People & Appointments: CDP announces Madera as next CEO

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has announced Sherry Madera as its next CEO. She succeeds CDP co-founder Paul Simpson, who served as CEO until June 2022. Interim CEO Jamie Neil will step down in September. Madera joins CDP from Mastercard, where she was senior vice-president of public policy for just over a year. She will continue to chair the Future of Sustainable Data Alliance (FoSDA), which she has led for more than three years. Previously, she worked at LSEG via Refinitiv as chief industry and government affairs officer. She was also special adviser for Asia at the City of London between 2017 and 2019, having served as minister-counsellor and director for financial services and technology in China at UK Trade and Investment.

M&G Investments has appointed Credit Suisse’s Michael van der Meer as head of sustainability. He spent just over two years at the Swiss bank as head of sustainable investment analysts, having previously worked as head of sustainable investment research at Robeco. He succeeds Rob Marshall, who has stepped down after 20 years at M&G Investments.

Carlos Araujo has been promoted to head of sustainable investments at Allianz France. He replaces Yann Duvaud Schelnast, who had held the role since 2019. Araujo has worked at Allianz since 2019, most recently as senior sustainable investments analyst. Prior to Allianz, he was a sustainability consultant on the sustainable bonds team at Vigeo Eiris, now part of Moody’s ESG. He is also professor of sustainability strategies and practices at French university Sciences Po.

The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment’s Oxford Sustainable Finance Group is recruiting for six new positions in nature finance. All six posts will be affiliated with the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the UK’s Centre for Greening and Investment. The available roles include the team’s executive director, who will work closely with director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group Ben Caldecott to establish a programme for research and teaching on nature finance and investment.

The group is also recruiting for three career development three-year fellowships in nature finance designed to prepare early career researchers for a high-impact career in either academia, or the private, public or third sectors. Finally, the organisation is seeking two nature finance research assistant posts. The deadline for all six roles is 1 September.

Barclays has made two senior hires in its sustainable and impact investment banking team. Arnoud Boksteijn will join as managing director in August to lead on food and agriculture technology. He was previously head of global agriculture within the industrials group at Credit Suisse. Cindy Quan has been moved to head of Americas ESG advisory, having previously held several sustainability roles across her 18 years at the bank, including global head of ESG, corporate and workplace solutions, and roles on the decarbonisation team.

The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) is recruiting a climate senior lead with expertise in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The candidate will be responsible for informing and setting the organisation’s position on addressing climate risk, opportunities and the net zero transition. They will also be in charge of determining priorities related to responsible investment practices and initiatives, global policy and activities across regions.

Grace Soutter has been appointed to manage phase 2 of Australia’s taxonomy project at the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute (ASFI). She will act as taxonomy project manager and leaves the government’s department of climate change, energy, the environment and water, where she was financing solutions for the nature director. She has also formerly held senior policy roles at the Climate Change Authority and the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is hiring an ESG strategy and coordination lead associate to help embed ESG considerations across its regulatory functions. The successful candidate will also lead on building out the regulator’s implementation strategy and drive it in practice, as well as coordinate colleagues from across the ESG division.

Julian Richardson has been named chief underwriting officer at Munich Re’s speciality green solutions business, Parhelion Underwriting. He founded the boutique insurance firm in 2006 and led the company as CEO for 17 years. Richardson was also insurance and resilience finance specialist at the Department for International Trade between 2019 and 2021.

The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) is recruiting a senior policy programme manager to lead its global policy work, including its engagement with the UN and COP28 activities. The candidate will work closely with the institutional investment community and wider stakeholders, including international policymakers.

Andrew Flynn has joined Ortec Finance as climate and ESG solutions director for EMEA. He previously worked as a regional sales director at ESG data house Clarity AI.