In this episode, Soros Fund Management CIO Dawn Fitzpatrick discusses how the pandemic has shaped her investment outlook, why it has accelerated a focus on ESG, and what she thinks differentiates a good investor from a great one.
On the fund’s ESG philosophy: “We are passionate about ESG and it matters a lot to us. When you look at ESG, it was building momentum across the asset management industry for years coming into 2020, but COVID really accelerated that momentum. And the two things that we’re really focused on is, first, diversity, equity, and inclusion. And you know, from our perspective, there has been a lot of ‘check the box’ activities by corporates and asset managers in that regard. I think going forward we—and investors at large—are going to demand far more granularity in terms of the measurement, and real demonstrative progress.”
On what differentiates a good from a great investor: “Understanding what you’re good at and understanding where you’re kidding yourself. An example of that is in equity long/short managers… I’ve worked alongside some really spectacular equity long/short managers. Almost every one of them thinks they’re good at timing markets. If you actually look at the data, they tend not to be great at timing markets, but I think it makes them feel good.”
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