People & Appointments: Candriam CEO to head EFAMA

Naïm Abou-Jaoudé, the CEO of Belgian sustainable investment house Candriam, has been elected President of the European Fund and Asset Management Association for the next two years. APG Asset Management’s Chief Investment Officer, Peter Branner, and Natixis’ Global Chief Operating Officer, Joseph Pinto, have been elected as Vice Presidents of the influential industry body. 

Meryam Omi, the Head of Sustainability and Responsible Investment Strategy at Legal & General Investment Management, has joined the board of a new climate financial analytics firm, TransitionZero. Set up in November by Matt Gray, former Managing Director of Carbon Tracker, and Sriya Sundaresan, the think-tank’s ex- head of power and utilities, TransitionZero’s work is based on a combination of climate data and financial modelling. Other board members include Geoff Sinclair, a veteran of renewables and green investing in Africa. Omi, one of COP26’s UN High Level Champions for Climate Action, also sits on the board of the Climate Group and is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House. 

Elena Tedesco has quit ESG investment house Federated Hermes to take on a role heading up a new global impact equity fund at Swiss manager Vontobel. Tedesco was Federated Hermes’ co-portfolio manager for emerging markets ESG strategies, as well as Director of Sustainability for its global emerging markets team. 

Jimmy Greer has joined Moody’s ESG Solutions as Vice President and Analyst for its Outreach and Research Team. He leaves his role as Head of Sustainability at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants after five years.

Renewables specialist Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has poached BlackRock’s Managing Director for Alternative Solutions,Brian Chase. Chase will lead Quinbrook’s new Capital Formation and Investor Engagement team. He has previously held roles at Campbell Lutyens, the World Bank and the Carlyle Group.

UK-based advisory firm Chronos Sustainability is stepping up its work on the food industry, with its Chief Operating Officer, Jon Day, taking on a second role as Director of Food Programmes for the firm. Day, a specialist in the agri-food sector, will continue as COO, and will be joined by new hire Basia Romanowicz, who is to be Senior Programme Manager for food and animal welfare. Lyndsey Hurley has also been appointed to Chronos, as Company Secretary and Director for Corporate Governance and Ethics.

Unilever has made its Global Climate and Engagement Director, Thomas Lingard, a trustee of its UK pension fund following a vote. The board is run through its own company, the Unilever UK Pension Fund Trustees Ltd, which is completely separate from the corporation, and has 11 members in total. 

New York-based wealth advisory Tiedemann Advisors has hired Jed Emerson to a new role as Global Lead of Impact Investing. Emerson is the founder of Blended Value Group – a long-standing advisor to investors on blended finance and impact investing. He had previously served on Tiedemann’s Impact Advisory Council and is a Senior Fellow at Calvert Impact Capital spin-off ImpactAssets.

Frank Curtiss has begun a three-year term as Chairman of the Board at the pension scheme for the UK’s Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Curtiss has held a number of senior governance roles including Chairman of the Finance Committee at the International Corporate Governance Network and Chairman of the Chartered Governance Institute UK and Ireland’s Investment Committee. He was RPMI Railpen’s Head of Corporate Governance for 25 years.

Bo Wang has stopped working for the Principles for Responsible Investment in China, in order to become an M&A and ESG Advisory Consultant at Chinese firm Environmental Resources Management.

UBS Asset Management has lost its Product Development Manager Roz Amos to UK-based church and charity investor Epworth Investment Management. She will become the firm’s first Chief Investment Strategist.

The IFRS Foundation has established an ‘eminent persons group’ to provide “strategic advice and counsel” to the trustees on the formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board. The group is chaired by former President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, and its members are: former Chair of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Sheila Bair; Chair and co-founder of Infosys Nandan Nilekani; former Governor of Banco de Mexico, Guillermo Ortiz; and former Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Min Zhu.

Christine Chisholm has been promoted to climate-focused investment network Green Angel Syndicate’s Chief Financial Officer. Chisholm, who was previously Finance Manager, has also joined the investment advisory committee of the Green Angel Syndicate EIS Climate Change Fund. 

Investment advisory and tax efficiency specialist Blackfinch has appointed Steve John as an ESG Manager. John chaired the World Steel Association’s Sustainability Expert Group, having worked for international steel and energy companies.