RI People & Appointments, May 11: ICCR’s Laura Berry announces retirement

Laura Berry has announced her retirement as Executive Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), the US shareholder advocacy group with 300 member organizations with over $100 billion in assets under management. Berry, who served as Director for over eight years after a long career in engineering, on Wall Street and in philanthropy, will be winding down her tenure towards the end of 2015. The board will be announcing the process to engage Berry’s successor in the coming weeks. She said it had been a “real privilege” to lead ICCR.

Jeremy Leggett, the UK-based solar entrepreneur who chairs the Carbon Tracker Initiative, has been awarded the solar energy prize section of the Gothenburg Award for Sustainable Development, which is backed by Swedish investors such as AP2, SEB and Folksam. The prize in the field of energy efficiency went to Germany’s Peter Hennicke and Beate Weber-Schuerholz. The SEK1m (€108,000) prize will be divided between them.

Tiff Macklem, Dean of the Rotman School of Management and a former Senior Deputy Governor at the Bank of Canada, has been named Chair of the Board at the Global Risk Institute in Financial Services. He takes over from Paul Cantor, who is retiring after more than three years in the role. The institute was founded as a not-for-profit body by the Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario, TD Group and Manulife in 2011, and currently has 27 member institutions.

Asbjørn Grundt has been appointed Executive Vice President of the International Hydro business of Statkraft, the Norwegian state owned electricity company. He will be responsible for Statkraft’s power generation business and hydropower construction projects in South America, South East Europe and South Asia. He will also be responsible for managing Statkraft’s ownership in SN Power.

John Elkington, widely regarded as an authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development, has been appointed as chair of the admissions panel of the UK’s Social Stock Exchange. Elkington co-founded Environmental Data Services (ENDS) in 1978 and SustainAbility in 1987. Elkington, who is also co-founder and executive chairman of advisory firm Volans, takes over from the exchange’s co-founder Pradeep Jethi in the role.

Amber Rudd has been appointed the UK’s new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change following last week’s general election. She replaces Liberal Democrat Ed Davey who lost his seat in Parliament. In an interview just before the election, Rudd said her party remained committed to the UK Climate Change Act.Henrik Madsen, chief executive at international verification firm DNV GL, has been appointed as member of the board at the UN Global Compact, the corporate sustainability initiative. He will act in a personal and honorary capacity for three years, starting from June 1.

Brett Keller has been named as an independent member of the board at Broadridge Financial Solutions, the NYSE-listed investor communications and securities processing firm. Keller, Chief Marketing Officer of Priceline.com, will serve on the board’s Audit Committee. Announcement

Hugh Grover has been appointed as chief executive of the London Collective Investment Vehicle (CIV), the new vehicle through which the 32 London boroughs’ pension funds can co-invest together to get lower fees from fund managers. According to reports, Grover, previously director of local government finance policy at London Councils and who was instrumental in CIVs development, will take up his role immediately. The boroughs have more than £24bn (€33bn) in AUM with 87 fund managers, across 253 mandates. Link

Laura Pool has joined Triodos Investment Management, the Netherlands-based sustainable funds group with €2.7bn under management, as Managing Director, Risk & Finance. She was previously CFO/CRO and statutory director at NV Nationale Borg-Maatschappij, a reinsurer for the global trade credit and surety markets. Before that she worked with Parcom Capital and ING Group, amongst others.

Ory Okolloh, Director of Investments at Omidyar Network, the California-based social investment firm, has been appointed to the board of directors at the Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company, the body that was set up in 1941 to safeguard the principles of media group Thomson Reuters. A resident of South Africa and native of Kenya, Okolloh is a globally recognized activist, lawyer and blogger. She was previously Google’s Policy Manager for Africa.

UK social investment bank Big Society Capital is hiring a number of roles. It is seeking a number of new staff for its strategy and market development team. It is also hiring investment associates and investment directors.

The call for nominations to GRI’s Stakeholder Council has opened and will run until 19 June 2015. GRI is seeking professionals with demonstrable experience and knowledge in CSR and sustainability reporting to participate as Stakeholder Council members for a three-year term, starting in January 2016. Link