People Moves 30 June: Who is hiring who within the industry?

ISSB office established in Beijing

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), which launched its published standards this week, has opened a permanent office in Beijing, China.

The Beijing office will be expected to work with the IFRS Foundation’s other offices in supporting the ISSB’s work, with staff focused on leading and executing the ISSB’s strategy for emerging and developing economies, acting as a hub for stakeholder engagement in Asia, facilitating co-operation and engagement with stakeholders, and undertaking capacity building activities for emerging economies, developing countries and SMEs.

The office will serve as the base for ISSB member Bing Leng. ISSB Vice-Chair Jingdong Hua, who is responsible for overseeing the ISSB’s capacity building and engagement across developing and emerging economies, is expected to regularly visit the office.

It will be run by Zhengwei Zhang, who has been appointed as Beijing office director and special adviser to the ISSB Chair Emmanuel Faber. Zhang has most recently served as director general at the Ministry of Finance of China.

Federated Hermes makes impact and sustainable equity hire

Federated Hermes has hired Sian Long as investment director for impact and sustainable equity strategies.

Based in London, Long will work on global equity, impact opportunities, SDG engagement and biodiversity strategies. She will report to James Cook, head of investment specialists at Federated Hermes.

Prior to joining Federated Hermes, Long worked for AXA Investment Managers, where she was a senior equity investment specialist. From 2019-2021, Long was associate investment director at Schroders covering global equity sustainable growth and global equity climate change strategies.

Howden nabs WTW climate exec

Insurance firm Howden has appointed Rowan Douglas as chief executive of climate risk and resilience.

Douglas’ role is to support the group worldwide, embedding climate and resilience across its specialities and regions. Charlie Langdale will step up as chair of the climate risk and resilience team.

Douglas will be based in London and will report to David Howden, chief executive of the business. Douglas was previously with Willis Towers Watson where, prior to his departure, he led the Climate and Resilience Hub, which he grew to over 130 climate risk professionals.

BlackRock names impact investing lead

Sheetal Prasad, current co-portfolio manager for impact investing at asset management giant BlackRock, is to take over the strategy.

Eric Rice will step down from his current position as head of impact investing later this year.

Prasad has been a managing director at BlackRock since 2022, and was previously a managing director at Jennison Associates for fifteen years.

AXA IM names global head of sustainability

AXA Investment Managers has appointed Laurent Lavergne as global head of sustainability, a newly created position.

Much of the position will be assuming the responsibilities of Justin Travlos, the current head of responsible investment who is departing the company to return to Australia at the end of the year.

Lavergne has been with AXA IM since 2007, his most recent role being as global head of asset management and development at the firm.

First Sentier hires director of sustainable investment

Investment manager First Sentier has appointed Sudip Hazra as director of the First Sentier MUFG Sustainable Investment Institute.

Before joining, Hazra was director of ESG Research for Invesco. There, he led implementation of a global net zero investment research framework, and developed processes for compliance for Articles 8 and 9 of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.

Established in 2021, the First Sentier MUFG Sustainable Investment Institute provides research on sustainable investment-oriented issues including macro research on market trends and issues. The Institute is jointly supported by FSI and its shareholder, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG).