Kris Douma joins PRI as Director of Investment Practice and Reporting

Kris Douma, the former Director of Responsible Investment and Governance at Dutch-based asset manager MN, is joining the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) as Director of Investment Practice and Reporting.

Douma, who left MN in 2014 and was most recently Programme Manager at the NBA, the Dutch professional organisation for accountants in Amsterdam, will begin his new role in January 2016.

Douma will be responsible for overseeing the development of support tools to help investors implement the PRI’s six principles across all asset classes. He will also oversee the Reporting & Assessment team, which supports signatories’ efforts in their implementation of the PRI Principles.

Before joining MN, where he spent seven years, Douma stood for four years as a member of parliament for the Dutch Social Democratic Party (PvdA). In that time, he worked on major Dutch and European social and economic reform such as the Tabaksblat code of corporate governance and the European Transparency Directive. Before that, he spent 15 years at FNV Bondgenoten, the largest Dutch trade union.

At MN, the €92bn fiduciary manager, Douma was responsible for the development of responsibleinvestment policies for pension funds and implementation of responsible investment and integration of ESG-factors across all asset classes. He was involved in several PRI initiatives, both in collaborative engagement activities and the development of work streams for different asset classes.

He is a highly regarded figure in responsible investment. At MN he was responsible for the execution of shareholder rights in its €20bn+ equity portfolio and sat as Chair of the investment committee of Eumedion, the Dutch investor corporate governance platform. Douma was also a prime mover in pushing responsible investment in private equity.

At the PRI, he will split his time between the Netherlands and London. Tomi Nummela, Associate Director, investment practices (formerly known as implementation support), and Mandy Kirby, head of reporting & assessment, will report to him.

“Kris brings a wealth of management experience and responsible investment expertise to this role,” said PRI Managing Director Fiona Reynolds. “This background, combined with his strong public and private sector contacts across Europe, ideally positions him to direct our investment practice and reporting teams.”