Principles for Responsible Investment holds “mid-term election” for asset owner board seat

The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has announced it will hold a mid-term election next month to elect a new asset owner representative to its board.
It follows the departure of Priya Mathur, the former president of Californian pension giant CalPERS. 
The PRI is calling on US asset owner representatives in particular to put themselves forward for the role, seeing the US as a “critical market for responsible investment and the PRI”.
Mathur, who was in her third (and final) three-year term, following re-election in December 2017, stepped down from the PRI’s board on January 16, according to a filing from the PRI Association, the UK company which runs the PRI.
It follows her departure from the board of CalPERS last year.
Mathur had been a board director at the giant Californian pension fund for 15 years, serving as its president from January 2018.
Whilst at the PRI, Mathur championed the development of CalPERS’ Investment Beliefs and chaired the PRI’s Governance Committee during its governance review.A spokesperson for the PRI told RI: “The Board decided that is important to have all positions on the board filled, and therefore best to hold an election now, rather than wait until the annual elections at the end of the year.”
The deadline for nominations is March 1 and voting opens on March 11.
Elsewhere, the PRI has partnered with the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment to publish a report examining how investors in the UK can promote a “just transition” through their strategies and decisions about financing low-carbon energy and other action to tackle climate change.
“The climate change summit in Poland last December, COP24, raised the importance of looking at the social as well as the physical risks around climate change”, said PRI CEO Fiona Reynolds.
“As UK investors make the transition from high-carbon to low-carbon economies, this report will provide advice and guidance on how to deliver a just transition for workers and communities”.
Next up for the PRI are two webinars, on net carbon real estate and ESG in private debt, while tomorrow it launches its ESG Credit Ratings Initiative in London.