People & Appointments: Robeco engagement sees climate expert added to Enel board

Samuel Leupold has been appointed as a Board Director of Enel Group, after a campaign led by Robeco. The asset manager, as part of its work with Climate Action 100+, has been engaging with Enel to encourage it to have climate expertise on its board. It nominated Leupold, who was CEO of Wind Power at DONG Energy as it transitioned into offshore wind pureplay Orsted. 

Daniel Eriksson has been named Interim Managing Director of anti-corruption NGO Transparency International. He was previously the organisation’s Head of Technology. Transparency International said in a statement that it was a “critical period”, and Eriksson would be key to “guiding our response to the COVID-19 crisis and preparing to launch our new strategic plan at the end of 2020”. 

Outgoing CEO of supermarket giant Tesco, Dave Lewis, has been appointed Chair of WWF UKs board of trustees, replacing Andrew Cahn. Lewis will step down from Tesco in October, and is expected to focus on food waste at the environmental NGO. He is also Chairman of the Champions 12.3 initiative, which sees governments, business and green campaign groups work together on efforts to reduce food waste in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. Before joining Tesco, he spent nearly three decades with Unilever. "We need to change the systems that are destroying our natural world and ensure that, as the world recovers from the pandemic, we are rebuilding in a way that protects nature and the climate," he said in a statement. 

Anna Hyrske, Head of Responsible Investments at Ilmarinen, a Finnish pension insurance company, is leaving her post to join the Bank of Finland in the position of Principal Responsibility Specialist at the Asset Management division of its Market Operations. She joins the Bank on July 20, and will be its representative in the Eurosystem's (European Central Bank and national central banks) work on sustainability. Hyrske had been with Ilmarinen for almost 21 years and will not be directly replaced.

Simon Messenger will be leaving his Paris-based position of France and UK Director at the 2° Investing Initiative think tank in June 2020 to set up a sustainability reporting and sustainable finance advisory service. Messenger was previously Managing Director of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board and Head of Consulting at the UK's Energy Saving Trust. 

Jeremy McDaniels has left his role at UN Environment to join the Institute of International Finance as a Senior Policy Advisor for Sustainable Finance. He was at the UN for over five years, most recently as Head of Projects and Advisory for the Financial Centres for Sustainability Network. 

Renowned corporate governance expert Karina Litvack is to chair the Eni Investors’ Sustainability & Scenarios Committee, a role she says will see her lead the firm’s response to the twin Coronavirus and climate crises. The committee advises the board on the scenarios that underpin strategic planning, including the recently-unveiled climate transition strategy to 2050, as well as the company’s broad array of social and environmental policies and practices. Newly joining Litvack on the committee are  Filippo Giansante, Emanuele Piccinno, Nathalie Tocci and Raphael Vermeir. Litvack also returns to the remuneration committee after a three-year absence and leave the Control & Risks Committee after six years. 

UK wealth manager Tribe Impact Capital has appointed former BlackRock equity portfolio manager Alice Gaskell as an Investment Fellow on its advisory board. Gaskell, who is also Director of Strategy for gender-focused leadership development network Women in Banking and Finance (WIBF), joins Tribe to advise on growth and portfolio construction with a specific focus on investing with a gender lens. She will regularly consult with Chief Investment Officer Fred Kooij and his team on the investment process.

Deutsche Bank has named its first Head of ESG for Asia Pacific – former World Bank, JP Morgan and Obama-administration executive Kamran Khan. Khan joins from sustainable investment firm Infra-Tech, where he was Chief Executive and Managing Partner and is now tasked with developing Deutsche’s ESG business strategy across its Asia Pacific divisions. Having started his career at JP Morgan, Khan previously ran the global operations for the United States Millennium Challenge Corporation, an investment portfolio with a focus on ESG-led investments, and is on the advisory board for organisations including airline industry carbon exchange AirCarbon and Fudan University Fintech Center, where he gives ESG advice on Belt and Road Initiative projects. His appointment at Deutsche follows a string of new sustainability targets for the bank, including a plan to pump €200bn ($216bn) into sustainable financing and investments by 2025. The bank’s Asia Pacific CEO Werner Steinmueller said in a statement that Deutsche Bank created Kahn’s role “as a statement of intent” to put ESG at the heart of the company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced six new members to its Investor Advisory Committee. They include Theodore “Ted” Daniels, Founder and President, Society for Financial Education and Professional Development; Elissa Germaine, Director, Investor Rights Clinic, at Pace Law School and Satyam Khanna, Resident Fellow, NYU School of Law Institute for Corporate Governance and Finance.  The new members will join the current members, who include Anne Simpson, Interim Managing Investment Director, California Public Employees’ Retirement System and Anne Sheehan, Former Director of Corporate Governance, California State Teachers’ Retirement System who is Chairman of the SEC Investor Advisory Committee. 

Global Canopy, which focuses on reducing deforestation, has appointed Nicky Chambers as its Programme and Impact Director. Chambers has  30 years of experience in sustainability, including being the founder of European sustainability consultancy Best Foot Forward, a pioneer in carbon footprinting in the 1990s. 

The UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has appointed Maureen Beresford as Head of Corporate Governance, as part of a secondment from the Department of Business, Skills and Innovation. Claudia Chapman has been appointed as Head of Stewardship, having been a member of the FRC’s Corporate Governance and Stewardship Team for the past four years. They will both begin their roles formally on 1 June.