RI People & Appointments, August 13: SUSI Partners, Pelle Pedersen, Transparency Task Force, Rabobank

SUSI Partners has made Wymen Chan Managing Director of its Singapore office, part of a recruitment drive that has seen nine new people join the Swiss renewables investment manager since the beginning of the year. Chan, who has focused on investment in renewable energy so far in his career, will lead SUSI’s efforts to launch an Asia Energy Transition Investment Strategy. Link

Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN’s Envoy on Youth, has been named a co-chair of the Global Climate Action Summit, the high-level event taking place in California next month. She joins a six-person panel which includes Mike Bloomberg, the UN Secretary General’s Envoy for Climate Action, and Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It’s hoped Wickramanayake will “mobilise young people from all walks of life to step up and lead on climate change”.

Pelle Pedersen, formerly Head of Responsible Investment at PKA, has taken up a new position as a member of the Board of Advisors at Valified – the funding platform for sustainable growth.

ESG equity specialist Terry Coles has reportedly left Newton Investment Management, the London-based subsidiary of BNY Mellon. In his eight years with the asset manager Coles ran the $312m (€272m) BNY Mellon Global Equity fund as well as the US-domiciled Dreyfus Sustainable US Equity funds. John Gilmore and Jeff Munroe will take over the Sustainable US Equity fund, while Munroe and Raj Shant will head up the Global Equity fund.

Mika Leskinen, chairman of Finnish responsible investment network Finsif, has left his positions as Head of ESG at OP Wealth Management and as RI Advisory Group member at Church Pension Fund Finland. He takes up a new role as Head of Responsible Investment at FIM / S-Pankki.

Michele Nix has been as the new controller of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), reporting to the fund’s CFO. She will be responsible for trust accounting, financial accounting and reporting, and accounting services such as travel, revolving fund, collections, and cashiers.

Finnish financial firm Sampo Group has announced that Peter Johansson will retire as Group CFO at the start of 2019 after holding the position since 2001. He will hand over to Knut Arne Alsaker, current CFO of If P&C Group and Sampo Group Executive Committee member. In his extensive background at Sampo Group, he has worked as Chief Risk Officer and Head of Reinsurance.The Transparency Task Force, the UK body which campaigns for financial services transparency, has named John Howard – known for his work with both the FCA and the BBC – as Founding Chair of its new Advisory Board. He spent three years as chair of he FCA’s Financial Services Consumer Panel, and 14 as presenter of Radio 4’s ‘You and Yours’. His career history also includes roles as Independent Commissioner for the Treasury for the Equitable Life Payments Commission, and Independent Director of the Mortgage Code Compliance Board.

Olaf Brugman, Executive Director and Head of Sustainable Markets at Rabobank, has taken a role in the Brazilian banking sector. Brugman, a director of the Global Reporting Initiative and the Green Bond Principles, is a former president of the Round Table on Responsible Soy. Brugman has joined Banco Cooperativo Sicredi, one of the country’s largest cooperative banks, as head of sustainability, according to reports.

Swedish investment company Kinnevik has appointed Baillie Gifford’s James Anderson and Alecta’s Ramsay Brufer to its nomination committee ahead of the 2019 AGM. Cristina Stenbeck convened the committee, which represents Kinnevik’s largest shareholders in terms of voting interest, on the back of a resolution from 2018’s AGM.

Prudential plc has appointed Fields Wicker-Miurin, co-founder of the international social enterprise Leaders’ Quest and former CFO and Director of Strategy of the London Stock Exchange, as a Non-Executive Director and a member of the Remuneration Committee. Wicker-Miurin has held positions in the boardrooms of BNP Paribas and SCOR, as well as the Risk Committee of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Link

The Conference Board Governance Center, part of the US-based business membership and research association, has appointed three new Senior Fellows: Hansell LLP founder Carol Hansell, governance consultant and former Group Executive Vice President and Corporate Secretary of Bank of America Cheryl Sorokin, and former New York Stock Exchange chairman TK Kerstetter.

Kingsdale Advisors is recruiting an Associate, Governance Advisory, to be responsible for research executive compensation and corporate governance matters of public companies in Canada and the US.

The Canadian Coalition for Good Governance (CCGG) is looking for a research associate to conduct research on the ESG practices of Canadian public companies as part of its Toronto team.