RI People & Appointments, May 5: ex-Daiwa CIO Arai nominated to PRI board

Masaru Arai, the CIO of Japan’s Daiwa Asset Management from 1992–2011 who now chairs the Japan Sustainable Investment Forum (SIF), has been nominated as a candidate for the board of the Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI). “The PRI plans to increase its presence in Asia as part of its 2015-18 strategy and would like to add a director with expertise in this region if signatories are supportive,” said PRI Chairman Martin Skancke. He would fill the investment manager position on the Board vacated by Luciane Ribeiro, Executive Director of Santander Asset Management in Brazil, who has notified the PRI of her desire to stand down. All investment manager signatories will be invited to cast their vote when the election starts on May 25 (nominations close on May 20), with the results due on June 22. Mr Arai has been on the policy committee for FTSE4Good since 2005 and is a member of CDP Japan Advisory Group.

Léa Dunand-Chatellet, Partner – Fund manager and Head of ESG/SRI research at Sycomore Asset Management, has left the firm to take up a senior, as yet unannounced position, at Mirova, the Paris-based responsible investment manager. Mirova declined to comment further, but confirmed her arrival at the firm. Dunand-Chatellet, who oversaw the Sycomore Selection Responsable fund, had been with the firm for just over five years during which time the firm had picked up a number of notable SRI mandates from large French pension funds including the Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites (FRR) and ERAFP. Cyril Charlot, Chatellet’s former co-manager of Sycomore Selection, is understood to have taken over as lead manager on the fund.

Fong Yee Chan, Senior Manager, Non-Listed Assets, at the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment has left to join eFront, a software provider of financial solutions for managing alternative investments, as a Product Director for the firm’s ESG strategy. Chan spent three and half years at the PRI, working with private equity, infrastructure and property signatories.

Kenneth Shimberg has been appointed US Endowment & Foundations Chief Investment Officer for outsourced CIO services at Mercer Investments. He will serve as Chair of Mercer’s Endowment & Foundation. He joins from Brown University, where he was an investment office Managing Director and will report to Stan Mavromates, Americas Chief Investment Officer for Mercer Investments. Shimberg is a former Principal at Princeton University Investment Company. Announcement

BlackRock fund manager Catherine Raw is joining mining firm Barrick Gold, according to the Financial Times. It said Raw, who as co-head of BlackRock’s $5bn World Mining Trust was critical of Barrick, would join the company as executive vice-president for business performance from May 1.

Manjit Jus has been promoted to the role of Head of Sustainability Application & Operations at RobecoSAM in Zurich from his previous position as Sustainability Operations Manager.

Jane Lewis, the former Director of Corporate Finance and Broking at Winterflood Investment Trusts, has been nominated as a director of the Phaunos Timber Fund, the London-listed forestry investment vehicle. She previously worked at Henderson Global Investors and Gartmore Investment Management Limited in investment trust business development and at West LB Panmure as an investment trust broker. She is also a non-executive director of Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies Investment Trust.Martin Schoenberg has been named as head of EU policy at the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), which represents more than 100 European investors worth a combined €10trn. Funding for the post was helped by the Church of England National Investing Bodies and the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), and details of other funders will be released at the IIGCC’s AGM in June. Schoenberg, previously head of policy at Climate Change Capital, will be responsible for developing IIGCC’s policy engagement at European Union level. He has also worked for the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety focusing on the European Council.

Bridget Macaskill has been named independent Non-Executive Director and as a member of the Remuneration Committee at Jupiter Fund Management, the UK-based asset manager. She is President and Chief Executive Officer of First Eagle Investment Management, the privately owned US asset management firm with around $100bn under management. She is also a trustee of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA–CREF) and a Non-Executive Director of Close Brothers Group plc. She is a former chair and CEO at Oppenheimer Funds.

Edward Rogers has been named as the new Global Director of Sustainability at New York-listed parcels firm UPS. Rogers succeeds 30-year company veteran Steve Leffin, who headed UPS’s sustainability strategy for seven years. Rogers, who joined UPS in 1994, was previously global strategy manager.

The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors and CareSuper have awarded the inaugural Michael O’Sullivan ESG Rising Star Award to Alice Prudhoe, sustainability officer at Local Government Super. Prudhoe will receive a $10,000 (€7,091) grant, sponsored by CareSuper, towards an ESG professional development opportunity.

A Senior Portfolio Manager is being sought by Zevin Asset Management, the Boston-based Socially Responsible Investing specialist. The role will “manage most of our future new business as well as some existing accounts”, the firm says. It added: “We are a small firm of 10 people on our way to about 15 in the next few years. Because of our size as well as our values and culture, we expect everyone to do a little bit of everything, from stuffing envelopes to proofing and improving our communications to clients.” Link

Global Footprint Network is seeking a Director for its new Finance for Change Program, which aims to create a systemic shift in the way investors measure resource risk. The candidate will have the credibility and network to influence opinion leaders in the finance industry, form partnerships with financial institutions, grow data sales revenue, as well as be the liaison with philanthropic donors. The location of the position is yet to be determined.

A new Investment Director (Risk Capital) is being recruited by the Global Innovation Fund, the new $200m nonprofit innovation fund headquartered in London. “We invest in the piloting, rigorous testing and scaling of innovations targeted at improving the lives of the poorest people in developing countries,” GIF says and the candidate will be involved in finding, evaluating, executing and managing funding opportunities that align with GIF’s goal of scaling promising social innovations through the private sector.