Head of Sustainable Investing ASR Netherland NV

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Raquel Criado Larrea joined the NAB Board in March 2024. Raquel has been one of the early supporters of the NAB and we are thrilled to have her now supporting the strategy and the action-agenda of the NAB.

 

What inspired you to join the board of the NAB?

At board level you get the chance to shape the Dutch impact investing market by working with like-minded and enormously motivated senior financial professionals from the Dutch financial sector. It’s inspirational. Then you go back to your own organisation, in my case ASR Asset Management, full of energy and concrete ideas to put the discussions into practice. 

 

What attracted you to the NAB and its mission?

I believe in impact investing, I believe that investment decisions are best taken when considering risk, return and impact. The values of the NAB are very well formulated: ACT, Action-oriented, Collaborative and Transformative. I believe firmly that that’s the right way to approach it. At impact investing, we, the different financial organisations, are not competing, but we work together to increase our impact. Each of us fulfills a role in a part of the chain. Collaboration is key.

 

Can you share some background on your professional journey in impact investing and how it prepared you for this role? 

Not only professionally but also on the personal side I started very young to be interested about social issues. I did numerous voluntary works with different social minorities. Then it’s kind of a natural development that during my professional journey the part I was most passionate about was Sustainability and Impact. Still, I am happy that I started at the business side, that I have experience as portfolio manager and that our department is embedded in the investment engine. It brings value as a dialogue partner for the (institutional) investors.

 

What would you like to achieve during your term as a NAB board member?,  How would you like to contribute to the NAB mission? 

I am very keen to promote our 10% target program among the Dutch institutional investors, where we advocate setting a target of (at least) 10% of the AuM to impact investing. As part of a Dutch insurance company I am very aware about the (financial) challenges that this implies. Still, I believe that it is possible. Committing to the target implies mobilising the will and acting upon it, for the whole organisation.

 

Where do you see the biggest challenges and opportunities for an organisation like the NAB?

Luckily there are very committed investors in the Netherlands and also various sector organisations who advocate for responsible, sustainable and impact investing. This is, in essence, very positive but at the same time, it provides a scattered landscape of initiatives asking for attention, resources and budgets from financial institutions. I think that this is at the same time the risk and the opportunity of the Dutch NAB. It should be clear that from the NAB we are here to increase cooperation and provide a liaison role for the impact investing ecosystem, including governments and (institutional) investors.