Fate Saghir
Head of Sustainability, Mackenzie Investments
During her high school years, Fate Saghir came across an advertisement that highlighted the impact business leaders can have, and in that moment, her perspective shifted. What had once been an uncertain path became clear: she wanted to pursue a career in business. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised in Monrovia, Liberia and Windsor, Canada, she developed a global perspective early on, one that continues to shape her approach to leadership today.
“I grew up in an environment that made me very aware of how political decisions and human actions impact one another,” said Saghir. After graduating and earning both a degree and her CPA, Saghir experienced the major shift that the automotive industry went through in the early 2000s. In the Windsor–Detroit region, long considered a hub of stability and opportunity, jobs were increasingly being outsourced beyond Canada and the United States, reshaping the career landscape she had once expected to enter. She ultimately relocated to Toronto, where she began her career as a performance analyst in the construction materials industry. There, she saw firsthand the impact companies can have on local communities and the environment and led the implementation of an environmental fee on concrete deliveries to support more responsible disposal practices.
Saghir moved onto strategy and business development type roles, but it was when she moved into asset management that the concept and power of sustainability and responsible investing revealed themselves to her. At the time, market data providers were starting to build frameworks around how to assess financial risks arising from non-financial factors, and Saghir learned more about the attributes and methodologies used.
Mackenzie Investments named Saghir Head of Sustainable Investing in 2019, where she has since led the integration of sustainability as a core pillar across the firm’s investment processes. The firm supports both institutional and retail clients through a broad range of strategies, embedding sustainability considerations into research, portfolio construction, and risk management.
Saghir oversees this integration across portfolios representing thousands of companies globally, and her team has developed frameworks used by more than 200 investment professionals to assess environmental and social risks as part of financial analysis. She emphasizes that incorporating these considerations is an important component of the investment process, helping identify potential exposures, including physical climate-related risks, that may impact company performance over time.
She describes 2020 as a turning point for sustainable investing and environmental awareness. The temporary decline in emissions during that period demonstrated what is possible when systems shift at scale. While progress since then has not been linear, she believes the moment helped reframe what meaningful change can look like. She noted that, today, market dynamics and client preferences can vary significantly across regions, requiring thoughtful alignment between investment strategy, client needs, and long-term sustainability objectives.
She also points to the rapid growth of artificial intelligence as both an opportunity and a challenge. While AI has the potential to improve efficiency across systems such as energy grids, it also raises important considerations around resource use, particularly water and energy consumption, as technology infrastructure continues to scale.
More broadly, Saghir notes that awareness of environmental issues is often shaped by lived experience. Academic research has shown that regions more directly exposed to climate-related impacts, such as California, often demonstrate stronger engagement on environmental issues, as those risks become more tangible.
At the same time, changes in sustainable investing continue to unfold in real time. Mackenzie has implemented policies as part of its broader approach to managing long-term risks. As regulatory expectations evolve, investors are increasingly focused on transparency and accountability, reinforcing the importance of continued progress.
In addition to her work in sustainability, Saghir has taken on broader leadership responsibilities at Mackenzie, including oversight of marketing and client experience. “I’ve found a space where you can make a meaningful impact on future generations while building a career,” she said. “It comes down to having a strong sense of purpose, and the ambition to think bigger.”