RI People & Appointments, March 25: Standard Life Investments seeking RI head

Standard Life Investments, the fund manager with almost £160bn (€187.7bn) of client assets, is seeking a Head of Sustainable & Responsible Investment to “lead the expansion of mainstreaming SRI across all investments and asset classes”. The role is an opportunity to build on client demand and “increase the proactive activity of the SRI desk to fully leverage commercial opportunities”. Link to advertisement.

Sir Ronald Cohen plans to step down as chairman of Big Society Capital, the UK’s new social investment bank, at the end of this year. Venture capital pioneer Cohen, the driving force behind the initiative, will remain involved as a director. He said: “As Big Society Capital approaches its first birthday, with an impressive team and a number of innovative investments under its belt, now is the appropriate time to plan for the recruitment of a Chair that can take the baton on January 1 2014.”

Michael Abramo, former lead portfolio manager of Calvert Investments’ Income Fund, Ultra-Short Income Fund, and Long-Term Income Fund, has left the company. He has been replaced by Vishal Khanduja, who was already a co-portfolio manager of the funds. Matthew Duch has replaced Abramo as lead portfolio manager of the Calvert VP SRI Balanced Portfolio’s fixed-income allocation.

Matthew Reed of the US Treasury Department has been appointed as the first Chair of the Regulatory Oversight Committee of the Global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) System, the government-level initiative to help manage risk in financial transactions. Jun Mizuguchi (Financial Services Agency, Japan) and Bertrand Couillault (Banque de France) were named as Vice-Chairs.

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, the not-for-profit group which tracks the human rights and environmental impacts of more than 5,000 companies, is recruiting a Development Director for UK/Europe. The closing date for applications is Tuesday, 2 April 2013.

Christine Brendle, the former Managing Director of Dow Jones in Asia and publisher of The Wall Street Journal Asia, is to join the board of The Red Flag Group, the anti-corruption compliance consultancy.Klaus-Peter Mueller, supervisory board chairman of Commerzbank, is reportedly planning to step down from Germany’s corporate governance commission this summer, after five years in the role.

Henry Jones, a member of the board at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), has joined the Board of the Pacific Pension Institute (PPI) for a two-year term. He takes over the role from CalPERS’ Chief Investment Officer Joe Dear. The PPI is a not-for-profit organization that assists pension funds, corporations, financial institutions and endowments worldwide with carrying out their fiduciary responsibilities.

The UK’s new Green Investment Bank, which has just confirmed its first direct equity investment, a 25% stake in the Rhyl Flats Wind Farm project for £57.5m, is seeking an Analyst – Sustainability & Green Impact. The role will influence and work with all departments and levels of seniority and have the “unique opportunity to help shape and influence policy and procedure”. The Edinburgh-based role will review Environmental, Social and Governance standards (“ESG”) in relation to all transactions and support the formulation and implementation of ESG policies and procedures. The vacancy is one of several being advertised by the GIB.

Australia’s A$100bn fund manager, AMP Capital Investors, is looking to hire an ESG Research Associate for its Sydney-based ESG Research Team. The role involves analysing the investment implications of ESG issues and sustainability drivers to Australian and international listed equities and fixed interest, as well as working on proxy voting and governance issues. The firm is looking for someone with strong academic qualifications, and a background in the objective analysis of ESG and sustainability issues.
Applications to Ian Woods at AMP Capital by April 12.

The Bonn, Germany-based interim secretariat of the Green Climate Fund is seeking a Climate Finance Officer as it continues to build up its team. The successful candidate will provide “leadership in the secretariat work on climate finance and on the strategic and political aspects of the operationalization of the Fund”.