RI People & Appointments, January 2: GRI, Wells Fargo, Church Commissioners, PensionDanmark, PRI

Olaf Brugman, Connie L. Lindsey and Meredith Miller have joined the board of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the sustainability standards organisation. Brugman is head of Sustainable Markets at Rabobank while Lindsey is Executive Vice President and Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and Global Diversity & Inclusion at Northern Trust. Miller is Chief Corporate Governance Officer at UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust. Also joining the board is Girish Ramachandran, President, Asia Pacific at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) based in Singapore. They are part of a series of appointments, which are listed in full here.

Scandal-hit US bank Wells Fargo has launched a Stakeholder Advisory Council, which includes sustainability figures like Mindy Lubber (Ceres) and Anne Sheehan (California State Teachers’ Retirement System). The Council, which also includes Sister Nora Nash, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, aims to “deepen” the Board of Directors and senior management’s understanding of ESG issues.

Sheila Stefani, Stewardship Manager at UK governance advisory firm Manifest, has been named Screening and Stewardship Manager at the Church Commissioners replacing Emiliano Torracca. Stefani was previously a Research Analyst with ESG research firm EIRIS (now Vigeo Eiris).

Jouko Pölönen, Executive Vice President at Finnish financial services giant OP Financial Group, has been named
CEO and President of Finland’s €38bn mutual pension insurer Ilmarinen. He will replace Timo Ritakallio – who joins OP as president. Ilmarinen is merging with fellow insurer Etera.

Peter Moon, the former Chief Investment Officer of the Universities Superannuation Scheme, is to become chair of the Investment Committee for the British Strategic Investment Fund (BSIF), a ‘patient capital’ UK housing and infrastructure fund from AIM-listed funds firm Gresham House. Moon is leaving the board of Gresham House to be replaced by Simon Stilwell, the former CEO of investment bank Liberum. BSIF had a first close in June 2017 with £150m commitments from two Local Government Pension Schemes.

The Financial Reporting Council, UK watchdog, has called on investors and listed companies to participate in a project on the use and disclosure of performance metrics.Emilie Juel-Helwig has been named to the new role of head of corporate sustainability at PensionDanmark, according to IPE.com. She was formerly personal assistant to the chief executive Torben Möger Pedersen and will represent the fund “on a broader sustainability agenda” including CSR and the Sustainable Development Goals, the report added.

The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has named four new signatory representatives to its Private Equity Advisory Committee. They are: James Holley, Head of ESG at Bridgepoint; Tammy Bodnar, Senior Associate, Sustainable Investing at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB); Michael Cappucci, Senior Vice President – Sustainable Investing at Harvard Management Company; and Joanne Saleeba, Investments Manager ESG at HESTA. The chair of the committee will be Anders Strömblad, Head of External Management at AP2.

A number of sustainability figures received honours in the UK’s New Year honours list. They included Tom Delay (Carbon Trust), Shaun Kingsbury and Irene Evans (Green Investment Bank), Tessa Tennant (co-founder, Jupiter Ecology Fund and much else) and Sally Uren (Forum for the Future).

Amine Bel Hadj Soulami has been named Global Head of Sustainable Investments for Global Markets, Securities Services and Financial Institutions Coverage at BNP Paribas. The former Global Head of Commodity Derivatives will report to Olivier Osty, Executive Head of Global Markets.

Peter Terium, CEO at Innogy, the listed renewables subsidiary of Germany’s RWE, has resigned with immediate effect following a profit warning. He will be replaced on an interim basis by Uwe Tigges.

Swedish state-owned utility Vattenfall has reportedly hired two top wind executives. Renewables Now said they were Jacob Norgaard Andersen, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy’s chief executive in North America and Mats Vikholm, senior vice president at Ørsted (formerly DONG).

John Buonomo, Senior Vice President of Issuer Services at AST (American Stock Transfer), has been appointed to the board of the Shareholder Services Association, the US trade body.

Calestous Juma, a former member of the WWF International board, has died aged 64. The environmental group said he played a key role in establishing the Convention on Biological Diversity, overseeing its initial years as the first Executive Secretary.