People & Appointments: Natwest appoints Lord Stern as climate change advisor

Lord Nicholas Stern has been appointed to a newly-created role at NatWest Group as an independent climate change advisor. Stern is currently Chair of the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, and Chair of the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute.

Katherine ‘KT’ Rabin, the former CEO of proxy advisor Glass Lewis, has been named to the inaugural Strategic Advisory Board of Morrow Sodali, the shareholder services, proxy and corporate governance consultancy firm. The eight-member board will be made up of executives and consultants from a range of disciplines. Rabin is also an advisory board member of the Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia University. 

Rockefeller heir David Kaiser, a climate change campaigner who used his wealth to take on Exxon over its role in climate change, has died aged 50. Kaiser lost his battle with brain cancer on Wednesday at a family home on Mount Desert Island. He was president of the Rockefeller Family Fund, and an official of Just Detention International, a group dedicated to fighting sexual abuse in prisons. On hearing the news, environmentalist Bill McKibben told the New York Times: “It’s hard enough to get anyone to take on powerful interests, but when they’re the powerful interest from which your family derived its wealth, that’s really brave. I can’t think of anything like it in history.”

Federated Hermes has appointed Amélie Thévenet and Jordan Patel to its Impact Opportunities team. Thévenet joins as Director from Jupiter Asset Management where she spent 13 years, most recently as Fund Manager of global emerging markets equities. Patel will join as Senior Analyst from Titan Capital Management where he was an Equities Analyst for three years. Federated said it has significantly expanded its stewardship team, EOS, in recent months with 13 new hires. It has also added two specialists in responsible property investment and three in its Responsibility Office. 

Ulf Erlandsson has joined the advisory board at Tribe Investment to provide insight on sustainable investment opportunities. Erlandsson is the Chief Investment Officer at hedge fund Diem Credit, and previously ran bond portfolios at Swedish state pension fund AP4. 

The UK’s Financial Reporting Council has named Mark Babington as Executive Director of Regulatory Standards, and Alex Kuczynski as Executive Director of Corporate Services and General Counsel. Babington has been interim Acting Executive Director at the financial regulator since the beginning of April and previously served as a Director at the National Audit Office. Kuczynski joins from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme where he was most recently the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer and Director of Corporate Affairs.

LeapFrog Investments has made three leadership appointments. Fernanda Lima, LeapFrog’s Director of Investments in Asia, has been elected a partner of the firm and joins the Management Committee. Karima Ola, who has led LeapFrog’s Africa Financial Services team for the past five years has been elected a member of the Management Board and Frances Holliday, the firm’s General Counsel, has been appointed an ex-officio member of the Management Board.

Climate Risk Management Consultant Simon Cooper has joined the Climate Bonds Initiative board. Cooper is a Partner at consulting firm Oliver Wyman where he leads the Oliver Wyman Forum Climate and Sustainability Initiative. Previously, he served as head of the EMEA Finance and Risk Management Practice and as a member of the EMEA Financial Services Global Management Committee. 

Frank Curtiss, ex- President of The Chartered Governance Institute, has a new position as Chairman and Trustee at ICSA Pension and Assurance Scheme. Prior to serving as President between 2015 and 2017, Curtiss was Head of Corporate Governance at RAILPEN Investments, which he joined in 1990 and was responsible for corporate governance from 1997 until his retirement in April 2016. 

MSCI is recruiting for a Vice President, ESG Consultant. The successful candidate will represent ESG research and ESG products across all client segments and will be based in New York. More information is available here.

Dr Caesar Mwangi has joined the board of the UNEP FI Principles for Sustainable Insurance. Mwangi is CEO of ICEA LION Insurance Holdings, Kenya. Mwangi previously served as Managing Director and Principal Consultant at the Centre for Personal Leadership. 

Marcelle Jansen has joined independent ESG and proxy voting agency Minerva Analytics as Director of Business Development, Europe. Jansen held the same position at analytics firm WealthEngine for over seven years and is director of WISE Consulting.

Justin Arter, Senior Executive at BlackRock, has been appointed as the new Chief Executive of Australian pension fund Cbus. Arter succeeds David Atkin in the role, which he will take up in August. He previously held senior roles at BlackRock, including Country Head for Australia and Head of Institutional Client Business for the UK, Middle East and Africa. Before that, Arter led the Victorian Funds Management Corporation. 

Hideki Takada, the OECD alumni who has been heading up the Green Finance Network Japan (GFNJ), has returned to the country’s Ministry of Finance to lead the Budget Bureau’s Allowance Control and Mutual Assistance Insurance Division. Takada established the GFNJ, which connects both Japanese and international stakeholders on green finance, after returning from three years working on the topic at the OECD. During his career, Takada has led various policy areas at the Ministry of Finance and advised the Prime Minister at the National Policy Unit, as well as doing a stint at the UK’s HM Treasury. He will continue his work with the GFNJ and said he will work to promote ESG investment within the Federation of National Public Service Personnel Mutual Aid Association, which his new division authorises. It’s part of a wider reshuffle at the country’s Finance Ministry this month.