RI People & Appointments, September 17: AXA Investment Managers nabs BMO’s Yo Takatsuki

AXA Investment Managers says Yo Takatsuki is to join as Head of ESG of Research and Engagement, effective November 1. He is currently Director, Governance and Sustainable Investment at BMO Global Asset Management. Takatsuki led the REO responsible engagement overlay service and the green bonds investment practice at BMO Global Asset Management, the former F&C. He told RI: “This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a leading global asset manager with strong senior executive and board-level commitment to responsible investment.” And he paid tribute to colleagues and clients at BMO for the past seven years.

Rich Daly is to step aside as Broadridge Financial Solutions’ CEO at the start of next year, after 11 years at the helm of the “proxy plumbing” firm. Handing over to current President and COO Tim Gokey, Daly becomes Executive Chairman. Chairman Les Brun becomes Lead Independent Director. Announcement

Michelle Ostermann has been appointed Chief Fiduciary Officer, Investments at RPMI Railpen, effective from January 2019, and her remit will include the £28bn railway pension schemes’ Sustainable Ownership strategy. She was previously Senior Vice President at British Columbia Investment Management, where she was responsible for leading the Corporate & Investor Relations team.

Tara Cardone has been named Chief Operating Officer of nonprofit Common Impact, moving from her role as Head of Employee Engagement & Volunteerism at JPMorgan Chase.

BlueBay has bolstered its ESG team, with Lucy Byrne joining as ESG Analyst and George Owen joining as ESG Intern.

Tony Tursich, Portfolio Manager at Trillium Asset Management, has left the Boston-based SRI firm and is currently looking for new opportunities. Tursich joined Trillium in 2014 after it merged with Oregon based environmental investment boutique, Portfolio 21. Following the merger, he continued to co-manage Portfolio 21’s pioneering ESG fund, Global Equity Fund, which he helped develop and launch in 1999.

Nandika Madgavkar has been named as Senior Director of Strategy at CECP: The CEO Force for Good, the US corporate coalition. She is a former leader of Metlife’s Corporate Responsibility efforts both in the U.S. and globally.

Glynis Breakwell, who faced media scrutiny last year for her £468,000 salary as the UK’s highest earning Vice-Chancellor, is no longer a director of the Universities Superannuation Scheme, according to a filing.

Andrew Warwick-Thompson will step down as CEO of LGPS Central, one of the UK’s LGPS asset pools, Chair Joanne Segars reportedly announced last week. Warwick-Thompson joined the pool last year after leaving his role as Executive Director for Regulatory Policy at The Pensions Regulator.

Petra Pflaum is to head up DWS’s German, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) equities platform, taking over from Tim Albrecht, who is joining Berenberg, according to media reports. Pflaum is currently EMEA co-head of equities, and will continue to act as CIO of responsible investing.

Athanasia Karananou has left Sustainalytics to rejoin the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), this time round as Head of Corporate Governance. Karananou left her previous PRI role as Senior Manager, Corporate Governance In May 2017 to join Sustainalytics, where she worked on Institutional Relations and Corporate Governance.Christine Harada, who was Obama-era Chief Sustainability Officer of the US, has joined impact investing company i(x) investments as President. Harada was most recently a partner at strategic advisory firm and merchant bank Ridge-Lane LP. Board Member Sarah Bloom Raskin, former Deputy Secretary of the US Treasury, becomes chair while Paul Aaronson has joined as Chief Operating Officer.

Inna Amesheva has joined ESG quant house Arabesque Asset Management, working in ESG Research & Advisory. Amesheva has experience as Committee Member (Financial Inclusion and Literacy) at the Fintech Association of Hong Kong and as a Project Officer and Mentor at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network – Youth.

Elizabeth Corley has joined the 300 Club, the investor network which raises “uncomfortable and fundamental questions about the very foundations of the investment industry and investing”. Former CEO of Allianz Global Investors, Corley has been named Most Influential Woman in Asset Management in 2009, CEO of the Year in 2011 and Most Influential Person in Asset Management in her career spanning more than four decades.

Jon Mowll has joined EdenTree Investment Management as Responsible Investment Analyst, bringing its SRI team to three members. Mowll moves to the London-based sustainability-focused investment manager with over two years’ experience as Risk Analyst at Infospectrum Ltd and a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Business from the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership.

Maggie McGhee has been appointed Executive Director – Governance at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). She takes over from Peter Large, who has held the role since 2008 and who is retiring. McGhee is currently Director – Professional Insights and has been covering as Interim Director – Brand and Corporate Reputation since May 2018. Link

The Church of England Pensions Board is seeking a new Chair to succeed Jonathan Spencer, who has reached the end of his term.

Glen Murray has resigned as Executive Director and Chair of the Board at the Pembina Institute, the Canadian clean energy think-tank. Murray, who has also served as Chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, spent a year in the Executive Director role and says he will “continue to be one of Pembina’s biggest cheerleaders”. Link

Christian Plath, Vice President and Corporate Governance Specialist at Moody’s, has joined Leaders Arena – the ESG advisory firm headed by former Nasdaq Advisory Services executive Miguel Santisteve.

BNP Paribas Asset Management is recruiting for a Head of Stewardship in each of Asia and Americas, further building their global sustainability team after the recent appointment of Jane Ambachtsheer. The posting are available on their global careers website. Openings also exist for a green bond analyst in Hong Kong, and an ESG Private Debt analyst in Paris and these will be available on line soon.

The ethical council that advises Norway’s trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund is looking to hire a human rights lawyer to lead its work on the issue. The Council of Ethics for the Government Pension Fund Global, which assesses whether companies should be excluded from the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (NGPFG), has set a deadline of 20 September for applications.