People & Appointments: Franklin Templeton poaches CalPERS sustainable investment director

James Andrus has been appointed vice-president of sustainability global markets at Franklin Templeton. Andrus leaves his role at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, where he worked as interim managing investment director for sustainable investing. He spent more than nine years at the Californian pension fund, initially joining as investment manager.

The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) has appointed Séverine Neervoort as global policy director. She leaves her role as lead ESG policy adviser at Norges Bank Investment Management following more than five years at the sovereign wealth fund. Before that, Neervoort worked in government affairs and regulatory policy at Deutsche Bank.

Aviva Investors has promoted Mirza Baig to the new role of global head of ESG. He has worked at the manager since 2016, previously as head of ESG investments. Baig was formerly corporate governance vice-president as State Street Global Advisors for more than two years.

The Principles for Responsible Investment is recruiting an environmental policy specialist. The candidate will join the PRI’s climate and environment team to help create a policy engagement strategy to enable investors to implement the global biodiversity framework, as well as work on nature engagement. Applications close on 9 April.

Pradipta Parhi has joined JPMorgan’s climate tech team as executive director. He has a PhD in climate risk from Columbia University, and has previously worked at Arabesque and Lazard Asset Management.

Rob Bauer has been appointed as a research member at the European Corporate Governance Institute. Bauer has been professor of finance at Maastricht University since 2004. He will also continue in his role as chair of the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment.

HSBC is recruiting a climate transition associate director. The candidate will help to manage and develop climate and sustainability projects across the bank. Applications close on 31 March.