RI People & Appointments, November 18: Kris Douma to leave the PRI

Kris Douma, Director of Strategic Projects at the Principles for Responsible Investment, is leaving the role at the end of the year. A former Dutch MP, he joined the PRI in 2015 as Director of Investment Practice and Reporting having spent seven years as Director of Responsible Investment & Governance and member of the management team at MN, the fiduciary manager. 

From 2010 to 2014 he was also chair of the investment committee and board member of Eumedion, the Dutch Investor platform. According to a PRI memo seen by Responsible Investor, Douma will spend more time in The Netherlands, focus on his two non-executive board positions at Oxfam/NOVIB and NV Schade Insurance and potential new activities in the world of responsible investment. 

He recently wrote an article on RI looking at responsible investment and market cap weighted indices. “I would like to say a very big thank you to Kris for all he has helped the PRI to achieve,” said PRI CEO Fiona Reynolds.

The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIIGCC) has named new board members. They are: Jelle van der Giessen, Chief Investment Officer of Dutch investment group NN Group; Roelfien Kuijpers, Head of Responsible Investments at DWS; Karlijn van Lierop, Director for Responsible Investment at MN; Udo Riese, Global Head of Risk and Monitoring, Allianz Investment Management; and Ian Simm, Founder and CEO of Impax Asset Management (pictured in order below, left to right).

Jessica Fries, the Executive Chair of Accounting for Sustainability (A4S), a charity set up by Prince Charles to advocate for sustainability reporting, has joined the board of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the sustainability reporting standards provider.

Loris Vallone, former Head of Portfolio Management International at Julius Baer, has been named Chief Operating Officer at Kairos Partners, an Italian asset manager wholly owned by the Swiss private bank. Kairos has recently made an ESG push after the launch of two thematic funds.

William Daley, the former Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama and Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton administration, has been appointed Vice Chairman of Public Affairs at Wells Fargo as it seeks to recover from an account fraud scandal. Daley will have responsibility for Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, Government Relations and Public Policy and Corporate Philanthropy and Community Relations.

Himani Phadke has joined Wells Fargo Asset Management as an ESG investment strategist for the firm’s Institutional Client Group. She was most recently Senior Product Manager at Truvalue Labs, an ESG analytics provider; she’s a former Director of Research at the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

Deval Patrick, co-manager of Bain Capital’s Double Impact Fund, has stepped down to enter the race for the US Democratic presidential nomination. The $390m fund is the flagship impact investing strategy at Bain, a private equity firm founded by former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Laurie Hylton, Chief Financial Officer at Eaton Vance, the US asset manager that owns SRI firm Calvert Research and Management, is to retire in the first half of 2021. She has been with Eaton Vance for 25 years.

Nigel Beck, Head of Sustainable Finance at Standard Bank, will be replaced as Chair of the Equator Principles Association Steering Committee by Amit Puri, Global Head of Environmental and Social Risk Management at Standard Chartered. It comes as the Chair of the sustainability risk management framework passes from Standard Bank to Standard Chartered – a decision that has been met with “astonishment” by non-profits Market Forces and BankTrack, who claim that Standard Chartered have flouted the principles in its coal deals. The long awaited fourth draft of the Equator Principles were also published today.

Frank Elderson has been named to the Sustainable Markets Councils, a joint initiative by World Economic Forum and Prince Charles to bring together corporates, governments and multilateral financial institutions to advance sustainability. Elderson, the Executive Director of Supervision at Dutch central bank DNB and Chairman of central bank network the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), said: “We need to cooperate globally to move towards a sustainably driven economy”.

Jose Minaya is to take over as CEO of US investment house Nuveen. Currently CIO at the $1trn firm, which is part of TIAA, he succeeds Vijay Advani, who becomes Executive Chairman to focus on impact and ESG investing and other issues.

Michael Sabia, the CEO and President of Canadian pension fund Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ), will step down to head the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. He will assume the position in February 2020. Under his leadership CDPQ has embarked on a diversification drive, nearly tripling its assets to C$326.7bn ($247bn).

Chris Sier, a well-known investment fee campaigner, is to launch a research project which aims to examine the links between fund manager fees, corporate culture and investment performance. The project will be hosted at the University of Leeds under Dr Iain Clatcher.

Hamish de Run has been appointed Head of Infrastructure at Hermes Investment Management’s infrastructure arm. This marks his return to the firm after he left in early 2017, having been a partner for five years, reportedly to “pursue interests outside the sector”. The firm manages £4bn worth of assets across utilities, renewable energy, transport and social infrastructure.

Allan Gray, the philanthropist who founded Africa’s biggest privately owned asset manager, has died from natural causes according to reports. In 2016, he donated his entire stake in the Allan Gray Investment Company and its offshore partner, Orbis, to his foundation.

Patrick Zurstrassen, former President of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), has passed away according to a eulogy posted online by the industry group. A former Credit Agricole executive, Zurstrassen contributed to the Association of Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) and was founding chairman of ILA, the Institute of Luxembourg Directors.