RI People & Appointments, Feb. 18: Denmark’s Inger Andersen named head of UN Environment Programme

Inger Andersen, Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has been nominated as the new Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Danish national Andersen has been head of the IUCN since 2015 and previously held various leadership positions at the World Bank and United Nations, most recently as Vice President of the Middle East and North Africa Region at the World Bank and Vice President for Sustainable Development and Head of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research Fund Council. She will succeed former UNEP head Erik Solheim, who quit in an expenses scandal, and the nomination will be subject to election by the UN General Assembly.

Peter Damgaard Jensen is to step down as CEO of PKA, the Danish labour market pension fund, next year on what will be his 66th birthday, media reports have said. He will have spent 19 years in the role. Damgaard Jensen is chair of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change and is a board member at Forsikring & Pension, the Danish trade body for insurers and pension providers. PKA’s supervisory board is gearing up to start the recruitment process for a new head.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management has appointed Vladimir Demine as Head of ESG Research within its global equities team. Demine, who has nearly 20 years of investment experience and joined Morgan Stanley in 2009, will work on integrating ESG into the company’s global sustainable funds range, which launched last year. Demine is currently portfolio manager across several strategies, covering Global Franchise, Global Quality, Global Sustain and International Equities.

Mike Weston has been appointed chief executive of LGPS Central, the UK pension pool, and will start in March, according to media reports. Weston, who stepped down as chief executive of the Pensions Infrastructure Platform in January, has been a director at Hermes and the CIO at the Daily Mail and General Trust pension fund. John is to be promoted to deputy chief executive, while continuing in his current role as chief operations and financial officer.

Dr Jürgen Kroneberg, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the European Energy Exchange, has died aged 69. CEO Peter Reitz said: “We are deeply saddened by the sudden and far too early death of Dr Jürgen Kroneberg. His extensive expertise in the energy industry and his confidence in EEX Group have been important pillars of our success.”

Australia: Rob Fowler is to retire from his role as HESTA Executive – Investment Execution in July, and is looking to move into semi-retirement. According to CEO Debby Blakey, Fowler “pioneered the integration of ESG into mainstream investment mandates across all asset classes domestically and was a leader in global ESG integration by investment managers” in his role as CIO. Fowler also led the implementation of HESTA’s total portfolio screens for tobacco and thermal coal. His departure has prompted a new role leading investment execution at the A$46bn (€29bn) industry fund. The person who takes the role will report to CIO, Sonya Sawtell-Rickson, and be a member of the senior leadership team.

Ray Washburne is stepping down as President and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US Government’s development finance institution which is being transformed into the US International Development Finance Corporation. Executive Vice President David Bohigian will take over. Washburne has been at the helm of OPIC since 2017, before which he was a fundraiser for President Trump; he had been in the running to head the World Bank.

Nina Hodzic has been promoted from Vice President ESG Integration to Director ESG Strategy and Integration at Allianz Global Investors. Formerly Senior Specialist Responsible Investing at NN Investment Partners for over ten years, she is an Advisory Board Member at LeaderXXchange, an organisation advising on and promoting diversity and sustainability in governance and investment.

Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer is joining the BlackRock Investment Institute as a senior adviser, according to a Pensions & Investments report citing an internal memo.Else Bos, the former PGGM CEO who is executive director at the Dutch central bank, has been elected to the board of the SASB Foundation for a three-year term. The foundation oversees the work of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board.

Hannah Skeates has been appointed Head of ESG at Wells Fargo Asset Management as part of plans to expand the US firm’s ESG coverage and ensure joined-up efforts across its 28 investment teams. Skeates joined WFAM in January from S&P Dow Jones Indices, where she was Head of Global ESG Strategy, before which she served in various roles at BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors in the US and Europe. Last year WFAM appointed Chris McKnett as Senior ESG Investment Strategist and Jessica Mann as Head of Stewardship. McKnett and Mann will both report to Skeates.

Vincent van Bijleveld has joined responsible investment consultancy Finance Ideas as Sustainable Investment Director. Van Bijleveld, a quantitative economist and actuary, was formerly a responsible for Institutional Business Development & Sustainable Investing Advice at Actiam, before which he was Partner / Director at Willis Towers Watson. His experience has seen him advising pension funds, including in the area of the IORP II ESG guidelines, the IMVB Covenant, Climate & ESG risk assessment and the assessment, selection and monitoring of ESG Research and Engagement & Voting providers.

Amy Augustine has joined Boston Trust & Investment Management Company and Walden Asset Management as Director of ESG Investing. Augustine will lead the firm’s ESG research, integration, investor engagement, and proxy voting, working closely with Managing Director Heidi Soumerai and Director of ESG Shareowner Engagement Tim Smith. Augustine was formerly Senior Director for the Company Network at Ceres, before which she worked at Calvert Investments for more than a decade, where she helped develop the Calvert Women’s Principles, the first global code of conduct focused on investing in women.

Barbara Rambousek has been named as the first Director for Gender and Economic Inclusion at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. She joined the EBRD in 2012 and developed its approach to economic inclusion.

The Skoll Foundation has selected Donald Gips, former US Ambassador to South Africa, as its new CEO. Taking over from interim leader Richard Fahey, Gips joins from Albright Stonebridge Group, the advisory firm founded by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Gillian Wilmot, the founder of Board Mentoring, has been named chairman of ClearlySo, the UK-based ‘impact investment bank’. Other new directors include Tracy Lewis, chairman of Inspired Thinking Group, and Joseph Krant, the former Kempen executive who is currently an associate partner at Catalyst Advisors Netherlands.

Nicolas Moreau, the former chief executive of DWS, Deutsche Bank’s asset management division, has set up an advisory business just three months after he left the group. The former AXA executive has called the firm Ladbroke Advisory.

William Stromberg will become chairman of US asset manager T. Rowe Price, in addition to his roles of president and CEO. Non-executive chairman Brian Rogers is to retire at the company’s AGM on April 25.

Schroders has hired Stephanie Chang as ESG Integration Manager, a new role created by the firm to further embed sustainability across its investment teams. She moves from PwC, where she was an Assistant Director for Sustainability and Climate Change and will report to Head of Sustainable Research, Andrew Howard.

Gordon Wilson of PwC, Chairman of the Technical Working Group of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) has passed his role to CDSB’s founding director Lois Guthrie.

Pamela Jacobs has been appointed as the first Chief Sustainability Officer at boutique financial services company Spouting Rock Asset Management. She most recently co-led Envestnet Inc.‘s impact investing business.