Acadian Asset Management

Rating Overview

Acadian Asset Management is Medium Risk.

Acadian Asset Management, formerly BrightSphere Investment Group Inc., is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes. Acadian occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Medium Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	Lower Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	Lower Risk
Political Actions	No Data

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Acadian Asset Management is a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment, incorporating ESG issues into investment analysis, decision-making, and other business practices (1)(2)(3). The company integrates ESG within its business practices. From its Responsible Investing page: “Our stock selection process integrates more than 20 environmental, social, and governance signals that are incorporated for the sole purpose of enhancing the prediction of risk-adjusted returns” (4). However, Acadian Asset Management has not publicly canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (5).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Acadian Asset Management does not appear to discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs (1).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Acadian Asset Management appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its business structure through the establishment of diversity targets for its recruitment, hiring, promotions, and leadership composition. Acadian Asset Management is seeking ” to increase diversity at leadership levels to 40%.” Acadian Asset Management does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (1). The company operates a supplier diversity program. “We actively work to partner with diverse vendors, focusing on minority, women, veteran, and disability-owned businesses. ” (2). The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (3).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Acadian Asset Management was part of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, committed to carbon neutrality with its investments by 2050 (1)(2)(3). The company is a signatory of the 2026 relaunch of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, which provides resources to asset managers to aid in setting climate goals. Based on the company’s NZAM profile page, it has individually committed to 50% carbon emission reduction for developed market portfolios and 38% for emerging market portfolios by 2030 (4)(5)(6). The company is a member of Climate Action 100+, committed to carbon neutrality by 2050 (7)(8). Acadian Asset Management signed the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, committed to carbon neutrality by 2050 (9). The company is a signatory to the CFA Institute’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Code, indicating its support of DEI in its recruitment, hiring, onboarding, and promotions. Furthermore, the company pledges to integrate DEI into its policies, promote DEI in the investment industry, and provide regular reporting on its DEI metrics to the CFA Institute (10)(11)(12). Acadian Asset Management’s Former CEO, Ross Dowd, signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, which includes a commitment to promote DEI through bias education training in the workplace (13)(14). Acadian Asset Management “actively works to partner with diverse vendors, focusing on minority, women, veteran, and disability-owned businesses” (15). The company supports ESG within its business practices. From its Responsible Investing page: “Our commitment to ESG innovation is focused on enhancing risk-adjusted returns and is underpinned by our proprietary empirical research” (16). The company supports DEI within its business practices. From its DEI Policy: it is committed to “building DEI practices into our corporate strategy, investment research process, and partnerships with clients and consultants” (17).