With thanks to Miriam Heale, Allen & York www.allen-york.com
Beth Thoren has joined environmental lawyers ClientEarth as deputy CEO. She was previously director of fundraising and communications at the RSPB.
Thoren started out as an engineer on commercial ships, travelling the world. “After years of sea-going adventures, I got an MBA and moved to the UK as a management consultant,” she recalls. After a stint working for companies such as Mars Confectionery and WH Smith she joined the BBC, where she helped to set up – and was key leader in – the £176m national switchover programme from analogue to digital TV.
Her interest in the environment was sparked by a three-month sabbatical to save whales in Antarctica. She hopes to help ClientEarth move from an initial European growth phase to become an organisation with global impact. “ClientEarth is an extraordinarily innovative and professional organisation of lawyers that fight to protect our health and our world,” she says. “If you can change and enforce laws, you can change the world.”
Appointment of the month: Tanya Steele
WWF-UK has announced that Tanya Steele will become its new chief executive. Steele, who takes up her new role on 1 January 2017, is interim UK chief executive of Save the Children. Before that, she spent more than a decade working in product development, marketing and communications, holding senior roles at Siemens and BT.
Sir Andrew Cahn, chair of trustees at WWF-UK, said: “I welcome Tanya to the WWF family, both in the UK and in our global network. WWF has an urgent and truly global mission for a planet where people and nature can thrive in harmony..”
WWF is one of the world’s largest independent conservation organisations, with more than five million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries.
Rozlyn Spinks has joined the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) as head of advisory services. She was formerly ethics manager at Deloitte.
The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has appointed Duncan Leadbitter to lead commercial outreach and strategic growth in Australia and New Zealand. Leadbitter is director of Fish Matter, a fisheries and natural resource consulting company. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the ASC is an independent, not-for-profit organisation co-founded by the WWF and the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative.
Construction company BAM International, a subsidiary of Royal BAM Group, has appointed Nitesh Magdani as sustainability director for the group. Magdani has been director of sustainability with BAM Construct UK since 2013.
Emma Howard Boyd is the new chair of the UK’s Environment Agency. She was appointed to the board of the Environment Agency in 2009, made deputy chair in 2015 and then acting chair. Boyd has spent 25 years in financial services and was director of stewardship at Jupiter Asset Management until July 2014.
Rod Taylor has joined the World Resources Institute (WRI) as the new global director of its forests programme, based in Washington, DC. Taylor was most recently director of WWF’s forests programme. He will guide some of WRI’s most iconic initiatives, including Global Forest Watch, the Global Restoration Initiative and the Forest Legality Initiative.
Elisabet Jamal Bergström has been appointed chief sustainability officer of Swedish bank Handelsbanken. Bergström, who will now be a member of the bank’s senior management, is currently its head of sustainability.
Volkswagen Group has appointed an international Sustainability Council. Its inaugural meeting takes place at the end of October in Berlin, where a chairperson will be elected. Members of the council are: Ottmar Edenhofer, Connie Hedegaard, Gesche Joost, Georg Kell, Yves Leterme, Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff, Margo T Oge, Michael Sommer and Elhadj As Sy.
Jean-Philippe Desmartin has joined Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management as head of the responsible investment team, based in Paris. A former head of ESG research at Oddo Securities, Desmartin also chairs the research commission at the French Forum pour l'Investissement Responsable.
Amandine Robin is now senior vice-president, communications and CSR at Pernod Ricard USA. She was formerly with Corby Spirit and Wine and Hiram Walker & Sons in Canada.
Renewable energy firm Gaelectric has promoted Barry Gavin to CEO. Gavin was previously Gaelectric’s chief operating officer.
WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global engineering and professional services firm, has appointed Manisha Patel as associate director of environmental policy. Patel was formerly deputy general counsel for the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
people on the move