Maria joined IFM Investors in September 2023 to lead the Global Sustainable Investment team, supporting the organisation’s drive towards maximising long-term returns while creating positive and wide-ranging benefits for communities around the world.

She joined IFM from Scottish Widows where in 2020 she set up the Responsible Investment team and had been leading the work on incorporating responsible investment and active stewardship principles into the asset owner’s portfolio as Head of Responsible Investment and Stewardship. Under Maria’s leadership Scottish Widows achieved a number of significant milestones in sustainability, including divesting £3bn from companies not meeting their ESG criteria, publishing the industry’s first Climate Action Plan, setting up voting overlays in pooled funds, launching an ESG pensions app to show savers non-financial impacts of their pensions and developing nearly £2bn worth of new investment mandates with themes ranging from fossil-fuel-free impact to self-decarbonising, to biodiversity and more.

She holds an MSc in Strategic Planning and Investment from Newcastle University Business School and is a CFA charterholder. She is a member of the UKSIF Board and its Policy Committee, PMI Advisory Council and a number of government-led taskforces.