Railpen nabs governance expert Jocelyn Brown for sustainable ownership role

RPMI Railpen, the investment manager for the UK’s £25bn (€27.3bn) Railways Pension Scheme, has appointed former ISS Executive Director Jocelyn Brown to a senior Sustainable Ownership role.

It’s one of a series of personnel moves within the environmental, social and governance space involving the likes of WHEB Asset Management, insurer Zurich and the Principles for Responsible Investment.

Brown, whose title is Senior Investment Manager – Sustainable Ownership, was most recently an Executive Director at governance firm ISS Institutional Shareholder Services. She was there for three years and was responsible for regulatory affairs.

She joined ISS in 2014 after a brief stint as Global Operational and Compliance Risk Manager at Shell. She was Corporate Governance Adviser at the Financial Reporting Council, the UK watchdog, from 2010-2013.

She will report to Leo George, who took over as Head of Sustainable Ownership in March this year from Deborah Gilshan. Gilshan left to join Standard Life Investments (since merged with Aberdeen Asset Management) as Governance & Stewardship Director.

Brown’s arrival comes as longtime CEO Chris Hitchen has announced plans to leave after overseeing a root-and-branch transformation of its investment approach, which led to the insourcing of investment management and “significantly lower costs”.

In other moves, Ingrid Holmes has joined WHEB AM’s independent Investment Advisory Committee.She is a director of environmental consulting firm E3G and sits on the EU’s High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance.

She joins four other external members of the committee, which include Clare Brook (Blue Marine Foundation), Kelly Clark (Finance Dialogue), Mike Clark (Ario Advisory) and Rachel Crossley (Broadwaters).

Meanwhile, European insurance giant Zurich has promoted its Head of Responsible Investment to Head of Risk Strategy and Reporting, in a move which indicates a mainstreaming of climate issues within the company. Manuel Lewin, known for his work around green bonds, has been with Zurich for a decade – half of which he has spent leading the firm’s responsible investment strategy. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Green Bond Principles. Speaking on LinkedIn, Cecilia Reyes, Zurich’s Chief Risk Officer, announced the news, saying Lewin “will further develop Zurich’s approach to a comprehensive risk perspective across all of our risk types”. He will be replaced by Johanna Koeb, a Responsible Investment Analyst at Zurich for the past four years.

And the Principles for Responsible Investment has named Nan Luo as its first head of China. She will be part of the PRI’s Global Networks & Outreach, reporting to Lorenzo Saa. Based in Beijing, she was most recently with the Department of International Trade at the British Embassy in Beijing, where she was the Head of Institutional Infrastructure Investment.