Bant Breen:
You as an investor can confidently invest in the people and causes you believe in. And so we’ll go further into Justly in a second. But before we get there, Paul, tell us a little bit about yourself and your career.
Paul Karrlsson-Willis:
I’ve been in the financial services business now for 38 years, I started at 17. In the UK, I was part of Maggie’s army. Back then, there was a lot of unemployment. So the government has paid for internships in various companies, and I was lucky enough to get into a broker-dealer in London. What was even luckier is the manager I had, Lauria Genie, who was excellent and taught me everything from soup to nuts. I think that’s a key thing. My career is where it is today, thanks to having a manager like that. And basically, I work my way up, run various desks, spend a lot of my career at Fidelity, and spent 23-24 years at Fidelity both in the UK and here in the US. I spent a lot of time in Boston. But I’d run global trading desks, run global broker networks. So I’ve traded in virtually every country in the world.
Bant Breen:
Tell me more about what you’re seeing as the kind of opportunity and maybe some of the challenges that investors are facing in that ESG space.
Paul Karrlsson-Willis:
I would say the opportunity is new technology. This is a space where a lot of people are looking at and trying to find various solutions to a lot of issues out there, right across the board, especially when you start looking at the environment, as I say, Evie vehicles. I think the hardest thing, and I think this is probably the more important thing, right now for the investor is what is ESG? Because if you speak to BlackRock, they have their criteria. You speak to Goldman, they have their criteria, as you saw, which is a nonprofit, have their criteria, just capital have their criteria? And I think that’s the biggest conversation that’s going on right now is, what is it? Because everyone believes that there needs to be an impact. Everyone believes certain things need to be done. But there is no standard out there. Right now where everyone goes, “Okay, we know what the rule is, we know how to manage it.” There are a lot of questions being asked, right? There are a lot of companies out there right now going, “Hey, we’re going to be carbon neutral by the year 2080.” Okay, have you started yet? When are you going to start? So there’s a lot of that going around.
Bant Breen:
Governance has been one of these things that have been there forever, right. And suddenly, it’s bundled. I feel like they’re kind of universes of their own. It’s probably three measures are needed, right?
Paul Karrlsson-Willis:
It’s interesting because if you take a solar company, everyone would say a solar company, that’s ESG. Well, it could be, but what is their social and governance? So they could have a solution for cleaner power, but the way they run the company is not taking the S box or the G box. And again, that’s what a lot of people miss. There would be a company like, “Yep, that’s good.” This company is good because of these measures. And that’s why you’ve got, as I say and as you saw, the capital out there who are nonprofits, saying, “Hey, you need to look at the whole equation,” rather than just necessarily the product that they’re producing.
Bant Breen:
Paul, thank you so much for being on UNCAGED today and we look forward to having you back.
To see the full interview on the Uncaged Youtube channel, go to: