Aviva Investors, the asset management arm of insurance group Aviva, has appointed Abigail Herron as head of engagement within its responsible investment team.

Herron’s new role will see her lead and support Aviva Investors’ fund manager engagement with senior management across all holdings and asset classes, the firm said in a statement. Reporting to Steve Waygood, chief responsible investment officer, she will develop engagement strategies covering all relevant asset classes across equity, fixed income, sovereign debt, property, private equity and multi manager portfolios.

Herron previously headed the corporate governance function at Co-operative Asset Management, overseeing engagement, analysis and policy in ESG areas including remuneration, gender and diversity, finance and the built environment.

Aviva Investors, along with several of its asset management peers, is a vocal advocate of responsible investing and in fact the industry as a whole has become generally more concerned about sustainability and ESG issues in the years after the crisis. Shareholder activism is now far higher on the agenda of end-investors, who are rightly anxious that their money doesn’t support practices which harm the environment or society.

Moral qualms aside, proponents of responsible investing argue that firms which are run well along ESG lines tend to be more solid investments over the long run than those which are not. Indeed, some would say that good ESG can be a proxy for good management in broad terms.