RI People & Appointments, Sept. 30: Standard Life Investments, Ethos, Sarasin, Osmosis

Amanda Young has been named Head of Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) at Standard Life Investments, the UK-based fund manager with assets of £178.8bn (€213.5bn) under management. Young, who is a director of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF), joins from Newton Investment Management. Other recent SRI hires at the firm include Rebecca Maclean and Alix Chosson, who joined from Trucost and Generali Investments respectively. Announcement

Swiss private bank J. Safra Sarasin has named Pierin Menzli as its new Head of Sustainable Investment Research. He joins on November 1 and replaces Eckhard Plinke, who was one of more than 40 ex-Sarasin staff that left to join rival Notenstein. Menzli is currently a founding partner of Contrast Capital, a Swiss consultant specialising in ESG integration for asset owners and managers. Before starting Contrast, he was Head of Research at Swiss sustainable asset manager RobecoSAM. Sarasin said it had awarded Contrast with a long-term mandate to help it integrate ESG insights into the investment process for Sarasin’s sustainable funds and strengthening the links between sustainability and financial research. Link

Osmosis Investment Management, the sustainability focused fund firm founded in 2009, has named an Advisory Board. It includes: Sandra Robertson, CEO and CIO of Oxford University Endowment Management, Todd Ruppert, retired CEO at T. Rowe Price Global Investment Services, John Llewellyn, ex-Global Chief Economist at Lehman Brothers, Doug Grip, retired Goldman Sachs Partner, Simon Fry, former Head of Equity and Fixed Income at Nomura Group Europe, Michael Ingelog, CEO of Credit Suisse Group in the Nordic Region and Raj Thamotheram, founder of the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets and previously Head of Sustainability at AXA Investors.

Dan Siddy and Rachel Crossley have joined forces to launch Periscope, a consulting firm that will provide advice and support in the fields of responsible investment and sustainable finance. Siddy is a former Head of Sustainable Financial Markets at the World Bank’s IFC while Crossley is a former Director of Responsible Investment at Insight Investment.

Frank Johnson, Managing Director of Investments at RPMI (Railpen) has been elected as a member of the National Association of Pension Funds’ Defined Benefit (DB) Council, one of the UK trade body’s two main policy-making groups.Dominique Biedermann, chief executive of the Ethos Foundation, the parent company of Swiss proxy firm Ethos Services, will take over as the Foundation’s chairman in the spring of 2015. Biedermann will replace Kaspar Müller, who is a founding member of the Foundation, and since 2007, its chairman. Ethos said it was making the personnel announcement now to allow up to 18 months for find a replacement for Biedermann. Biedermann joined the Ethos Foundation as CEO in 1998 – or one year after its creation. The Foundation represents the stockholding interests of more than 140 Swiss pension funds and foundations.

Jeremy Rogers has been named as the new Chief Investment Officer at Big Society Capital, the UK’s social investment bank. He is a former Managing Director at JP Morgan’s European High Yield business. He will be responsible for overseeing Big Society Capital’s portfolio and managing its seven-strong investment team. Link

Raiffeisen KAG, an Austrian asset manager that runs €29.5bn, has recruited Wolfgang Pinner from rival Erste Asset Management as its new Chief Investment Officer for socially responsible investments. Pinner will be one of three segment leaders at Raiffeisen KAG, reporting to chief executive Gerhard Aigner. The others are Robert Senz, who is in charge of bonds and Kurz Kotzegger, who is responsible for equities and asset allocation.

John Chevalier, director of global investor relations at Procter & Gamble, has been elected chairman at the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), the US trade body. He will succeed Hulus Alpay, vice president, investor relations for Medidata Solutions.

Darla Hastings has been appointed as Chief Marketing Officer of index and ESG firm MSCI. She was formerly in the same role at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright and will report to MSCI’s Chairman and CEO Henry Fernandez. She also had senior roles at State Street and Dimensional Fund Advisors. Link

Former Towers Watson partner Martin Pike has been appointed as a non-executive director of Standard Life. Pike, who was most recently Managing Director, Risk Consulting & Software, European the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at the consulting firm, will join Standard Life’s risk and investment committees.