RI People & Appointments, January 23: New Chair of Social Enterprise UK named

Cyril Cabanes, Vice-President, Head of Infrastructure Transactions, Asia-Pacific at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec – Canada’s second-largest public pension fund – has joined the board of NYSE-listed Azure Power, leading solar power producer in India. CDPQ is Azure’s largest individual shareholder with a more than 20% stake it took last year. CDPQ President and CEO Michael Sabia said: “This investment in a leading company and high-interest market allows CDPQ to build our presence in the solar power sector in India.”

Separately, Kim Thomassin has been appointed Executive Vice-President, Legal Affairs and Secretariat at CDPQ. She will oversee all of la Caisse’s legal and regulatory activities, including the legal and governance structures for all investments; she was formerly Managing Partner of the Québec Region for McCarthy Tétrault.

Marga Hoek has joined the Responsible Investment Advisory Council (RIAC) at BMO Global Asset Management, the former F&C Investments. Hoek, an author and sustainability advocate, joins the panel that is presided over by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and which is chaired by Howard Pearce, the former head of the Environment Agency Pension Fund. Welby said: Hoeg’s “specific expertise and profile” would complement those of the other members on the RIAC and “provide further insight on the issues that are crucial to the oversight of the BMO Responsible Fund range”. Hoek takes over from Annemieke Wijn, who will be stepping down from the Council. [Full disclosure: Howard Pearce is a director of Response Global Media, publishers of Responsible Investor.]

Laurent Jacquier Laforge has been named CIO Equities Global at French asset manager La Française. He is responsible for its entire SRI fund range and its partnership with Inflection Point Capital Management (IPCM), the extra-financial research firm founded by Matthew Kiernan. Jean-Luc Hivert becomes CIO Fixed Income & Cross Asset. La Française has almost €60bn under management and is 92% owned by Credit Mutuel Nord Europe.

Rhonda Brauer, has recently been named as New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s director of corporate engagement, according to Reuters. From 2008-2016, she was a Senior Managing Director (Corporate Governance) and a member of the Executive Committee at Georgeson Inc.

Rob Feckner has been re-elected as board president at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) for a 13th term. Feckner represents school members on the CalPERS Board, which he joined in 1999. He currently serves on three Board committees: Governance, Investment, and Pension & Health Benefits. Henry Jones remains vice president for a third term.

Former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is reportedly joining BlackRock. Sky News reported Osborne is join‎ing the Blackrock Investment Institute as a senior adviser. The unsourced report added that the institute is an internal network that is headed by the former Swiss central bank chief Philipp Hildebrand. It provides investment research on macroeconomic factors to the company’s fund managers.
Tony Poulter, until recently global head of Consulting at PwC and a Senior Independent Director at the Green Investment Bank, has been appointed chairman of the UK pension fund-backed Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PiP).

Jeroen Verburg has left his post as Responsible Investment Manager in the Advisory Services team at ESG research house Sustainalytics, according to his LinkedIn profile. He had joined the firm in 2009; a company spokesperson declined to comment.Brooks Preston is stepping down as Vice President and Head of Investment Funds at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US development finance institution. Lynn Nguyen will serve as Acting Vice President. Preston – a former environmental official in the Clinton/Gore Administration – said his future plans “will be the subject of a separate announcement”.

Morningstar, the funds ratings firm that is making a push into sustainability, has named a new chief product officer and a new chief revenue officer. They are Tricia Rothschild and Danny Dunn respectively.

There have been new appointments at the Danish Wind Industry Association (DWIA). Iben Moll Rasmussen is named Senior Consultant while Edit Lulu Nielsen has been appointed political research consultant. Link

A former board member of Italian metals industry pension fund Cometa has joined London-based sustainability rating company Standard Ethics to help it manage a new strategic partnership with an unnamed leading Italian bank. The new partnership will lead to “financial products” based on Standard Ethics Ratings and it has appointed Walter Bottoni to implement it “on the ground”. Bottoni has also been a member of the Advisory Board of the Italian Real Estate Fund Axa Reim SGR. The firm says it considering exploring “commercial strategic partnerships with some financial institutions and/or international credit rating agencies”. It has launched a European Banking index composed of the 30 largest European banks; Elizabeth Hannah becomes Compliance Officer. Link

Lord Victor Adebowale has been named new Chair of Social Enterprise UK, the national body for social enterprises, taking over from Claire Dove. He is currently chief executive of a social enterprise called Turning Point and formerly headed youth homelessness charity Centrepoint.

Euan Munro, chief executive of fund manager Aviva Investors, has joined the board of UK asset management trade body the Investment Association (IA).

There are three new directors at the World Environment Center, the not-for-profit corporate sustainability group. They are: Mike Barry, Director of Sustainable Business, Marks & Spencer; Carol Ryerkerk Powell, Global Head and Vice President, Environment, Health, Safety & Sustainability, Bristol-Myers Squibb; and Isabel Studer, Executive Director, Mexico and Northern Central America, The Nature Conservancy.

Miguel Granier has been named to lead Pact Ventures, the impact investing and social enterprise development arm of the US NGO Pact. He joins Pact from Invested Development, a successful impact investing management firm that he founded in Boston in 2009. Link

Darren Beck has joined Sustainable Brands, the corporate responsibility organisation, as Senior Director of Corporate Membership. He was most recently Director of Environmental Initiatives at telecoms firm Sprint. Link

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has named Scott Terando as its new chief actuary, confirming a role he had held on an interim basis since the retirement of former Chief Actuary Alan Milligan in September 2016.

Charles Mesquita has been named as a director for Quilter Cheviot’s charities team. The firm, part of Old Mutual, has funds under management of over £1.5bnm on behalf of 643 charities nationwide.

Julie Rozen has been appointed Chief Accounting Officer of Eaton Vance Corp., the asset manager that now owns SRI firm Calvert. She joins from Deloitte & Touche and takes over from Laurie Hylton, who remains Chief Financial Officer. Link to filing