RI People & Appointments, Sept. 26: Edmond de Rothschild, IIGCC, Integrated Reporting, Zevin, Tomorrow’s Company

Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management has appointed Jean-Philippe Desmartin as its Head of the Responsible Investment team. Desmartin, who will be based in Paris, joins from Oddo Securities, where he was Head of ESG since 2005. Desmartin sits on the Academic Research Advisory Committee of the PRI. He also holds committee roles at the International Corporate Governance Network and World Intellectual Capital Initiative. Desmartin also chairs the research commission at the French Forum pour l’Investissement Responsable. He has co-written three books on Responsible Investment: L’Investissement Socialement Responsable (2005), ISR et Finance Responsable (2014) and The Routledge Handbook of Responsible Investment (2015).

The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) has created a Shareholder Resolution Sub-group, with Helen Wildsmith at the helm. Wildsmith will be the first chair of the group, with Aviva Investors’ Stephanie Maier remaining chair of the Corporate Programme and the Corporate Engagement Sub-group. Wildsmith heads up climate change stewardship at charity fund manager CCLA, where she convened the ‘Aiming for A’ investor initiative in the UK, which co-filed successful resolutions on climate change disclosure with BP and Shell last year.

Louise Davidson, Chief Executive of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI), has joined the board of directors of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). The IIRC said the appointment “will ensure the perspective of providers of financial capital is central” to its work – adding it strengthens the balance of the IIRC’s Board in terms of geography, gender, diversity and sector. Her three-year term begins on October 1.

Najib Sassenou, director of SRI research and sustainable development at La Banque Postale Asset Management, has been elected president of the Association Finance Durable et Investissement Responsable (FDIR), according to IPE.com. FDIR is the association for sustainable finance and responsible investment created at the initiative of the French Asset Management Association (AFG) in 2007. Sassenou succeeds Paul de Marcellus of HSBC, the report added.

Deb Clarke, Global Head of Investment Research at Mercer Investment Consulting, is to receive the 2016 Distinguished Woman Investment Professional of the Year Award for her achievements in the institutional asset management industry. The award will be presented at the Women Investment Professionals (WIP) Annual Trailblazer Dinner next month at the University Club of Chicago. WIP is a women’s networking organization for the institutional asset management industry.Pat Miguel Tomaino has been named Associate Director of Socially Responsible Investing at Zevin Asset Management, the US SRI firm. Formerly of F&C Asset Management, Tomaino will lead corporate engagement, research companies and ESG trends, and oversee proxy voting at the Boston-based firm.

The chairman of UK construction giant Wates Group is to become chairman of governance think-tank Tomorrow’s Company. Tom Wates has initially taken on a deputy chairman role at the organisation, which “helps businesses to be a force for good”, and is expected to become chairman in January, succeeding Barrie Collins. Collins – a former partner at KPMG – has held the role since 2009. Tomorrow’s Company said the appointment came “at a time of renewed global focus on corporate responsibility issues”, pointing to UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s recent proposals to improve corporate behaviour.

Mauricio Troncoso, Kimberly-Clark’s vice president and managing director for Western Europe, has been named as the new chairman of the Toilet Board Coalition (TBC), sustainable sanitation industry group. TBC’s members are multinational corporations, development expert NGOs and social investors.

US-based industry body the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) has announced that its current president Peter Gleason will also take up the role of CEO replacing Ken Daly who is retiring. Gleason joined the NACD in 2000 after serving as vice president of Institutional Shareholder Services and as a consultant with EY. He will be NACD president and CEO from January 2017.

Fran Seegull, former CIO at ImpactAssets, left the role on Friday to take over the helm of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance. She will serve as its Executive Director and will be based in New York.

Professor Paul Jeffrey, Professor of Water Management at Cranfield University is the chair of a new water re-use body called Water Reuse Europe, according to reports. The association offers a range of services for both commercial companies and public organisations involved in water reuse scheme design, operation, and regulation.

Beth Thoren is joining ClientEarth, the public interest environmental law firm, as deputy CEO. She joins after four years at the wildlife charity the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) as Director of Fundraising and Communications. She is a former Head of Digital Marketing at the BBC. Link