People & Appointments: Phoenix Group poaches human rights specialist from PRI

Elena Espinoza has left the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) after four years to join Phoenix Group. The former senior lead on human rights and social issues at PRI will join the UK pensions giant on 9 May as senior engagement analyst on social issues and human rights. This is a new role within Phoenix Group’s stewardship team, which is led by Valeria Piani. The news follows several recent senior departures from the PRI since February including its chief financial officer, chief sustainability officer, chief signatory relations officer, head of fixed income and regional heads for Africa and Latin America.

Former Unigestion CEO Fiona Frick has joined GIST Impact’s advisory board. Frick was CEO at the Swiss manager for 12 years, spending a total of 32 years of her career at Unigestion. She recently founded Circe Invest, a platform dedicated to helping asset owners and managers integrate sustainability into their investment strategies.

Yasumitsu Iwasa has been appointed as head of Japan at Impax Asset Management. He was previously head of Japan at Fullerton Fund Management, an asset management arm of Temasek Group. Iwasa began his career at Goldman Sachs where he spent 12 years in equity derivatives and structuring.

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) are recruiting candidates for the IFRS taxonomy consultative group. The group advises the IASB and ISSB on their digital taxonomies and related activities, and will help develop the IFRS sustainability disclosure taxonomy. Applications close on 26 May.

Staying with the IFRS, the ISSB is also seeking candidate nominations for the Transition Implementation Group for its first two sustainability disclosure standards. The group will help support implementation of the standards by discussing implementation questions submitted by stakeholders and inform the ISSB on required action needed to address these questions. The group will have around 15 members and three observers. Applications close on 30 June.

The Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility is recruiting an associate director on climate and environmental justice to progress its work in the energy utilities sector. The candidate will co-ordinate investor engagement with stakeholders in the service areas of publicly held energy utility companies, as well as consult with key stakeholders to further work on decarbonisation and a just transition. Applications close on 31 May.

The Global Investor Commission on Mining 2030 has called for member nominations. The candidates will engage stakeholders and help build a common understanding of what is needed for a socially just and environmentally responsible transition. The initiative, launched in January, is aimed at reforming the mining sector to address key sustainability risks by 2030. Its steering committee is made up of three British pension funds – the Church of England Pensions Board, Brunel Pension Partnership and USS – with a representative from the PRI and an adviser from the UN Environment Programme. Applications close on 19 May.

Social impact investor Big Society Capital has appointed James Chew, HSBC’s group head of regulatory strategy, as a non-executive director. Chew will replace Stuart Foster, managing director of financial institutions at RBS International, who has been a board member since June 2017.

Shareholder fintech Tumelo has appointed Alasdair Kinloch as strategic adviser. He was formerly the global head of client experience at asset manager abrdn where he worked for more than 10 years.

UKSIF is hiring a media relations manager to lead the organisation’s media engagement work as part of its policy and communications team. Applications close on 9 May.