 carbon intensity reduction targets for our investment portfolio that we recently announced that are an important part of our journey to net zero."
For all these achievements and his dedication to sustainability, the judges of the Insurance Asset Risk 2022 Awards have granted Eakins the Judges' contribution to the industry award.