Andrew Parry: The highs (and some lows) from my 40-year career

After more than 40 years in the investment industry, Andrew Parry is stepping back from investment management and, most latterly, his role as head of investment at JO Hambro Capital Management (JOHCM).

Known for his early adoption of sustainability principles in mainstream investing, Parry’s retirement marks the end of a career that has spanned the City’s old-school culture through to the frontiers of AI and impact investing.

“It’s been 41 years in the investment services world – 40 of those in fund management,” Parry told PA Future. “I didn’t actually set out on this path. I started as an actuarial trainee. But when I had to study the investment papers, it was like a cartoon moment with a light bulb above my head. I was hooked.”

Parry’s first job was at Confederation Life UK in the early 1980s, setting annuity rates at a time when interest rates meant 10% annuities were the norm. But he quickly transitioned into fund management, spending the majority of his career immersed in equities and multi-asset portfolios.

His early years at Barings in the late 1980s typified the traditional investment culture of the time. “You could be sacked for wearing brown shoes,” he said, but it is there he made his mark rising to lead the UK equity team by age 28, overseeing a significant chunk of the firm’s AUM.

“That was both a highlight and a lowlight,” he said. “I had a lot of ideas but limited experience. My ego got in the way. I made some poor decisions, but I learned a lot about myself – particularly my short-termist tendencies and risk aversion. It helped me later to surround myself with people who complemented those traits.”

Parry later moved to Lazard Asset Management, taking on broader investment leadership roles, including oversight of asset allocation, equities and fixed income. His passion for team-building, business development and the evolving dynamics of risk management began to steer him increasingly towards sustainability.

That pivot was formalised during his time at Hermes, which acquired Sourcecap – the boutique firm he had helped build after winding down his hedge fund. “At Hermes, I learned what ESG really meant. It was an education. I began to understand the intersection of climate science and financial risk. It was fascinating, and it all made investment sense.”

His interest in ESG was strengthened following a museum trip: “A friend invited me to a dinner series at the Science Museum with leading climate scientists, hedge fund managers and NGOs. The complexity of climate systems drew me back to my love of maths. It struck me that all of this – non-linear systems, phase changes – had to matter for markets eventually.”

ESG as a financial metric

It was this analytical lens that helped Parry make the case for ESG integration well before it became industry standard. “There’s no such thing as ESG investing,” he said. “There’s ESG in investing. These are risks and opportunities – just like any other financial metric. Whether you’re a deep value investor or a momentum quant, you have access to the same stocks. The difference is how you analyse them.”

Parry went on to launch one of the UK’s first public equity impact funds and was instrumental in shaping the narrative around sustainable investing as an extension of fundamental analysis. “Our fiduciary duty hasn’t changed. We’re here to deliver returns. But we can’t ignore the macro context – environmental degradation, social instability, governance failures. These all feed into long-term value creation.”

His time at Newton Investment Management and then JOHCM allowed him to embed sustainability deeper into investment processes. At the latter, he helped build the firm’s proprietary Affinity sustainability platform, led collaboration with the University of Exeter, and designed the Horizon emissions alignment model.

“I wanted to help create sustainability infrastructure that worked across investment styles – from UK equity income to high-conviction impact funds,” he adds. “It had to be strategy-agnostic and probabilistic – less about making bold claims and more about giving fund managers the tools to ask the right questions.

“The industry has a habit of trying to measure 2050 warming outcomes to two decimal places. That’s just not credible. You need to work with probabilities, not certainties. CEOs can promise net zero, but if the business isn’t behaving accordingly, the numbers won’t stack up.”

While Parry acknowledges the frustrations around ESG and its evolving definitions, he’s keen to protect its core purpose. “We need to be realistic. Investing isn’t activism. You can’t be naive or idealistic in public markets. But you can be thoughtful, informed, and aligned with long-term value.”

Industry influence

A period of ill health – which he has recovered from – led him to the decision to retire from investment management, but it is clear he will have a lasting impact on the sustainable investment space and individuals he worked with. “Reading the comments on my retirement post on LinkedIn made me tear up,” he admits. “People I made redundant saying I helped shape their careers. That matters more than any client win.”

Though officially retired, Parry is still serving on an investment committee and remains open to sharing his perspectives. “I’m not going completely lazy,” he quips. “But I’m also enjoying the slower pace—and the freedom to have opinions without having to toe a line.”

When asked what advice he’d give to newcomers to the industry, Parry reflected: “Be patient. The investment world isn’t linear. You’ll face setbacks. Keep learning, stay curious, but also know yourself – understand whether you’re here to invest or to be a sustainability expert. They’re not the same role.”

And he also offered a warning: “If your primary driver is environmental or social change, maybe you’d be more effective outside asset management. Sustainable investing is about balancing competing risks, not wishful thinking. It’s messy, political and full of compromise.”

See also: When the ESG tourists leave

AI, consolidation and cultural change

While he may be stepping back from day-to-day roles, Parry is far from done in terms of thinking about the industry’s future, and his written contributions to PA Future over his time as member of the PA Future Committee have been highly engaged with by our audience. Looking ahead, he said: “We’re in a healthy period of consolidation. There are too many firms, too many products. Zero productivity growth in financial services for a century. That has to change.”

He sees technology – and AI in particular – as the catalyst. “Firms that adopt and embed AI thoughtfully will be streets ahead. But they’ll need to overcome legacy systems, regulation and inertia. AI won’t tell you what stock to buy next week, but as a research and efficiency tool, it’s transformative.”

He’s also hopeful for regulatory reform: “Right now, UK regulation stifles entrepreneurialism. We need to create space for innovation and new entrants, or we’ll end up with a handful of behemoths and no competition.”

After four decades shaping investment thinking, leading teams and driving progress in sustainable finance, it’s clear his voice will echo for years to come – not just in the funds he helped manage, but in the people, ideas and principles he shaped along the way.