Archive
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Visa promotes top governance and legal officials
Kelly Mahon Tullier to take up newly created position of vice chair and chief people and administrative officer A growing number of institutional investors now have a company-wide policy on ESG investment, with the largest firms leading the way, according to new research. HSBC’s sustainable financing and investing survey 2021, which polled around 2,000 issuers and institutional investors, finds 59 percent of investors have a general ESG policy in place, up from 52 percent last year. Big firms are more likely to have such a policy, HSBC says: 85 percent of large investors (those with more than $25 bn in…
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Most institutional investors have company-wide ESG policies, survey finds
Fewer investors see hurdles to fully embracing ESG integration, according to HSBC study Visa is promoting two of its most senior governance and legal officials, effective October 1. Kelly Mahon Tullier, currently corporate secretary and head of global communications and global corporate services with the company, will take up the newly created position of vice chair and chief people and administrative officer. In doing so she will become leader of Visa’s people organization in addition to her existing responsibilities. Julie Rottenberg is being promoted to executive vice president and general counsel and will oversee Visa’s global legal and compliance function,…
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Twist Bioscience hires general counsel
Dennis Cho was most recently assistant general counsel at CytomX Therapeutics Nasdaq-listed Twist Bioscience Corporation has appointed Dennis Cho as senior vice president, general counsel and chief ethics and compliance officer. Cho was most recently assistant general counsel at CytomX Therapeutics, where he was department head for all deals and contracts in addition to taking the day-to-day lead on compliance and other legal subject matters. Before working at CytomX, Cho was the lead transactional attorney on antibody-related licenses and collaborations, major commercial agreements and combination trials at Seattle Genetics. Earlier in his career he spent nine years at Celgene as…
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The week in GRC: ISO releases its first governance framework and companies issue statement opposing Texas abortion law
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – The Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter said it agreed to pay more than $800 mn to settle a consolidated class action securities lawsuit alleging the company deliberately misled investors about user engagement in 2015. Twitter said the proposed settlement would resolve all claims against it and the other named defendants without any admission, concession or finding of any fault, liability or wrongdoing. The shareholder action claimed Twitter misled investors about two closely tracked metrics: monthly active users – a measure of the total number of users on…
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More than half of S&P Global 1200 using SASB framework
Adoption of the ESG materiality reporting framework has been swift More than 600 companies from the S&P 1200 index now use the SASB standards in their external communications to investors, according to an announcement from the Value Reporting Foundation. SASB launched in 2011, working with an influential investor advisory group to help define ESG materiality on a sector-specific basis. In November 2018, it launched its 77 industry-specific standards for use by public companies. The number of companies using the SASB Standards increased by 375 percent between 2019 and 2020, and by 215 percent between 2020 and 2021. Nearly 1,300 companies…
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Loop Energy hires general counsel
Wendy Bach spent 19 years at Methanex Corporation TSX-listed Loop Energy has hired Wendy Bach as general counsel and corporate secretary, reporting to CEO Ben Nyland. Bach was most recently general counsel and corporate secretary at Mulhall Ventures. Before that she spent 19 years at Methanex Corporation, where she held positions such as senior vice president for corporate resources and general counsel, vice president for human resources, director of investor relations and senior corporate counsel. Her experience includes corporate governance, risk management, compliance, acquisitions and divestitures, corporate finance, joint ventures and commercial contracts. Bach began her career as an attorney…
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CII seeks better ESG disclosures under accounting rules
Group urges FASB to make changes A group of major investment consultants has set up a project to encourage clients to set net-zero emissions goals. The 12 firms, which collectively advise on assets of more than $10 tn, have launched the Net Zero Investment Consultants Initiative (NZICI) with the backing of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The firms have pledged to incorporate advice on reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 into all their consulting services within two years. They also commit to supporting the goal of a 50 percent reduction in global emissions by 2030, monitoring asset managers on…
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Major investment consultants launch net-zero project
PRI-backed initiative follows similar groups for asset owners and managers Investors are allocating a higher portion of their portfolios to ESG-oriented investments, according to a survey by BNP Paribas. Almost half of investors (47 percent) say ESG will be central to almost everything they do in two years. Currently, 66 percent of investors incorporate ESG into less than half of their portfolios, while more than two fifths are incorporating a quarter or less of their portfolio into ESG. Only a third of investors are incorporating ESG into more than half of their portfolio, but that figure is expected to jump…
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Investors allocating more of portfolios to ESG focus
Nearly half of investors believe ESG will be at center of everything in two years The Council of Institutional Investors (CII) has urged FASB to make ESG-related disclosures one of its top priorities amid growing pressure for companies to enhance reporting around those issues. Specifically, CII believes FASB could improve ESG-related reporting concerning human capital management, climate change and income taxes. CII was writing in response to FASB’s request for comment on its agenda. CII general counsel Jeffrey Mahoney writes that the group believes there is a ‘pervasive need for more information about human capital management’ in financial statements, including…
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Boardroom ESG expertise leads to better sustainability performance, study finds
More than half of US companies surveyed have ESG expertise at the board level Companies without any ESG expertise at the board level tend to underperform on sustainability compared with those that do have ESG experts, according to a joint survey by NN Investment Partners and Glass Lewis. The survey uses data from NN Investment Partners’ proprietary ESG Lens score, a tool that provides a single ESG score for each company or country assessed while considering a wide range of data points. The resulting score is used as a key input for the overall ESG assessment of the company or…