Welcome Letter from Terrence Murphy

As an investment management firm headquartered in New York City, ClearBridge has experienced the COVID-19 pandemic on a personal and professional level. I am extremely proud and appreciative of the outstanding dedication our employees have demonstrated to our clients and in their interaction with the companies we own across our portfolios, under very trying circumstances. Between COVID-19 and greater attention paid to social and economic inequalities throughout the past year, the value of prioritizing environmental, social and governance factors in our investment approach and continuing to raise awareness of ESG among asset owners and individual owners has never been more important.

Our 2021 Impact Report catalogs how we have partnered with many companies in responding to these current challenges in the midst of also addressing longer-term sustainability goals. The report focuses on several of these secular ESG issues, including climate change, the need for more sustainable infrastructure and transitioning from fossil fuels as a primary power source.

Our engagements with companies have increased significantly in the work-from-home environment of the past year and we are impressed by the great work many companies are doing to manage their businesses in a thoughtful and compassionate manner that considers all stakeholders. In times of crisis and social change, we believe it is especially important for management to reflect on their collective responsibilities to employees, customers, investors and the broader community in which they operate. We highlight the work of several of these companies in the engagement section of this year’s report.

As a top 20 shareholder in 279 public companies, we have proactively shared our general expectations with company managements as they address the needs of their various stakeholder groups against the backdrop of COVID-19 and a greater focus on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Many of our holdings are smaller cap enterprises just beginning to embrace ESG as part of their business models. In this year’s report, we again profile the active role our portfolio managers are playing in partnering with these younger companies as they seek guidance on such issues as sustainability metrics and competitive best practices in their particular sector.

Just as we counsel companies to strive for improvement in their sustainability journey, the events of the past year have caused ClearBridge Investments, as a steward of more than $177 billion in client assets, to also evaluate how we can do better. We have supported the remote work environment of our employees through regular communications about balancing work with family and personal responsibilities, transparency over timelines to return to our offices and recognition of our accomplishments. We also believe promoting diversity and inclusion is essential to our success as an organization and have augmented our existing recruitment, internship and mentoring programs with the formation of a Diversity and Inclusion Council. The Council, comprising employees from across the firm, is working to incorporate strategies and practices around