04 February 2020
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Robeco has made three appointments to its Trends & Thematic team and has unveiled its plans to expand the team's research capabilities.
The firm has appointed Michiel van Voorst and Koos Burema, who will be joining in March, and Sam Brasser, who will start working as a trend analyst from May onwards.
Both van Voorst and Burema will be responsible for Robeco Global FinTech Equities and Robeco New World Financial Equities as co-portfolio managers, together with Patrick Lemmens, who will remain lead portfolio manager. Van Voorst has 20 years of investment experience, and re-joins Robeco from Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) in Hong Kong where he was CIO Asian Equities. Prior to that, he spent 12 years at Robeco in several investment positions, including senior portfolio manager of Rolinco, a Robeco trend strategy, and Robeco Asian Stars Equities.
Burema has 12 years' investment experience and is transferring from Robeco's Global Emerging Markets team, where he was an analyst covering South Korea as well as technology in Taiwan and Mainland China, with a strong focus on sustainable investing.
Van Voorst and Burema have a strong background in emerging markets, technology and sustainable investment opportunities, areas where Robeco sees significant growth potential for its trend strategies.
On the other hand, Sam Brasser will join as trend analyst in May, after getting his Master's degree in Financial Economics at Rotterdam's Erasmus University, Robeco explained in a note. During his studies, Brasser was an equity analyst trainee at Robeco. In his capacity as trend analyst, he will focus broadly on megatrends and how to translate these into the different trend strategies.
Mark van der Kroft, head of Trends and Thematic Investing: "It's exciting to have Michiel back; a testament to Robeco's dedication, ambition and commitment to the Trend & Thematic capability. With Koos, we also welcome an experienced emerging market specialist to the team who brings over a decade of experience in sustainable investing and emerging markets.
"That we're also able to attract young talent like Sam on top of that makes me confident that everything has come together to achieve our clients' financial and sustainability goals by providing superior investment returns and solutions."
Robeco and Robeco SAM's Trends & Thematic Investment team consists of over 20 investment professionals, based in Rotterdam and Zurich. The Trends & Thematic investment capability has seen strong growth, with assets more than doubling over the last three years and over €11bn in assets under management.
