RI People & Appointments, May 9: asset management executive joins proxy voting firm

William Claxton-Smith, the former head of corporate governance at UK asset manager Insight Investment, has joined proxy voting advisory firm Manifest as a director. Claxton-Smith is also a non-executive director at the Remuneration Consultants Group and has worked as a consultant to the Institutional Investor Council.

MSCI has expanded its environmental, social and governance (ESG) presence in Australia with the appointment of Michael Salvatico and Chris Parks. Salvatico, a former analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and cofounder of carbon initiative Climakind, will cover client services and new clients’ ESG integration needs. Parks will focus ESG research analysis, following ESG research work for Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) and Responsible Research.

Elizabeth Bryan is to retire as Chairman of UniSuper, the A$25.4bn (€18.9bn) fund for the Australian university and higher education sector. She will be replaced at the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment signatory by Chris Cuffe, the former CEO of Colonial First State Investments, from 1 July 2011. Annoucement

Luca Solca has been named Head of Research Europe at CA Cheuvreux, the broker research arm of French bank Crédit Agricole which is consistently rated one of Europe’s best for sustainability research. Solca was previously at investment bank Sanford C. Bernstein, heading up the Luxury and Retail sector. Announcement (French)

Herbert Scheidt has been elected as the new chairman of Vontobel Holding AG, the Swiss private bank and fund manager. Scheidt, the long-time CEO of the firm, takes over from Urs Widmer. Announcement

Mary Kate Wold has been named as President and Chief Executive of the Church Pension Fund, the $8bn fund the Episcopal Church in the US. Wold, most recently Senior Vice President, Finance at pharmaceutical firm Wyeth, takes over from T. Dennis Sullivan. Link*David Jacob, Chief Investment Officer* of Henderson Investment Management, has been named to the Henderson Group board. Other new directors include: Kevin Dolan, former CEO at La Fayette Investment Management, Bank of Ireland Asset Management and Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management; and James Darkins, Henderson’s MD of Global Property.

Paul Jagger and Museji Takolia have been appointed chairs of the NEST Employer and Member Panels respectively. NEST, the UK’s new workplace pensions scheme, said Jagger is currently Chair of Barnsley LIFT Company while Takolia is Executive Chairman at Intellicomm Solutions.

Mark Tanguy, has resigned as a non-executive director of Low Carbon Accelerator Ltd., the AIM-listed investment company. He is stepping down as he is leaving LCA’s administrator, Ogier Fund Administration. He will be replaced by Ogier’s Andrew Munro. Link

Joanna Osborne has been named as Deputy Chair of the Financial Reporting Review Panel, the arm of the UK’s Financial Reporting Council that makes sure that financial information from public and large private companies complies with relevant accounting requirements. She is a former partner of accounting firm KPMG and joins the FRRP on June 1. Announcement

ISS, Institutional Shareholder Services, has advertised a job vacancy for Head of West Coast Research, San Francisco on its website. The role will be responsible for West Coast proxy voting research, including analyses of publicly traded companies, meeting with institutional investors, assisting in developing market vision and strategy for the global research team, and engaging with the governance community.