Making a difference for shareholders and the community
Chief Investment Officer Kate Thorley shares an update on Wilson Asset Management’s philanthropic and advocacy initiatives during the year including WAMI Gives, our female and young investor events and Pledge 1%. Kate also speaks to Future Generation Chief Executive Officer Caroline Gurney, delving into the dual impact Future Generation model and the two cause areas that are supported thanks to the continued generosity of pro bono fund managers.
Kate ThorleyHello and welcome to WAM Vault. My name is Kate Thorley and I am the CEO of Wilson Asset Management. I am also joined here with our Future Generation CEO Caroline Gurney and we will hear from her a little later on the Future Generation companies as it is a huge part of how we continue to make a difference. Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation who are the traditional owners of the land and I pay my respects to their Elders both past, present and emerging. After two years of communicating virtually, it was an absolute pleasure to travel around Australia in May and meet with so many of our shareholders. We look forward to seeing you again in May next year.
At Wilson Asset Management we are passionate about making a difference for our shareholders and the community and we do this in a number of ways. When we talk about making a difference for shareholders that’s performance in dividends, it’s also how we advocate for all retail investors and finally it’s how we engage and communicate with all of our shareholders and the community. We are a part of the philanthropic pledge 1% movement where we have committed to give back 1% of our profits and volunteer time each year to the community. As part of this, we provide all staff members with $10,000 dollars each year to donate to not-for-profit organisations of their choice by our WAMI Gives Program. It is incredible to hear from our team members of where they choose to make their donations and the way that they also choose to support these organisations. I am extremely proud of the work being done to support such great causes. These donations by the team members are made by Wilson Asset Management, the investment manager and not the listed investment companies (LIC) that your share hold is in.
Another key focus of ours is to promote financial education and literacy. This year we hosted our first Young Investor Event with the aim to educate and engage with the next generation of investors as they start their investing journey. We hosted our Women’s Investor Events to provide women with an opportunity to network with other likeminded investors and build on their financial literacy. It was great to see so many of you and we look forward to seeing you at these events next year. If you are interested in attending, please get in touch. We are really passionate about continuing our work towards a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) and with the help from our Future Generation social impact partners we continue to educate our staff and support a number of initiatives including attending the GARMA Festival, supporting the Go Foundation and also supporting the nation’s first indigenous residential college at the University of Technology Sydney which is projected to open in 2026. We are also the creator and lead supporter of the first listed investment companies to deliver both investment and social returns and for those of you who are not aware Geoff founded Future Generation eight years ago. I would now like to pass to Caroline Gurney who has been the CEO for the past year following three years on the Board of Future Generation Australia. Welcome again Caroline.
Caroline GurneyThank you Kate.
Kate ThorleyCan you please tell us a little bit about Future Generation?
Caroline GurneyI would love to. As you said Geoff is our Founder and when he was in London in 2012, he read an article in the Financial Times around this group of hedge fund managers and private equity guys coming together and working out how they could actually raise millions of pounds for cancer. Geoff got them altogether and they created a fund where nobody paid any fees or any performance fees and therefore gave millions of dollars over a number of years to cancer and it is still ongoing. Geoff saw that and wanted to work out how can he could leverage financial markets in Australia to do good, so that was when he basically came up with the idea of Future Generation. Geoff then had to go and find the fund managers, there were many of them in Australia and they all came together and as you said Future Generation Australia (ASX: FGX) was founded in 2012.
Kate ThorleyCan you tell us a little bit about how the model actually works?
Caroline GurneyYes of course, as a shareholder, you invest in these amazing fund managers both global and local and what they do is they charge you a management fee and a performance fee and they waive all of these for Future Generation. Instead of being charged that management fee, that 1% we then give to our not-for-profits and so that can make an incredible difference to them. Since inception we have invested more than $65 million dollars into these not-for-profits and that makes a massive difference to what they are trying to do.
Kate ThorleyI have heard Geoff and the team talk about this model being a win, win, win. Can you explain what that means?
Caroline GurneyI love that expression. Basically it is a win for shareholders and the reason why it is a win for shareholders is they get access, unprecedent access to these fabulous fund managers, both global and Australian and then in terms of our not-for-profits they actually get the money that we give them to do what they really need to do. They invest in frontline services, infrastructure and they don’t have to go out and fundraise for it because we support over a number of years and we make sure they have a regular stream of income which is incredibly important. The fund managers are really good at what they do and this way they get to do that while the money goes to not-for-profits. It is primarily an investment vehicle and what we do for not for profits is absolutely phenomenal and I think that really makes a difference, so therefore it is a win, win, win.
Kate ThorleyI know I am incredibly proud together with the team around the support that we can continue to give the Future Generation investment vehicles and how we have grown them over time. We are incredibly grateful obviously to all the service providers who do a lot of pro bono work and the fund managers that work together for both our shareholders and our not-for-profits.
