RI People & Appointments, March 10: Deutsche Bank Vice Chair joins board of green think tank

Caio Koch-Weser, Vice Chairman of Deutsche Bank Group, has joined the Board of Directors of the Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI). He will also serve on the Brazil and China Advisory Groups of WRI. Koch-Weser was German Deputy Minister of Finance from 1999 to 2005 and is Chairman of the European Climate Foundation in Brussels. He joins Secretary General Reneé Jones-Bos of the Dutch Foreign Ministry as a recent addition to WRI’s Board of Directors.

Yvo de Boer, the former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has been appointed as head of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), the new intergovernmental organization founded to support and promote a new model of economic growth. Succeeding Howard Bamsey, de Boer will lead the Seoul-based international organization as Director-General, serving a four-year term beginning on April 15. De Boer currently chairs KPMG’s Climate Change & Sustainability Services.

Jennifer Pedigo has joined TIAA–CREF as head of institutional asset management distribution for the Americas. Pedigo will report to John Panagakis, head of asset management business development and be part of an eight-person team responsible for building partnerships with plan sponsors, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, foundations and nonprofit organizations. She joins the financial services firm from BMO Global Asset Management, where she was head of institutional sales. TIAA–CREF has $564bn in assets under management and provides retirement services in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields. Announcement

Don Anderson, Chief Sustainability Officer for Blackstone’s private equity business, has been elected to the Board of the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). GBCI was established in 2008 to administer certifications and professional designations under the US Green Building Council’s LEED Green Building Rating Systems.Thomas Vester has been named Chief Investment Officer of Lloyd George Management, the UK-based fund management boutique that is part of BMO Global Asset Management. Vester joined the firm in 2011 as Director and Portfolio Manager on the US$1bn Frontier Markets team. Lloyd George has been a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) since 2008 and was a founding member of the Association for Sustainable and Responsible Investment in Asia (ASrIA) and the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA). Link

Paul Schulz has been named as the new Director of Fund Research at Swiss private bank J. Safra Sarasin. He previously had the same role at Notenstein, which is challenging Sarasin’s lead position in Switzerland’s sustainable investment market. Schulz, 48, is a German national who prior to Notenstein, worked as a fund researcher at Swiss banking giant UBS and as a stock analyst at German banks Deka and the now-defunct Dresdner Bank.

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), the UK body representing 1,300 pension funds with assets of around £900bn, has appointed Graham Vidler as Head of External Affairs. 
He joins the organisation from NEST (National Employment Savings Trust), where he was Director of Communications and Engagement. Before joining NEST, Vidler worked on pensions from a variety of perspectives.

Jeremy Tigue, the manager of F&C’s London-listed Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust, the oldest in the world, is retiring after a 33-year career.

Ed Francis has been appointed head of investment for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region at consulting firm Towers Watson. He succeeds Chris Ford who, after holding this position since 2011, has assumed the role of global head of investment. Francis joined Towers Watson in 2001 from PricewaterhouseCoopers and has held a number of leadership roles during that time.