People & Appointments: Patrick O’Hara, Rick Lacaille and Eloy Lindeijer

LGPS Central has appointed Patrick O’Hara as its new Director of Responsible Investment and Engagement, leading the UK pension pool’s responsible investment team. He joins from the asset management arm of the Universities’ Superannuation Scheme, where he oversaw ESG integration and stewardship across public markets since 2014.

Rick Lacaille has become State Street Corporation’s first Senior Investment Advisor and will oversee ESG across the whole of State Street. Lacaille has been State Street Global Advisors’ Global CIO since 2008, and will be replaced by his current deputy, Lori Heinel, when he takes the new role in March. 

Eloy Lindeijer, who recently stepped down as PGGM’s Chief of Investment Management, has joined the Global Impact Investing Network’s Board. He will continue to be a member of the TCFD and the EU High Level Forum on Capital Markets Union, and will sit on an advisory group to the IFRS Trustees on the market consultation regarding Sustainable Standard Setting.

Sustainability expert Kazutaka Kuroda has been appointed ESG Strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. Previously a Sustainable Finance Specialist at the Japan Research Institute and Co-Chair of the Japan Working Group at the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets, Kuroda will continue lecturing at Aoyama Gakuin University.

Kim Schumacher will join the Global Reporting Initiative’s Global Sustainability Standards Board in January, to help develop its standards. A former ESG Data and Sustainable Finance Specialist for Luxembourg’s Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, Schumacher will focus on the reduction of greenwashing risks in data and disclosure. Alongside his stint at the Ministry, he has also been a Research Project Lead at the European Investment Bank, and held lecturer and research roles at Oxford and Luxembourg universities and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. 

GRI’s Board of Directors has also had a shake-up and will welcome Bola Adeeko (Division Head for Shared Services at the Nigerian Stock Exchange), Esther An (Chief Sustainability Officer at City Developments), Cristina Gil (Vice President of Sustainability at Orbia) and Marina Grossi (President of the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development). Departing in January, having served their terms, are: Olaf Brugman (Rabobank’s Head of Sustainable Capital Markets for Brazil), Özlem Denizmen (Dogus Group’s Social Investments Executive), Lance Gokongwei (President and Chief Executive of JG Summit Holdings), Connie Lindsey (Northern Trust’s Head of CSR) and Kevin McKinley (President and CEO of the Canadian Wood Council).

Manuel Adamini has scaled back his role at the Climate Bonds Initiative from fulltime Head of Investor Engagement to a part-time Senior Advisor, in order to focus on building his work as an independent professional speaker. Prior to joining the NGO in 2015, Adamini was Head of ESG-research and Responsible Investment at ACTIAM and CSR Manager at Fortis.

Roger Ferguson intends to retire as President and CEO of US asset manager TIAA in March and is tipped as a contender for Treasury Secretary in Joe Biden’s incoming administration. Ferguson joined TIAA as President and CEO in 2008, having previously served as Head of Financial Services for Swiss Re and Chairman of the global reinsurance company's America Holding Corporation.

Zencap Asset Management, a subsidiary of Ofi Group, has hired its first ESG head, Raphaël Deléarde, who joins from Ofi Asset Management where he has been a Senior SRI Officer the past year. In his new role at the private debt specialist, Deléarde – who has also worked in sustainable finance for EthiFinance and PwC Fance – will develop methodologies and tools for ESG analysis and extra-financial impact. 

Moody’s has named Four Twenty Seven Founder and CEO, Emilie Mazzacurati, as its Global Head of Climate Solutions. Moody’s bought climate specialist Four Twenty Seven last year. In her new role, Mazzacurati will oversee climate within Moody’s ESG Solutions Group, a business unit formed earlier this year, and report to Andrea Blackman, Global Head of Moody’s ESG Solutions.

Impact financial advisory firm Align Impact has hired Paulina Stannard as a Director of Client Service. In her new role Stannard will work with investors and their advisors on impact topics. She joins from Family Office Exchange where she specialised in values-based investing. She also spent six years at Northern Trust Asset Management, where she managed multi-asset class portfolios for family offices and foundations.

Canada-based impact rating agency impak has announced a new independent methodology committee including Laura Palmeiro, Senior Advisor at UN Global Compact and former Sustainability Integration Director at Danone, Stephanie Robertson,  Founder and Chief Impact Officer at SiMPACT Strategy Group and Board Chair at Social Value Canada, and Olivia Prentice, COO and Head of Content at the Impact Management Project. The committee will meet on a regular basis and its goal is to maintain impak’s impartial impact assessments. Founder and Chief Impact Officer at SiMPACT Strategy Group, and Board Chair at Social Value Canada, and Lea Dunand Chatellet, Head of Responsible Investment at DNCA, a Natixis subsidiary are also part of the committee.

Former environmental lawyer, sustainable development consultant and journalist, Clare Shine, has been named Director of the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership, where she will take the reins from Dame Polly Courtice, who has led the organisation for more than 30 years, next April. Shine will continue as Vice-President and Chief Programme Officer at non-profit Salzburg Global Seminar and as an Associate at the Institute for European Environment Policy.

Clifford Chance has established an ESG Board, chaired by Senior Partner Jeroen Ouwehand, to help organisations navigate sustainability. The law firm’s taskforce will cover sustainability, renewable energy, clean hydrogen, climate change, and business and human rights; it will oversee the work of a broader ESG team of over 400 lawyers and senior business personnel.