RI People & Appointments, April 14: Asset Owners Disclosure Project re-locates to London

The Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP), the pressure group pushing for investors to disclose the carbon emissions of their investment portfolios, is relocating this July to London from its current base in Sydney. AODP Executive Director Julian Poulter will return to his native UK to lead the non-profit network, which includes some high-profile board members around the world. He said AODP would be re-forming its ratings team in London and hiring new staff for its ‘Vital Few’ campaign platform launched at the end of 2013 and piloted in Australia, Canada and the UK, which prompts savers to write to their pension funds asking them to disclose the carbon exposure of investments. Poulter said: “AODP’s work is entirely global and its success over the last few years has created the need to become closer to the large asset owners, financial markets, our partners and funders. London represents an excellent opportunity to re-establish our small team, grow quickly and take AODP to the next level in the coming years.”

Robert Litterman is the new chair of the board of trustees at Commonfund, which provides fund management and investment advice to US nonprofit institutional investors such as educational endowments, foundations and pension plans. The former chairman of Quantitative Investment Strategies at Goldman Sachs Asset Management and co-developer of the Black-Litterman Global Asset Allocation Model, he is also a director at the Asset Owners Disclosure Project, the not-for-profit group seeking fuller disclosure of asset owners’ climate change risk. Litterman takes over from Bradford Gallagher at the group which manages around $24bn for some 1,400 clients. Link

Molly Ono has been named as Director of Business Development and Client Service at environmental investor Impax Asset Management’s new office in Portland, Oregon. She was previously a director at Invesco, where she was responsible for managing relationships with institutional clients, including endowments, foundations, corporations and public plans for listed equity, private equity and other investment strategies. She sits on the board of the Portland Alternative Investment Association and is a member of Portland Women in Investment Management.

Jean-Pierre Jouyet is to leave his role as head of French state investor the Caisse des Dépôts Group. He has been appointed as Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic. Group Deputy CEO Odile Renaud-Basso will take over on an interim basis until a permanent successor is appointed.Susanne Nyman, co-founder and Strategic Communications Advisor at engagement specialist GES, has left the company “to take on new sustainability challenges within other spheres”. GES has also named Martin Pitura as Chief Financial Officer for GES International, and Agnieszka Kulczynska as Research Director. Meanwhile, the Governance for Owners’ stewardship team headed by Josiane Fanguinovény has now transferred to GES as a result of the agreement announced last month. Fanguinovény will take the role of Head of Corporate Governance at GES at its recently opened office in London. Also moving are: Kalina Lazarova, Senior Engagement Manager and Jonathan Kellar, Engagement Manager.

The Global Reporting Initiative, the sustainability standards body, is seeking one new member for its Board of Directors and 11 new members for its Stakeholder Council. The open call for nominations runs until June 10.

Matt Loose has joined sustainability consulting firm SustainAbility’s London office as a director. He most recently ran his own sustainability consultancy, Stratos, in Canada. He was formerly with SustainAbility from 2004 – 2007 and has also held sustainability roles with Ernst & Young and Johnson Matthey. Link

Aaron Lubowitz, the former global co-head of Morgan Stanley’s Global Structured Products Group and founder of its renewable energy tax equity investment business, has been named Chief Operating Officer of United Wind, the US wind energy supplier. The firm also named former Vestas executive Stuart Adler as Head of Projects. Alex Potier, formerly with Broadwind, becomes Vice President of Business Development.

It’s been confirmed that Lord Myners, the former UK City Minister and head of fund firm Gartmore, is standing down as an independent non-executive director at the mutually owned Co-operative Group. The group has been caught up in controversy since it was revealed that its banking arm had a £1.5bn hole in its balance sheet and former chairman Paul Flowers was involved in a drugs scandal. Myners, author of an influential report on institutional investment, had been brought in to undertake a review of the Co-op’s governance.

Anuradha Gupta has been appointed Deputy CEO of the GAVI Alliance, the global immunisation body. She is currently Additional Secretary at India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. She will succeed Helen Evans, who is retiring. GAVI (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) is the global health partnership originally funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Announcement