James Coke, MRICS, is a Property Committee member responsible for the development and delivery of the UK Real Estate institutional client offering. James acts as Fund Manager of the Threadneedle Property Unit Trust and Fund Director on two institutional client mandates, responsible for fund strategy and client outcomes (financial, environmental and social). James is also a member of the ESG Steering Group. James’ background is in UK real estate capital markets, working across sectors and funds at Columbia Threadneedle, and prior to that at JLL. James is a qualified member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, graduating with BSc (Hons) in Land Management from the University of Reading in 2006.

Letty Byatt is a Social Impact Analyst in the Investment Grade Credit team at Columbia Threadneedle Investments. She joined the company in 2022 and works closely with the portfolio managers to identify positive social impact opportunities for the social bond strategies. Letty also focuses on fixed income issuer and industry engagement to promote social impact investment awareness and best practice. Prior to this, Letty held senior roles in responsible investment reporting and client services at Royal London Asset Management. She has worked in the financial services industry since 2017. Letty has a BSc (hons) in Psychology with Middle Eastern Studies and French Language. She also holds the CFA Institute Certificate in ESG Investing and has completed a Sustainable Finance course at Cambridge University Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Zahra joined in March 2018 as a director in the Client Management team. Zahra has over 14 years of experience in the industry. Prior to this, Zahra worked at Investec AM in the North America institutional sales team. This was in conjunction with a role in Investec’s Investment Institute faculty, a strategic insights and engagement platform, developing ideas around long-term investing. Previous roles have included working at Aviva Investors as a Client Portfolio Manager for Macro Directional & Relative Value Hedge Funds and at Schroders as a Fixed Income Credit Product Specialist. Zahra holds a BSc (Hons) Mathematics & Computer Science from Royal Holloway, University of London and is a CFA Level III candidate.

Andrew Brown is an Institutional Business Director within the UK team and joined the business in 2005. In this role he is responsible for managing relationships with pension schemes and corporate pension platforms clients. He leads the Defined Contribution business, where he is responsible for proposition development and growing the company’s client base. He is a frequent industry commentator and previously Chair of the Defined Contribution Investment Forum. Andrew started his career at Henderson Global Investors and has also worked as a Product Manager for Interactive Investor. He holds a BSc in Management Sciences from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.