RI People & Appointments, Nov. 25: Global Initiative for Sustainability Ratings adds members

Sabine Miltner, Group Sustainability Officer at Deutsche Bank, has joined the Steering Committee of the Global Initiative for Sustainability Ratings (GISR), which is aiming for a sustainability/environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings standard. John Kim of Walt Disney Company’s Corporate Citizenship department and Herwig Peeters, director of Forum ETHIBEL and Chairman of ARISE, the Association for Responsible Investment Services, join GISR’s Technical Review Committee. There are also new expert advisors: Tomas Conde Salazar of Spain’s BBVA, Henry Shilling, Senior Vice President at Moody’s Corporation, and Natalia Khonyakova, CSR professor at European University at Saint Petersburg.

Michael L. Davis has been named as Head of Institutional Sales at Calvert Investments, the US-based sustainable funds firm with $12.5bn (€9.3bn) in assets under management. He was most recently Senior Vice President and Head of the Stable Value business at Prudential Retirement. Prior to that he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration during President Obama’s first term.

Bill Seddon, Chief Executive of the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church, has been elected as the new chair (for 2014-2016) of the Church Investors Group, the membership organisation for 44 of the largest institutional church investors with UK and Irish assets under management of over £12bn (€14.4bn). He succeeds Richard Nunn. Edward Mason, Secretary to the Ethical Investment Advisory Group at the Church Commissioners, becomes Vice-Chair. Also elected to the Steering Group, the CIG’s Board of Directors, were Paolo Camoletto (Catholic Diocese of Westminster), Richard Nunn (United Reformed Church), Jackie Turpin (Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust) and Helen Wildsmith (CBF Church of England Funds). Roger Short (Baptist Union of Great Britain) is also a member of the Steering Group and acts as Treasurer to the CIG.Mark Fulton, the former head of research at Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors, has joined the Climate Bond Initiative as a Senior Fellow, working on green securitization. Fulton was head of research at DB Climate Change Advisors at Deutsche Bank from 2007 to 2012, where he produced thought leadership papers for investors on climate, cleaner energy and sustainability topics and advised investment teams in asset management. He is a former co-chair of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative’s Climate Change Working Group.

Swiss private bank J. Safra Sarasin has recruited Petra Mennong from rival Bank Vontobel as a sales executive for its Frankfurt office. Sarasin said Mennong, along with colleague Markus Diekmann, would be responsible for wealthy private clients and institutions in Germany. Mennong had a similar role at Vontobel’s Frankfurt office which she joined in 2011. The 43-year-old reports to Andreas Brandt, Sarasin’s chief sales executive for Germany.

Anne Contreras, who specialises in microfinance and social impact projects at Luxembourg law firm Arendt & Medernach, has been named Chair of the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP), the network of over 140 organisations and individuals in microfinance. New members to the board include Martine Schommer, nominated by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Josien Sluijs, nominated by NpM, the Dutch Platform for Inclusive Finance. Link

Hugh McCauley, lead portfolio manager at Canadian mutual fund group AGF Investments, is to depart along with colleagues Warren Fenton and David Pirie. All three joined AGF through the acquisition of rival Acuity in 2011 and AGF said they had been “integral” in the integration of the two companies. Peter Frost has been named Senior Vice-President and Portfolio Manager, having joined AGF in 2010; he currently manages three Canadian balanced and equity mandates, with combined assets of over C$2.7bn. Brian Madden has been promoted to Vice-President and Portfolio Manager; he is co-manager of the C$750m Canadian Asset Allocation Fund.