RI People & Appointments, Oct. 21: USS, NEST, InfluenceMap, ICGN, First Sentier, Danske Bank, WBCSD

Katharina Lindmeier has joined UK auto-enrolment workplace pension scheme NEST as a Responsible Investment Manager. She joins from UK railway industry pension scheme RPMI Railpen where she was an Investment Analyst, Sustainable Ownership and will remain a member of the Analyst Committee at UKSIF alongside her new role.

Jane Hutton has been removed from the board of UK academic pension scheme the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) after she raised concerns with regulators about the discount rate used to calculate the fund’s liabilities. In a statement, USS said that the termination was “completely separate” to Hutton’s whistle-blowing complaint and was instead due to numerous breaches of her “director’s duties owed under company law and contract” according to the confidential findings of law firm Slaughter and May.

Colin Melvin is now on the board and non-executive chairman at InfluenceMap, a London-based research organisation which monitors corporate positions on climate change. Melvin, the founder and former CEO of Hermes EOS, the fund firm’s stewardship arm, has been on InfluenceMap’s Advisory Board since May 2017 and is Managing Partner of Arkadiko Partners, the sustainability-focused corporate consultancy he founded in 2017. Link

Sunny Verghese, CEO of food and agri company Olam, has been re-appointed as Chair of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) to a two-year term, as the CEO-led body announced the nomination of nine new Executive Committee members including Jan Jenisch (Lafarge Holcim), Alan Jope (Unilever and Wiebe Drajer (Rabobank).

Sophie L’Hélias, lead independent director of fashion firm Kering, owner of Gucci and other luxury brands, has received’Helias.pdf a life-time achievement award from the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN). L’Hélias, an ICGN co-founder, is also the founder of gender diversity analytics provider LeaderXXchange. She was nominated by Harvard Law School’s Dr Stephen Davis, CalPERS’ Anne Simpson and Value Edge’s Nell Minow.

Andrew Vasey has joined the Australia and New Zealand research team of Institutional Shareholder Services, according to a news release. He will join as Associate Vice President and be based in Sydney under Vas Kolesnikoff, ISS’ Head of Australia & New Zealand Research. Vasey was previously Manager of Australian Research at CGI Glass Lewis. Earlier this year ISS acquired CAER, based in Canberra and a pioneer in the provision of independent research on the ESG performance of Australasian companies, which more than doubled ISS’ presence locally.Peter Lindström has been appointed Chief ESG Specialist at Danske Bank. Formerly at Sustainalytics and Reuters, Lindström joins from consulting company Demos Helsinki where he was Senior Expert in Sustainable Finance. Lindström currently oversees policy engagement for CFA Finland in his capacity as a board member for the organisation.

Katie Turner has been hired by First Sentier Investors – the renamed Colonial First State Global Asset Management after it split from owner Commonwealth Bank of Australia – as a Responsible Investment Specialist. Turner was formerly an Associate Director at Sustainalytics where she oversaw its Australia and New Zealand business. Turner will report to Will Oulton, the firm’s London-based Global Head of Responsible Investment.

Martina Macpherson has joined Moody’s MIS Assessments Group (MISA), a newly established unit within the ratings agency which aims to provided non-credit ESG risk assessments, as Senior Vice President, Strategic Engagement & Partnerships. She will report to Johannes Wassenberg, MD, Operations & Integration. Macpherson, who is also President of the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets (NSFM) Next Generation Initiative, has held senior ESG-focused roles at S&P, MSCI and most recently IHS Towers.

Kate Wolford is stepping down as President of the McKnight Foundation, a Minneapolis-based philanthropic organisation, after more than a decade in the role.

Sir John Beddington, the UK government’s former Chief Scientific Adviser, has been named to chair the newly-formed independent board which will advise UK-based renewables energy provider Drax on the sourcing of biomass for power generation.

GlaxoSmithKline, the UK pharmaceutical giant, is seeking a Director to oversee communications and government affairs for sustainability.

The International Accounting Standards Board – the independent standards setting body of the IFRS accounting standard – is seeking a successor to current Chair Hans Hoogervorst, whose second and final term ends in June 2021.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is seeking a Chief Scientist to ensure the credibility of its work, provide input for the agency’s strategic priorities and establish links between UNEP and the science community.

LGPS Central, a pooled UK local authority pension fund with assets of approximately £45bn (€52.3bn), is seeking a Head of Private Markets to manage £4bn of advisory mandates and pooled assets.