By Claire Manuel, with thanks to Miriam Heale, Allen & York Recruitment
Appointment of the month
Burston joins NPL from Carbon Retirement, a social enterprise she co-founded in 2008 that takes an innovative approach to carbon offsetting. Prior to establishing Carbon Retirement, Burston worked as a consultant in the environmental sector, including on climate change policy for Transport for London and the Mayor of London’s office, and as an external consultant to a range of FTSE 100 businesses, public sector organisations and SMEs.
Magdalena Kettis has been appointed sustainability manager at Coca-Cola Enterprises in Sweden and Norway. Kettis was most recently head of social and environmental issues at Norges Bank Investment Management.
The board of the Asian Development Bank has approved the appointment of Bindu N Lohani as vice-president (knowledge management and sustainable development). Lohani, who has held the position of vice-president (finance and administration) since April 2007, will oversee the economics and research department, office of information systems and technology, the office of regional economic integration, and the regional and sustainable development department.
Dr Julia Haake has joined sustainability research company oekom as director of its new Paris office. Haake was previously director of corporate relations at WWF France. Prior to that, she served as head of environment and international CSR relations and as director of sustainability for La Poste Group.
Global design and innovation company Seymourpowell has hired Chris Sherwin as head of sustainability. Sherwin will be responsible for developing and delivering specific sustainable innovation offers and for embedding sustainability into all the company’s existing work. A trained designer with a PhD in sustainable design, Sherwin has previously held positions in Electrolux, Philips, Forum for the Future and, most recently, Dragon Rouge, where he was a sustainability consultant.
Emma Devenish is the new head of sustainability at communications provider Airwave. She was formerly head of environment and sustainability at the Metropolitan Police Service.
Mark Phillips, head of sustainability and environment at South Staffordshire College, has been appointed as a regional adviser for the west Midlands by the Learning and Skills Improvements Service (LSIS). The LSIS strategy and action plan focuses on ways to reduce energy consumption, encourage carbon reduction and implement waste management. It will also promote the reaching forward index (RFI) tool, which measures sustainability and acts as a benchmark in correct practices.
Prof Daniella Tilbury, director of sustainability at the University of Gloucestershire, has been elected president of the Copernicus Alliance, representing 326 universities from across Europe. The alliance brings together universities who are committed to making a contribution to sustainability through the Copernicus Charta, which supports ten “change pathways” including sustainability values and ethics, education for university employees and students and institutional strategic frameworks.
The French Goëmar Group, which specialises in sustainable technologies for productive agriculture, has announced the appointment of a new chief executive officer, Jean-Pierre Princen. Princen was previously in charge of the crop protection business for France and Benelux at the DuPont de Nemours group, and is chairman at UIPP, the Plant Protection Industry Union.
Mark Hedges, senior sustainability consultant at BMT Isis Ltd, has been promoted to head of sustainability.
Breana Wheeler has joined consulting and business services group Mouchel plc as group environmental adviser. Wheeler was previously regional environmental coordinator at Skanska infrastructure development.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Pamela A Gibbs as the inaugural director of the office of minority and women inclusion, which oversees diversity in the agency’s employment, management and business activities. Gibbs comes to the SEC from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where she has served since October 2009 as the director of its office of diversity and inclusion.
The Volkswagen Group has created a new culture and CSR department, which will bring together communication activities relating to key issues such as social responsibility, sustainability, and cultural and sports promotion. Benita von Maltzahn has been appointed to head the department. She has been with the group since 1999, most recently as Bentley’s head of marketing, communications and VIP sales Europe.
Dr Alan Knight OBE will join business-led charity Business in the Community as environmental sustainability director in March 2012. Dr Knight has nearly 20 years of experience of working with global and national companies and governments on sustainability and for nine years he was a commissioner with the Sustainable Development Commission. He chairs the UK taskforce on peat, is a panellist on the UK independent panel on forestry and is a founder of the Global Association of Corporate Sustainability Officers.