RI People & Appointments, April 2: Sustainalytics’ Germany MD joins life insurer

Axel Wilhelm, managing director of environmental, social and governance (ESG) research house Sustainalytics in Germany, has left to join German life insurance firm Oeco Capital as its new head of sustainable investments. No successor has been named for Wilhelm, who co-founded predecessor firm Scoris. Oeco provides life insurance that invests along ESG criteria; in 2010 it more than doubled new business to €83m.

Bertrand Fournier has been re-elected President of the French SIF, le Forum pour l’Investissement Responsable (FIR). Martial Cozette and Paul de Marcellus of HSBC Global Asset Management have also been re-elected in their respective roles of Treasurer and Vice President. Estelle Mironesco of Vigeo was named also as a Vice President, while Michel Lemonnier of Groupama Asset management was named General Secretary. Other new representatives on the FIR board include Emmanuel Mermet of the CFDT French trades union, Jean Conan representing the Inter-union Committee on Employee Savings and Hervé Guez of Natixis Asset Management.

Bert Nordberg, President and CEO of Sony Mobile Communications and Executive Vice President in the Ericsson Group, has been elected chairman of the board of Danish wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems, succeeding Bent Erik Carlsen. Former Sandvik Mining President Lars Olof Josefsson was appointed deputy chairman. Eija Pitkänen, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Telia Sonera, has also joined the board.

Robeco, the Dutch asset manager which owns the SAM sustainability boutique, has opened an office in Australia, according to The Australian. It said Stephen Dennis, formerly head of institutional business for Aberdeen Asset Management in Australia, has taken on the role of director and head of distribution for Robeco across Australia and New Zealand.

Former Swedish Enterprise and Energy Minister Maud Olofsson has been nominated as a director of Arise Windpower AB, the Swedish wind energy company. Link*Ted Grant has joined corporate responsibility* and sustainability consultant AccountAbility as Director of Global Research and Development. Grant was most recently Special Assistant to the President of the Rockefeller Foundation. Before that, he spent 25 years at J.P. Morgan. Announcement

Win Robbins has been named to the Board of Trustee Directors of NOW: Pensions, the UK workplace savings arm of Danish labour market pension giant ATP. She is a former Head of European Fixed Income at Barclays Global Investors and Credit Suisse Asset Management. Link

Jonathan Finlay has been named head of Towers Watson’s new executive compensation business in Australia. Finlay and colleague Stephen Burke come from Deloitte Australia, which recently decided to exit the board and executive remuneration advisory business. Link

Daniel Dupuis has been named as Chief Financial Officer of the Desjardins Group, the Canadian cooperative financial group with assets of $190bn (€142.6bn). He takes over from Raymond Laurin on May 14. Link
Timothy Flynn, the retired chairman of KPMG International and a founding member of the Prince of Wales’ International Integrated Reporting Committee, has been nominated as a director of investment bank J.P.Morgan Chase. The bank holds its AGM on May 15.

Donald Adamson has resigned as a director of Ludgate Environmental Fund Ltd., the Jersey-domiciled AIM-listed cleantech investment company with £46.5m in assets, according to a filing. Adamson is Chairman of the Offshore Committee of the Association of Investment Companies.

The CtW Investment Group, the US labour union pension fund affiliated group, is seeking a Deputy Director. The role will be based in Washington and will include developing and implementing strategic plans for company engagements and lead meetings with focus companies, institutional investors, investment service providers, and affiliate union capital stewardship staff. Email