RI People & Appointments, March 30: Hermes’ engagement head Walmsley joins FRC watchdog

Jennifer Walmsley has been named as Director of Investor Engagement at the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the UK watchdog which oversees corporate governance and the Stewardship Code. She joins from Hermes Investment Management where she is Director, Engagement. She joins in June. Walmsley joined Hermes, which is owned by the BT Pension Scheme, in 2003 after stints as a journalist with the Economist and Euromoney. She represents Hermes Equity Ownership Services on external bodies and committees including the advisory panel to the Chartered Banker Professional Standards Board and the NAPF Shareholder Advisory Group. She was the deputy chair of the Enhanced Analytics Initiative, a member of the FRC’s complexity advisory panel and has sat on a number of ICAEW committees on audit quality. Hermes said that Leon Kamhi, Head of Engagement, would be covering Walmsley’s responsibilities in the interim while it recruits a replacement.

Greg Williamson, chief investment officer of BP Americas, has been appointed CIO of the American Red Cross, where he will take over the charity’s $5bn fund, according to reports. He told CIO magazine he was looking forward to “making a positive contribution” to the organization, where he takes over from current CIO Christina Samson.

Brian Chiappinelli has joined Boston Common Asset Management, the US SRI specialist, as Senior Vice President to head the Business Development team. His previous positions include responsibilities for team management, consultant relationships, and direct institutional client and prospect asset gathering with Deutsche Bank, HarbourVest Partners, Legg Mason’s Batterymarch Financial Management and GE Asset Management.

Wendy Norris has been appointed Head of Infrastructure and Timberland at Australia’s Future Fund, its A$109.2bn (€77.4bn) sovereign fund. Her promotion fills the vacancy left by Raphael Arndt following his promotion to Chief Investment Officer in September 2014. Norris has been a Director in the Future Fund’s Infrastructure and Timberland team since 2010. In her new role she will head up the fund’s A$8bn infrastructure portfolio. Home page

Jeannette Huezo is the new Executive Director of United for a Fair Economy (UFE) the Boston-based body which campaigns on uneven wealth distribution. Huezo, formerly with UFE’s education team, was interim co-director alongside Mike Lapham. Announcement*Adrian Rimmer, the new CEO of European* Environmental Markets plc, has been elected president of the Climate Markets and Investment Association (CMIA), the international trade association representing companies that finance, invest in, and provide enabling support to activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He takes over from Anthony Hobley, CEO of the Carbon Tracker Initiative. Executive Director Miles Austin is moving on to the Global Green Growth Institute and will be succeeded by Gareth Phillips, who is currently Chairman of the Project Developer Forum and was a Board Member at the CMIA from 2010 to 2013. Joining the board are Alexis Leroy, CEO of Allcot Group and Stephen Hibbert, Global Head of Energy & Carbon Efficiency at ING. They replace Fenella Aouane of Standard Bank and Steven Gray of the CarbonTrust.

Vicky Dodman has been appointed programme manager for the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB). She joins from Business in the Community where she was international programme manager. The CHRB is a collaboration between Aviva Investors, Calvert Investments, EIRIS, Dutch sustainable investment group VBDO and others.

Lady Barbara Judge has been named as the new chairman of the Institute of Directors, the UK business lobby group. Judge is a former commissioner at the US Securities Exchange Commission and chair of the Pension Protection Fund and UK Atomic Energy Authority. In 2010 she resigned from the controversial mining firm Massey Energy amid shareholder anger over safety and governance failures following the fatal Upper Big Branch disaster which cost 29 miners’ lives.

Canada’s Responsible Investment Association (RIA) has issued a call for nominations to its board. The three board members whose terms are expiring have served less than the limit of three terms specified in the by-laws, and are willing to stand for election for an additional term. They are: Julie Desjardins, Director, Reporting and Capital Markets, Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada; Karim Harji, Co-founder and Director, Purpose Capital; and Steven Whipp, Investment Advisor, Stephen Whipp Financial. Each is considered by the board to be well suited to make a continued contribution to the board, however, as part of the democratic process, the nominating committee will consider additional candidates.

Joan Walley is to chair UK environmental advocacy organization the Aldersgate Group. Member of Parliament Walley will take the role after she stands down in May. Dame Fiona Woolf, the former Lord Mayor of London, has also been appointed as the group’s honorary president. Walley, who has represented Stoke on Trent North for 28 years, was chair of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee.