AMP Capital environmental, social and governance (ESG) head, Ian Woods, has resigned after more than 20 years with the business.
Woods moves to niche advisory firm, Chronos, as climate change and sustainable investment specialist Australia and New Zealand.
Chronos chief, Rory Sullivan, said in a statement that Wood’s “experience, long-standing commitment and contribution to global sustainable investment [have] marked him out as an agent of change in the sector”.
“There are few specialists with Ian’s far-reaching coverage of the asset class spectrum, in the context of responsible investment,” Sullivan said.
In addition to his pioneering sustainable investing work with AMP Capital Woods founded the Australia/New Zealand Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC).
Meanwhile, boutique Australian manager Maple-Brown Abbott (MBA) also updated its ESG team last week, hiring Emma Pringle as stand-in head the unit.
Pringle, former BT Australia head of customer governance and sustainability, will cover incumbent MBA head of ESG, Natasha McKean, who is on maternity leave.
MBA investments chief, Garth Rossler, said: “As a value manager in Australian and Asian equities with a long term investment horizon, responsible investment is an integral part of our decision-making and in particular our position as a long only, long term investor engaging with the Board and management of portfolio companies.”
Pringle is also the co-chair of the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative (ASFI) working group on meeting community and consumer expectations.
Again on-trend with ESG, former GMO Australia head of business development, Derana Brewis, has launched a new cross-Tasman third-party marketing business with climate-related financial data firm Four Twenty Seven as foundation client.
Four Twenty Seven is an affiliate of global ratings firm Moody’s.
In a release, Brewis, also a BT alumni, said: “I think Australians and New Zealanders generally appreciate that climate change cannot be ignored and that climate change analysis is increasingly critical to making informed investment and business decisions.
“Given this, I am excited to help bring Four Twenty Seven’s climate risk data and unique analysis to financial stakeholders across Australia and New Zealand.”
In other trans-Tasman news, the National Australia Bank-owned wealth management house, JB Were, named Sally Auld as chief investment officer.
Auld comes to JB Were from JP Morgan where she was managing director and head of Australasian fixed income. She replaces Jane Wright who exited the firm earlier this year.
In a release, JB Were chief, Justin Grenier, said: “Attracting a professional of Sally’s calibre is a coup for JBWere and more importantly our clients – it reinforces our focus on delivering market-leading insights and broadening our proprietary investment capability.”
JB Were has about 30 authorised financial advisers in NZ as well as an investment strategy team led by former Nikko Asset Management head of equities, Rickey Ward.
Elsewhere, the revitalised online publication, BusinessDesk, has scooped up three new journalists as it continues to expand operations. Last year Milford Asset Management founder, Brian Gaynor, took a stake in the company ahead of transforming the long-standing NZ specialist news agency into a full-blooded online business-focused publication. Last week, BusinessDesk named two Stuff staff – business editor, Rebecca Stevenson and senior data journalist, Andy Fryers – among the new hires, growing the reporting team numbers above 10.