RI People & Appointments, March 6: Kinnersley’s Affirmative hires US SIF policy head Kayal

Alya Kayal has joined Affirmative Investment Management as Director of ESG Verification and Strategy from the US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, where she was Director of Policy and Programs. Affirmative is the fixed income boutique headed by former Nikko Europe investment chief Stuart Kinnersley that is working with Lombard Odier Investment Management on a new climate change fund. AIM said she is working “to expand our outreach and relationships” in North America among other tasks. She was previously Vice President for Sustainability Research at SRI firm Calvert Investments, where she worked for almost 17 years. Link

Stefan Dunatov is leaving his role as Chief Investment Officer at the UK’s Coal Pension Trustee Services, which manages the closed Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme and the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (combined assets of £20bn). Dunatov, a member of the 300 Club and a former Director at Deutsche Asset Management, has been with the Coal Pension Trustee Services since 2012. Last November Dunatov spoke at a London event organised by FCLT Global, the long-term capital body that grew out of a joint Canada Pension Plan Investment Board/McKinsey initiative, questioning the need for a ‘level playing field’ of information from companies, and stressing the need for asset owners ‘to apply more pressure to boards’.

Keith Skeoch and Martin Gilbert, respective CEOs of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management, will become co-CEOs of the £660bn entity formed by their merger announced today. Sir Gerry Grimstone, chairman of Standard Life, will chair the combined group while his counterpart at Aberdeen, Simon Troughton, will become Deputy Chairman. Bill Rattray of Aberdeen and Rod Paris of Standard Life will become CFO and Chief Investment Officer respectively. 


Chew Choon Seng, the former chairman of the Singapore Exchange Ltd., has been named to chair a new panel that is reviewing the city state’s Code of Corporate Governance that has been set up by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Among other members of the committee are David Gerald, President of the Securities Investors Association (Singapore), Leong Wai Leng, CFO at Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd., and David Smith, Head of Corporate Governance at Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd. The Council will consider how the “comply-or-explain” regime under the CG Code can be made more effective. Meanwhile, the SGX has launched a consultation (until April 17) on whether a dual class share structure should be introduced.

Carsten Stendevad, who resigned as CEO of ATP, the Danish labour market scheme last August, will join Bridgewater Associates, the Connecticut-based hedge fund group as part of a year-long “senior fellowship program”. Stendevad who was formerly with Citi in New York, left ATP three years after taking over from Lars Rohde when the latter was named as the new governor of the Danish central bank.Former SEC Commissioner Troy Paredes has joined CamberView Partners, the US advisory firm founded by Abe Friedman, the former Global Head of Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment at BlackRock, as a Senior Advisor. Paredes is the founder of Paredes Strategies, which advises companies on financial regulation, corporate governance, and regulatory affairs. Camberview, which provides investor-led advice for listed companies on shareholder activism and engagement, has been recruiting heavily, with the most recent recruit before Paredes being Glass Lewis’s Chief Policy Officer Robert McCormick.

Carina Silberg is joining Alecta, the SEK721bn (€75.7bn) Swedish pensions provider, as Head of Sustainability where she will be responsible for tasks such as the annual sustainability report and a code of conduct for suppliers. She joins from communications firm Hallvarsson & Halvarsson; she is a former sustainability analyst at GES Investment Services. Peter Loow remains Head of Responsible Investment, reporting to CIO Per Frennberg. Announcement (Swedish)

ShareAction, the UK campaign group, has named Eleni Choidas to take over from Camilla de Ste Croix as European Policy Officer. Bethan Livesey, takes the Head of Policy & Research role formerly held by Jon Hoare.

Emma Osborne, previously Chief Investment Officer at Chubb Investment Services, has been appointed to the board at VisionFund International, the microfinance arm of World Vision. Osborne, who has also held senior management roles within the Credit Suisse group, is currently working within Group Investments at Australian insurance company QBE.

Joost Bilkes, Vice President, Impact Investments Asia Pacific at Credit Suisse, has been named Head of Responsible and Impact Investing Asia Pacific at the Swiss banking giant.

Michael Midgley has been appointed to the newly created role of CEO at the New Zealand Shareholders’ Association (NZSA). Midgley, a long-time association member at the shareholder activist group, was a lawyer in private practice and government before moving to senior management roles.

Victor Guo, Vice President of M&A and Proxy Contest Research at proxy advisor Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), has joined North American shareholder services firm Kingsdale Advisors as Executive Vice President, Governance Special Situations.

Citi, the US banking giant, is looking for a Head of ESG Research to lead the ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) research team. The role, based out of Sydney, Australia, comes as award-winning ESG analyst Elaine Prior has announced her retirement.

IPBES Global, an intergovernmental body which assesses the state of biodiversity and ecosystem services, is recruiting an Assessment Officer to join its team in Bonn, Germany.