RI People & Appointments, Sept. 4: T. Rowe Price, People’s Pension, Board Intelligence, Jupiter, Financial Transparency Coalition

Maria Elena Drew, ESG specialist at Goldman Sachs, has been appointed Director of Research, Responsible Investing at T. Rowe Price, deepening the US investment giant’s commitment to ESG. Based in London, she will partner with Donna Anderson, Head of Corporate Governance, and work closely with T. Rowe Price’s investment teams to develop and integrate an ESG framework across geographies and asset classes. Drew, who previously was with Goldman Sachs for nine years as an Equity Analyst and Portfolio Manager, will report to Rob Sharps, Group Investment Officer and Co-Head of Global Equity, in her new role.

Corporate governance expert Chris Hodge has joined UK based board report services specialist Board Intelligence as an Advisor, a spokesperson for the firm confirmed. RI reported in April that Hodge was overseeing a review of the European proxy industry’s best practice code, The Best Practice Principles Group for Shareholder Voting Research – which should be ready by the end of the year. Hodge was also instrumental in the creation of the world’s first Stewardship Code while he was at the UK’s Financial Reporting Council.

Savior Mwambwa has been appointed Interim Director of the Financial Transparency Coalition, the Washington-based body that work to curtail illicit financial flows. He joins the FTC after a number of years in civil society, most recently as the International Tax Campaign Manager for ActionAid International. Previously, he worked as Policy and Advocacy Manger at the Tax Justice Network – Africa. He also served as Executive Director of the Centre for Trade Policy and Development, a Zambia-based NGO focused on equitable trade policies. In July, Porter McConnell, Director, and Sarah Vaugeois, Programs Manager, announced their departure from the FTC

Roger Yates has joined the board of Jupiter Fund Management, the UK asset manager. He is a former Chief Investment Officer of Morgan Grenfell and then LGT/Invesco during the 1990s before being appointed CEO of Henderson Group in 1999. After a decade leading Henderson, he was appointed CEO of Pioneer in 2010, became non-executive chairman three years later and stepped down from this role following Pioneer’s merger with Amundi in July this year. He has also served on the boards of IG Group Holdings, F&C Asset Management and Electra Private Equity. He is currently on the board of St James’s Place. Announcement*Nico Aspinall, former Head of DC* investment consulting for Willis Towers Watson, has been appointed Chief Investment Officer at the People’s Pension, the UK’s largest defined contribution private workplace pension provider, RI understands. Aspinall recently stepped down as Chair of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries’ (IFoA) Resource and Environment Board after two years in the role. Under his chairmanship, the UK based actuarial association issued its first climate related ‘risk alert’ to all IFoA members drawing their attention to the “material risk” that climate change poses.

Fredrik Bjelland, Portfolio Manager and Head of China, Special Mandates at Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), has joined Norway mutual fund firm Skagen as Portfolio Manager. Bjelland, who took up his new role last month, joins Knut Harald Nilsson and Cathrine Gether on Skagen’s Kon-Tiki Portfolio Team based in Stavanger, Norway. He moves from Shanghai where he led a team on behalf of NBIM focusing on long-term, value-based and active stock selection. Prior to joining Norway’s giant sovereign wealth fund he was based in London working for Morgan Stanley.

Marian Passmore, Director of Policy at the Canadian Foundation for Advancement of Investor Rights (FAIR Canada), has been named to the Ontario Securities Commission’s Investment Funds Product Advisory Committee for the 2017-2019 term.

Yen Leng Ong has been named as Country Head Singapore and Head of South East Asia at Northern Trust. She was most recently chief administrative officer for Northern Trust in Asia-Pacific (APAC) and head of product management, where she was responsible for regional business and product strategy and facilitating regional growth opportunities. She will continue to report to William Mak, head of APAC, Northern Trust.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the US financial regulator, has named Dalia Blass as Director of the agency’s Division of Investment Management. She returns to the SEC after previously serving in a number of leadership roles in the Division of Investment Management, most recently as Assistant Chief Counsel. She joins the SEC from Ropes & Gray LLP.

Juergen Fitschen, the former co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, has been named chair of the Deutsche Bank Foundation [Stiftung], taking over from Clemens Börsig. The foundation “initiates and supports projects that give young people in particular the opportunity to experience new and unfamiliar fields of activity, helping them to develop their own special talents”. Link (German)