Transcript

I’m Rebecca White and I work in responsible investment. So I grew up in Upminster and I’ve lived there all my life apart from when I went to university in Exeter. I did A-levels in biology, chemistry, economics and history, and decided to study law at university and do something completely different and midway through studying law, as much as I really enjoyed it, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to practise. 
 
When I was in my second year at university I applied to do the internship at Newton, so I spent nine weeks at Newton and I really enjoyed working at Newton and the people that I was around. I knew that this was exactly the sort of company I wanted to work at. As I came to the end of the internship, I was informed that you can apply for the graduate programme – the Emerging Leaders Programme. We sent in a CV and cover letter I think first of all and then were called into an assessment centre, and I had various interviews with HR at BNY Mellon and the investment team at Newton and we did presentations, group exercises and that sort of thing. I got a call couple of weeks later, after I finished the internship, saying that I’d been successful in getting a place on the Emerging Leaders Programme. 
 
There were four of us based in the UK and there are probably another 20 or so based out across New York, Boston and Pittsburgh. Our first two weeks were in New York, which were brilliant, so we met the full cohort and the team who were coordinating it based out in New York. 
 
I did three different rotations in different departments, all based at Newton. So I did my second rotation on the graduate programme in the responsible investment team, and I absolutely loved the work that I was doing; I felt really comfortable being in that team because I also brought something different to it. Rob, who manages the team, offered me a role to come back when I’d finished the graduate programme.

 Typical days vary quite a lot; there’s a lot of different things that come up. So ESG and responsible investment is a really big priority. I think you get to know people at Newton; you feel like you know everyone when you wander around the office, which is really nice. You can go and get a cup of coffee and you recognise other people that are there; you see their faces every day and you can talk to them.