Opleiding: Sustainability Leadership in Investment Management (EN)

Value-driven leadership in a turbulent world

We live in a fast changing world, where the sustainability agenda increasingly proves most effective when approached from a risk and resilience perspective. 

Climate and nature are under pressure. What are the latest insights? What are risks and opportunities of the transition? How do we manage sustainability risks and ensure opportunities are recognized?

Investment management is all about building and managing future-proof portfolios with appropriate risk-return profiles, that align with our values and those of our clients. Sustainability leadership in investment management is essential to fulfil our fiduciary duty.

In this program we explore the meaning of value in investment management. The challenge is to balance financial and non-financial (or rather, not yet financial) considerations to make real-world impact. To translate ambitious goals to daily practice. This requires a new set of skills: the ability to innovate, inspire others and be a role model in the sustainability transition. 

Our leadership program combines strategic insights with practical knowledge of drivers and tools for value creation. By learning with and from each other, you will build new sustainability leadership skills and a strong sense of agency. We equip you to engage your team and drive meaningful change within your organization. 

The Golden Circle of Value

The program is founded on our Golden Circle of Value. This value-driven framework provides insight into the many dimensions of sustainability and impact within investment management. It offers a structured overview of the why, how, and what of both sustainable investments and impact investments. Covering both strategy and execution, it supports participants in managing portfolios that are future-proof and create real-world value. (The Golden Circle of Value, by Y.L. Bakkum & A.M. Wagenmans 2025, inspired by S. Sinek).

What makes this program unique?

This program offers an integrated approach to sustainability, impact, investing and leadership capabilities. Strategic insights are translated into practical application within the dynamic context of contemporary investment management (pension funds, insurence companies, fiduciary managers, asset managers and fund managers).

The Program

• Blended learning
  • Brief preparatory assignment
  • Two consecutive training days
  • Intervision moment in pairs
  • Online feedback session
• Group size: max. 12 participants
• English (Dutch optional)
• Trainers: Yvonne Bakkum & Anne Wagenmans

Participants receive the SUSC Sustainability Leadership Certificate.

Who Should Join?

• You are a manager or experienced professional in the Investment Management industry.
• You have the ambition to stay ahead in your job and the sustainable transition.
• You are curious about what becomes possible with the latest insights in sustainable investing and impact investing.
• You want to give more direction to change and explore with like-minded peers how to truly embed long-term value creation in your work.
  You feel this is the right time to strengthen your leadership.

Trainers

• Yvonne Bakkum

Experienced impact leader and board member

Yvonne is an experienced impact leader, independent consultant and board member focused on increasing the positive impact of capital.

Yvonne chairs the Netherlands Advisory Board on Impact Investing. An active impact investing practitioner, she advises Achmea Investment Management, chairs the Supervisory Board of Incofin Investment Management and is a member of the Investment Committees of the Social Impact Funds in Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam. In 2022 and 2023, she was included in the Dutch top 50 ‘Women in Sustainable Finance’.

As founding Managing Director of FMO Investment Management, she led the mobilization of more than EUR 2 billion in private capital for the SDGs.

Prior to that, she was Director of Private Equity at FMO, where she built a global portfolio of direct investments and fund investments. She began her career at ABN AMRO Bank. Yvonne holds a master’s degree in business economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

• Anne Wagenmans

Anne Wagenmans is the founding partner of SUSC. SUSC specializes in sustainability training programs for developing knowledge and leadership for the sustainability transition. Since 2020, more than 1,800 professionals and managers from the financial sector have participated in the programs she developed at the intersection of ecology and economics.

Raised in an entrepreneurial family, Anne is driven by the search for economic levers that can accelerate the sustainable transition. After completing her Master’s degree in Business Economics at Tilburg University, she worked for more than eighteen years at international organizations including FMO, AEGON Asset Management and ExxonMobil. In 2017, she obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainability from the University of Cambridge and afterwards became assessor for several Cambridge programs. Within FMO’s sustainability team, she contributed to renewable energy projects. In 2020, she founded SUSC.

SUSC develops her programs in collaboration with strong partners, serving clients such as Rabobank, ABN AMRO, KPN, Nationale-Nederlanden and ING.

The program is built around three core themes of the Cambridge Impact Leadership Model.

• Thinking

Participants will get a concise overview of key sustainability developments in investment management. We analyse how the energy transition, materials transition, and biodiversity affect portfolios and work in the investment management industry.  

Using The Golden Circle of Value as a framework, we explore how these developments impact the value of  investments and the value-add of various players in the sector. What are the risks and where do opportunities lie? How can leaders within pension funds, insurers, fiduciary managers, asset managers and fund managers assume their role in the sustainability transition?

• Values

Personal reflection on your motivations and intentions is a valuable part of the program.

You’ll gain unique insight into your core values, what truly drives you as a leader.

We also reflect on key skills essential for sustainability leadership, like systems thinking and understanding how market transformations unfold. These skills and insights are explored in greater depth throughout the program.

You will shape and articulate your own personal narrative for leadership. A story that will inspire others and position you as a role model in the transition.

• Practice

With practical insights, peer learning and effective tools, we support you to naturally and purposefully weave sustainability into your daily work. This approach strengthens your professional impact as well as your contribution to your organization’s sustainability ambitions.

Our strategic stakeholder engagement approach helps you actively involve both internal and external stakeholders in the transition.

This way, you increase your influence and create meaningful long-term value for both your organization and society.

Learning objectives of this program

By completing this program, you will:

• Deepen your understanding of the sustainability transition, including climate, biodiversity, circularity and relevant legislation.
• Enhance your skills to apply sustainability leadership effectively for value creation in the Investment Management sector.
• Develop a personal vision for sustainability.
• Gain practical tools to integrate sustainability and biodiversity into your daily work.
• Increase your impact and contribute more strongly to your organization’s sustainability strategy.