Over the last 20 years, Ares’ success has been driven by our people and our culture. Today, our team is guided by our core values – Collaborative, Responsible, Entrepreneurial, Self-Aware, Trustworthy – and our purpose to be a catalyst for shared prosperity and a better future. Through our recruitment, career development and employee-focused programming, we are committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive work environment where high-performance talent of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can build careers within this exciting and growing industry.
Job Description
Ares Management is seeking an experienced and enthusiastic leader to advance and embed climate change considerations into Ares’ investment platform, corporate operations, and overall culture. Based out of our New York or London office, the Climate Strategy Lead will work in partnership with Senior Leadership, investment teams, Relationship Management, and other internal stakeholders to drive value creation through the development and execution of a comprehensive firmwide climate change strategy.
Ares is a flat, flexible, and dynamic organization. The firm fosters a culture of collaboration, entrepreneurialism, integrity, and partnership, both internally amongst colleagues and externally amongst clients and other stakeholders. The Ares team operates with a growth mindset, communicates transparently, and cultivates a high-performance and results-oriented environment.
ESG at Ares
Building on our core values, we are weaving sustainability further into the fabric of our business. We believe a clear and compelling sustainability vision – one that unites our team across geographies, functions, and roles – is a pre-requisite to delivering our maximum positive impact. Our program flows seamlessly from our culture, animating each of our employees’ day-to-day work, ultimately enabling us to act swiftly with a single Ares voice.
We pursue an ESG strategy that is designed to address the most material issues to our business, starting with a Corporate Sustainability program – how we lead by example through our own corporate operations – and then scaling through a Responsible Investment program – how we amplify our impact through our investment platform.
We believe that by being a leader for integration of environmental, social and corporate governance factors in our business, we can in turn drive greater adoption within our investment and portfolio management processes and help create better investment outcomes. Whether it’s protecting and growing the capital of our clients, creating long-term value for our shareholders or aligning our interests with business partners, we are committed to supporting sustainable practices that generate positive environmental and social impact – not just now, but for years to come.
Reporting relationships
Reports to: Adam Heltzer, Head of ESG
Supervises: n/a
Primary Functions & Responsibilities
The Climate Strategy Lead will collaborate with professionals across each business line to build and execute a climate strategy aligned with the Ares’ firmwide ESG integration approach. This role will provide week-to-week support to various teams as Ares seeks to minimize its climate impact and capture opportunities to advance progress towards a lower carbon economy.
Specific Responsibilities Include
- Partner with internal and external stakeholders to develop Ares’ Net Zero Strategic Roadmap, and drive the necessary initiatives to achieve our targets, such as Ares’ annual financed emissions foot printing efforts.
- Partner with ESG asset class leads in credit, private equity, real assets, and secondaries to drive progress on climate change integration in their respective investment processes and assist with portfolio company/asset-level climate-related engagements.
- Develop scalable tools to assist portfolio companies and assets in accelerating their decarbonization plans.
- Manage Ares’ external climate-related reporting (e.g., TCFD reporting, LP requests, external website, etc.).
- Partner with Ares’ Finance and Accounting team to develop an approach to carbon accounting for scope 3 financed emissions.
- Manage Ares’ Climate Action Group, a community of 40 colleagues across investment groups and business functions, including the annual Climate off-site and quarterly update calls to drive action and accountability on our climate goals.
- Engage with external industry networks to advance net zero and decarbonization frameworks for private markets.
- Partner with colleagues investing in fossil fuels to implement and continuously improve our approach to engagement.
- Work with Ares’ Corporate Strategy and Infrastructure Opportunities teams to identify new climate-related business opportunities.
- Analyze climate-related firmwide risks and work with relevant corporate functions counterparts to establish mitigating practices.
- Establish Ares’ reputation as a thought leader on climate change through the publication of white papers, external speaking engagements and representation in industry groups/forums.
Qualifications
Education:
- Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in environmental science, environmental management, energy studies, or related field. MBA or equivalent degree in finance, economics or environmental management strongly preferred.
Experience Required
- Minimum of 8-10+ years of experience in climate/ESG-related business practices, investments, and sustainability, preferably within the financial services industry. Alternative asset investment experience is preferred.
- Strong knowledge of climate and carbon including risks, reporting and regulatory frameworks and how to develop and execute a strategy for integrating climate analysis and action into the lifecycle of investments from diligence to disposition.
- An ability to work effectively with a range of stakeholders with varying degrees of climate knowledge and ‘meet them where they are’ as it relates to incorporating climate initiatives.
- Familiarity and working knowledge of relevant frameworks and standards such as TCFD, NZAM, PCAF, etc.
General Requirements
- Outstanding communication, collaboration, interpersonal and influencing skills.
- Demonstrated success in managing complex projects or programs in matrixed organization.
- Knowledge and experience in greenhouse gas accounting.
- Knowledge and experience implementing SBTs and Net Zero strategies strongly preferred.
- Strong private markets operational orientation and understanding.
- Track record of driving results/impact across an organization.
- General knowledge of the finance sector levers for change as they relate to climate initiatives.
- Strong networking and relationship building skills with LPs, other relevant external parties (e.g., counterparts at comparable firms, industry leaders, et cetera).
- Outstanding communicator and inspiring leader.
- Strategic thinker with an ability to work independently and proactively; keen eye for detail as well as the ability to focus and drive towards the bigger picture.
- Sharp presentation skills, meeting facilitation, negotiation, interpersonal, decision making, consensus building and collaboration ease.
Reporting Relationships
Head of ESG