RI People & Appointments, June 15: Folketrygdfondet, CII, ICGN, Insight, Hermes EOS, Trucost

Melanie Brooks, Senior Analyst – Responsible Investment at Folketrygdfondet, the Government Pension Fund Norway (GPFN), the NOK186bn sister domestic pension fund of the €750bn Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), is leaving to take up the position of Senior ESG Analyst in the risk monitoring team at Norges Bank, which manages the money of the latter. Brooks, who has been with Folketrygdfondet for over six years, finishes her role their at the end of July and starts the new post on August 3. At Norges, she will be part of the risk team, not the ownership/governance team, which was part of her previous role at Folketrygdfondet in engaging with Norwegian companies. Folketrygdfondet is looking for a replacement but has yet to hire anyone. Brooks was one of the movers in creating Norsif, the Norwegian Forum for Responsible and Sustainable Investment, whose founding members were Folketrygdfondet, KLP, DNB and Nordea.

Ann Yerger, the outgoing executive director of the Council of Institutional Investors, will be joining business services firm Ernst & Young’s Center for Board Matters on July 8 as an Executive Director. “Ann’s valuable insights will be integral in helping EY, investors and boards effectively engage on issues of common interest in this increasingly active environment,” said Mark Manoff, EY Americas Vice Chair and leader of the EY Center for Board Matters. The EY Center for Board Matters was launched in early 2014.

The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) has appointed four new Board Members: Melsa Ararat (Sabanci University), Mike McCauley (Florida SBA), George Iguchi (Nissay AM) and Bob Walker (NEI). The withdrawing board members are Frank Curtiss (Railpen), Jon Feigelson (TIAA–CREF), Aeisha Mastagni (CalSTRS) and Yoshiko Takayama (J-Euros).

Jean-Florent Helfre has been appointed to head business development in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg for Trucost. The environmental data firm has opened a Paris office in response to growing demand for portfolio carbon foot-printing and decarbonization. Helfre joins from Sustainalytics. Announcement

Renee Beaumont has joined Generation Investment Management, the sustainable investment boutique, according to a Dow Jones report citing a company filing. It said the former global head of business development at private equity firm Providence Equity Partners has joined Generation – founded by Al Gore and David Blood – as a partner in New York.

Bas Knol has joined RobecoSAM’s Governance & Active Ownership team as an Active Ownership Specialist. A former Communications Manager at Aegon Global Pensions, he was most recently (Interim) Sustainability Manager Investments at ABN AMRO Private Banking.

Bei Saville has been named as Senior Vice-President and Senior Client Investment Officer for Endowments and Foundations at Northern Trust Asset Management’s Multi-Manager Solutions group, a new role. She joins from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, where was Director of Alternative Investment.

The Long-Term Infrastructure Investors Association (LTIAA) has named Eugene Zhuchenko, a former Senior Portfolio Manager with APG Asset Management, as its Executive Director. Formed in 2014 in Paris by institutional investors, the LTIAA promotes long-term infrastructure investments based on responsible investment and ESG considerations.Dr Rory Sullivan, former Head of Responsible Investment at Insight Investment, has come back on board at the fund manager as a Strategic Advisor on a consultancy basis working on integration of ESG issues into Insight’s investment processes across all asset classes, as it bolsters its RI capacity. Sullivan left Insight in 2009 and since then he has been an independent consultant with clients including the PRI, the Global Compact and the United Nations Environmental Programme Finance Initiative (UNEPFI). Separately, Insight has also hired former PRI Communications Manager Josh Kendall as an ESG Analyst in its fixed income credit research team, a newly created role reporting to David Averre, Head of Credit Analysis. Kendall previously worked for MSCI in a similar capacity, having joined them in 2012.

Jaime Gornsztejn has joined Hermes Equity Ownership Services as Associate Director, Engagement, heading up Latin America Corporate Engagement. Gornsztejn, chairman of the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain, joins from the Brazilian National Economic Development Bank (BNDES) where he was Managing Director of its UK arm. Hermes EOS has also named Christine Chow Knowles as Associate Director. A former Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow investment consultant, she joins from Hong Kong-based Homage Consulting.

Peter Nygren, co-founder and CEO at Swedish wind firm Arise, which is 10% owned by Swedish buffer fund Tredje AP-fonden (AP3), is stepping down, the company said in a brief statement. Nygren, a director at Arise since 2007, will stay with the firm as a project manager even when a new CEO is appointed, which is expected to be no later than March 1 2016.

RI was saddened to hear about the recent passing away of Charles Jacob after a long period of ill health. Jacob was one of the pioneers of ethical and responsible investment in the UK. He proposed the name of the Stewardship fund launched by Friends Provident in 1984 and became a founder member of the Stewardship Fund’s Committee of Reference and worked tirelessly to gain wider acceptance for the idea, a platform of today’s global responsible investment movement.

Xinting Jia, the former Australia-based Head of Responsible Investments for Asia at Mercer, the investment consultant, has joined World Vision, the Christian relief, development and advocacy organization as Commercial Manager, Corporate, Church and Community.

Fraser Thorne, the former Newton Investment Management fund manager who heads equity research firm Edison Investment Research, has joined the board of the Investor Relations Society, the UK trade body.

Rebecca Katz, a former whistle-blower attorney at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has joined law firm Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check’s Whistle-blower Litigation Practice Group.

Nigel Beck, Head of Environmental and Social Advisory at Standard Bank, will be the bank’s lead representative as it assumes
the chair of the Equator Principles Association for 2015/16, the first African Bank to be elected to this position at the body which oversees project finance from an environmental and social perspective.

A Lead Strategist is being sought by the Finance Innovation Lab, the body set up in 2009 by WWF-UK and ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) to “change the financial system so it serves people and planet”. 
In the coming months, the Lab will become independent from WWF-UK and ICAEW. Applications for the £60,000/year role close on June 30.