People & Appointments: BlackRock’s new stewardship head + climate hope at Bank of Canada

The latest ESG movers and shakers

BlackRock has poached Sandy Boss from the Bank of England to lead its global investment stewardship efforts. She takes over from Barbara Novick, who continues to lead the Global Public Policy Group. Boss was a senior partner at McKinsey, but spent the past six years at the Bank of England serving as external member of the Prudential Risk Committee. Boss will be based in London. Michelle Edkins, Gassia Fox, Amra Balic, Ray Cameron, and Amar Gill will report to Boss in her new role.

Tiff Macklem will take the helm at Canada's central bank in a move that could have interesting implications for climate finance in the country. Macklem was one of four members of Canada's Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance, which released recommendations to the government last year on how to manage climate-related financial risks. He is currently Dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, but prior to that spent many years at the Bank of Canada, and was its Deputy under climate change champion Mark Carney. He will take up the role of Governor in June. 

Former head of the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB), Shaun Kingsbury, has become the CEO of Conduit Investment Advisors – an impact investment firm run by the same group that set up the Conduit, a London-based members club for the impact community. Kingsbury was one of the founders of the GIB, the first ever green investment bank, which was privatised in 2017. In 2014, he received criticism over his salary, which made him the second highest paid civil servant in the UK. 

JP Morgan Chase will remove Lee Raymond from his position as Lead Independent Director just days after New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer launched a campaign to vote against his re-election on climate grounds. Raymond is widely viewed as a climate sceptic, and was recently described by campaign group Majority Action as the “architect and public face of ExxonMobil’s efforts to promote denial of the risks and likelihood of climate change” during his tenure at the oil company. In an SEC filing, JP Morgan Chase said it would select a replacement Lead Independent Director by the end of the summer, although it did not cite shareholder pushback or climate change as the reason. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Pennsylvania Treasurer Joe Torsella had also agreed to vote against the re-election of Raymond, who has held senior board roles at the bank for nearly two decades. 

Private equity house EQT is seeking to appoint Diony Lebot and Nicola Kimm to its board of directors. Lebot is currently Deputy CEO of Société Générale and oversees Risk, Finance & Compliance, as well as CSR, Diversity and Inclusion. Kimm is Global Head of Sustainability & Environment at Signify (formerly Philips Lighting). The proposal will be discussed at EQT's AGM in June.

Quilter Investors has hired ESG investment specialist Eimear Toomey as its new Head of Responsible Investment. Toomey joins from Sustainalytics, where she was Director of Client Relations. In her new role, she will help Quilter embed ESG into its business, particularly around fund selection and stewardship.

ING has announced the appointment of Ana Carolina Oliveira as Head of Sustainable Finance, covering the Americas region. Oliveira has worked at the bank since 2008, most recently as Director of ING’s healthcare unit. She will now focus on sustainability-focused products including loans and bonds. 

Aine Clarke has been promoted to Investor Engagement Manager for ShareAction’s Workforce Disclosures Initiative. Previously a Senior Engagement Officer for the project, which works with institutional investors to engage with firms on the treatment of their workforce, Clarke has also held positions at research house Third Bridge and the University of Warwick.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) is looking for a doctoral researcher to study the impact of climate change on financial stability before July this year. The central bank said the researcher will be in charge of measuring the financial system's exposure to climate-related risks and tracing "the ripple effect of climate-related shocks”. Other responsibilities will include studying the impact of climate-related risks on financial institutions' assets, debts, soundness and resilience.