RI People & Appointments, March 3: Environmental finance exec joins Standard Life Investments board

Gerry Rocchi, CEO of Toronto-based Green Power Action Inc., has been appointed to the board of Standard Life Investments, the UK-based fund manager as a non-executive director. Green Power Action is an environmental finance firm that manages Canada’s first carbon-offset credit fund. Rocchi, who was CEO of Barclays Global Investors from 1997 to 2004, is also currently a director of the Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada.

Penny Hughes has been appointed Chair of the board-level Group Sustainability Committee at UK bank RBS. Hughes, who is a former President of Coca-Cola Great Britain and Ireland, takes over from former Standard Life CEO Sir Sandy Crombie in the role. She is a former director and chairman of the Remuneration Committee of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB and a non-executive director of Home Retail Group. Her other former non-executive directorships include Vodafone Group, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Reuters Group and The Gap. Announcement

Robert Engelman is stepping down as president of environmental research organization the Worldwatch Institute. He will become a Senior Fellow at the Washington-based body. Board Chair Ed Groark will become Acting President; the board intends to begin a search for a permanent president at a later date.

Rebeca Grynspan has been named as the new chair of the board of trustees at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the development and environment policy research organisation. She takes over from Maureen O’Neil whose term is ending. Grynspan is a UN Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. She was Vice-President of Costa Rica between 1994 and 1998 and was recently elected as Secretary-General of the Ibero-American Secretariat. Announcement*Peter De Proft, Director General* of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), has been elected as a Vice-Chair of the Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group of the European Securities and Markets Authority, the regulator. The group’s new chair is Dr. Jesper Lau Hansen, Professor of Company Law and Financial Markets Law at Copenhagen University. Judith Hardt, Director General, Federation of European Stock Exchanges (FESE) is the other new Vice Chair.

Alan Rubenstein, the chief executive of the UK’s Pension Protection Fund, has been appointed to the Supervisory Board of Robeco Groep, the Netherlands-based asset manager. Rubenstein was formerly managing director of Lehman Brothers, where he was responsible for setting up the Pensions Advisory Group.

Joseph Dear, Chief Investment Officer of the California Public Employees retirement System (CalPERS), has died aged 62. He had been battling prostate cancer and had recently taken a leave from running the CalPERS Investment Office. “Words cannot express the loss that the CalPERS family feels at this time,” the fund said. He is survived by his wife Anne Sheehan (who is director of corporate governance at CalSTRS) and his children, Annie and Ben.
Separately, CalPERS has named Wylie Tollette as its new Chief Operating Investment Officer. He takes over the position previously held by Janine Guillot, who left CalPERS in July 2013. He joins from Franklin Templeton Investments, where he has worked for more than 19 years and was most recently Senior Vice President for Portfolio Analysis and Investment Risk Management. He will start at CalPERS on March 31.

The World Economic Forum is seeking a Senior Manager, Programme Development Team, Climate and Sustainability. The roles is based in Geneva and the vacancy is open until a candidate has been identified.