Credit Suisse has made five new appointments to grow its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy team, drive ESG integration across the bank and propel the bank’s ambition to be a leader in sustainability.
Michael van der Meer, Angela Saxby, Sina Dorner-Müller and Timothy Oehmigen will join the bank from Robeco while Karim Sayyad will join from Nordea. In their new roles, they will join the existing team of specialists who are responsible for the development and oversight of Credit Suisse's ESG Investment Framework, and who have built the ESG Hub which acts as the bank's center of expertise.
In addition, they will advance and consolidate Credit Suisse's ESG practices and procedures, support an integrated ESG house view by industry sector, provide opinions on single securities, perform sector sustainability analyses, and facilitate fundamental integration of relevant sustainability insights in research outcomes and investment cases.
The five will join the bank's Sustainability Strategy, Advisory and Finance (SSAF) function, be based in Zurich and report into Daniel Wild, Global Head of ESG Strategy. Mr. van der Meer will act as Head of ESG Analysis and will lead the ESG strategy team. An experienced sustainable investments expert, he was most recently Head of Sustainable Investment Research at Robeco.
Daniel Wild, Global Head of ESG Strategy at Credit Suisse, said: "I am delighted to welcome such a well-respected, talented and experienced group of individuals to our team. As ESG continues to grow in significance in our industry and across the world, Michael, Angela, Sina, Timothy and Karim will help to offer our clients a further enhanced sustainability service and position Credit Suisse as a leader in the area of ESG policy, analysis and expertise."
Marisa Drew, Chief Sustainability Officer and Global Head of SSAF at Credit Suisse, added: "These appointments are a key step in augmenting our ESG expertise and expanding our sustainability offering for clients. This investment in our ESG center of knowledge will help us to scale our activities across the bank, ultimately furthering our ambition to be a sustainability leader."
Credit Suisse enhanced its commitment to sustainability and impact in July 2020 by establishing a new Executive Board level corporate function, Sustainability, Research and Investment Solutions (SRI), led by Lydie Hudson. SRI is dedicated to supporting Credit Suisse's divisions in delivering innovative products, content and solutions to wealth management, corporate and institutional clients and was created to accelerate the bank-wide evolution and response required to support the changing needs of clients, regulators and the markets in which the bank operates.
As part of the SRI function, the bank also created Sustainability Strategy, Advisory and Finance (SSAF), the successor to its Impact, Advisory and Finance Department, established in September 2017. SSAF's mandate is to formulate the bank’s sustainability strategy and embed it throughout the bank, implement the development of sustainable products and services for clients and represent Credit Suisse on important issues.