People moves: New Generation business gets impact specialist [updated]

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UBS AM, JPMAM, Just Climate, Generation, KKR, ABP, Janus Henderson, Redington, Candriam, Jupiter

UBS Asset Management – The asset manager has secured Lucy Thomas of TCorp, the financial markets partner of the New South Wales government in Australia, as its head of sustainable investing.

Based in Zurich, she will be responsible for leading the delivery of UBS AM’s sustainability and impact strategy, reporting to Barry Gill, head of investments for UBS AM.

TCorp was head of investment stewardship at TCorp and before that global head of sustainable investment at Willis Towers Watson (2014-2018).

JP Morgan Asset Management – The asset manager has appointed Yo Takatsuki to the newly-created role of global head of investment stewardship, expanding his responsibilities beyond the EMEA region.

Takatsuki joined JPMAM in February from AXA Investments. He will continue to report to Jennifer Wu, JPMAM’s global head of sustainable investing while the existing regional stewardship heads will now report to Takatsuki.

Wu said: “Yo has hit the ground running since joining our team, so we’re delighted he has accepted this new global remit.”

Just Climate – Clara Barby, an investment impact specialist, is joining the investment business recently launched by Generation Investment Management as senior partner. In the new role, which she will assume in January 2022, Barby will lead Just Climate’s aim to institutionalise climate-led investing as a capital allocation imperative across the investment management industry.

Barby joins from the Impact Management Project (IMP), where she was chief executive officer and, in 2021, then led the IFRS Foundation’s work to establish the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), as announced at COP26. Her public interest work with the IMP was made possible through a secondment from her role as a partner at Bridges Fund Management Ltd., where she led the firm’s sustainable and impact strategies across fund types. Barby began her career investing in affordable clean energy solutions in South Asia and East Africa. The IMP has been disbanded and replaced by a permanent successor body.

David Blood, chair of Just Climate and senior partner of Generation Investment Management, said: “Barby brings significant expertise in understanding the relevance of impact in capital allocation as well as building teams, and was effective in bringing together different stakeholders.”

Barby said she was joining at a “pivotal moment for evolving how capital markets incorporate impact within a risk and return framework”.

“Rigorous climate-led investing has an important place in institutional portfolios, but we need a platform that can invest at scale in the hardest to de-carbonise sectors and more challenging geographies.”

KKR – The private equity firm has announced the launch of a sustainability expert advisory council of six leading independent experts.

Robert Eccles, visiting professor of management practice at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School, founding chair of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, and a founder of the International Integrated Reporting Council, will serve as chair of the council. The other members are:

Alexandra Givens, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology; Nat Keohane, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions; Andrew Stern, senior fellow, Economic Security Project and president emeritus of the Service Employees International Union; Roy Swan, head of Mission Investments at the Ford Foundation and former co-head of Morgan Stanley’s global sustainable finance team; and Claudia Zeisberger, senior affiliate professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD and founder of the global private equity Initiative, INSEAD’s center of excellence for Private Equity and Venture Capital.

ABP – The former leader of the Dutch Green Left party (GroenLinks) Paul Rosenmöller has joined the board of ABP.

Rosenmöller was the parliamentary leader of GroenLinks from 1994 to 2002, and currently serves as a member of the Dutch senate. He is not new to the world of pensions – he was a member of the supervisory board of ABP’s pension provider APG from 2008 to 2017.

Janus Henderson Investors – The firm has made six new appointments to its ESG investment team, led by Paul LaCoursiere, global head of ESG investments. In London Dan Raghoonundon, ESG research lead; Charles Devereux, ESG research analyst; Olivia Jones, junior ESG research analyst; Jesse Verheijen, ESG data analyst; and Bhaskar Sastry, ESG content manager will join; while in Denver, Blake Bennett joins the team as governance and stewardship analyst.

These new external appointees will support Paul LaCoursiere in driving the integration of ESG practices across Janus Henderson Investors’ business and strategies. They come in addition to recent internal moves – in June Adrienn Sarandi moved from an ESG role in the Janus Henderson fixed income team, to take up the newly-created role of head of ESG strategy and development.

Meanwhile, Xiaoyi Luo has recently moved from a front office role, to join LaCoursiere’s team as an ESG research analyst; while Charlotte Nisbet has become an ESG research analyst, having previously worked in a similar role internally.

In addition, there are hires planned for more stewardship and governance roles over the next few months.

Redington – After eight years at Redington, and more than five as chief executive officer, Mitesh Sheth has decided to step down from his role at the end of 2021.

Since taking over as CEO in 2016, Sheth and the leadership team have successfully transitioned Redington from a founder-led start-up to a management-led, private equity backed business advising over £600bn of assets, taken the business into new channels and markets, and grown the company from 79 to over 200 employees. Sheth has decided that now is the right time to step down from his role to explore other opportunities.

A search for a new CEO is well underway and, in the meantime, Zoe Taylor will be stepping into an interim CEO role, supported by the rest of the leadership team and chair, Kathryn Purves. Taylor has worked closely with Sheth, setting and driving the strategy and long-term vision for the firm, since joining in 2017, and most recently in her role as deputy CEO since January 2021. Over recent months, Sheth has been working with the leadership team and the board to ensure a seamless transition with minimal disruption.

Jupiter – The asset management firm is further strengthing its global institutional presence with the appointment of Rachel Perini as head of institutional – UK, to report to Warren Tonkinson, deputy global head of distribution, and work alongside Tom Gardner, head of global consultants.

Since the restructuring of its Institutional business last year, Jupiter has made strong progress towards its strategic goals including several prominent new mandates, bringing Jupiter’s market-leading investment capabilities to a growing number of institutional investors globally.

Jupiter said Perini’s appointment underlines the firm’s commitment to focus and build on its client base in this important segment of the market.

Prior to joining Jupiter, Perini spent nearly seven years on the UK institutional client coverage team at UBS Asset Management, and before that she spent five years at BlackRock and seven with SEI Investments.

Candriam – Anthony Macdonald has been named head of UK institutional business as the asset manager describes the UK as a priority market for it.

Macdonald joins Candriam from BNY Mellon Investment Management for the last eight years. Separately, Martha Mackay, has been promoted to client relationship manager with a focus on the UK wholesale market.