We at Ethical Markets congratulate Matthew J. Kiernan ,PhD. for this well -deserved appointment and congratulate UNEP-FI for this brilliant choice . Dr Kiernan is a member of our Advisory Board – Hazel Henderson, Editor-in-Chief
PRESS ADVISORY
For Immediate Release
Specialist Fund Manager Appointed to Prestigious United Nations Role
Geneva, Switzerland, 25 april 2013 — Inflection Point Capital Management, the specialist fund manager, has been appointed to co-chair the largest and oldest partnership between the United Nations and the global financial services.
IPCM will co-chair the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (www.unepfi.org) during 2013-2015. The UNEP FI partnership dates back to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
IPCM’s appointment comes at a time when the global financial services and investment sectors remain under intense scrutiny as institutions seek to redefine themselves as a force for good in economic, social and environmental terms. The United Nations system itself is working to find a new framework to replace former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which expire in 2015. The UNEP FI partnership is likely to be central to this process with respect to the role to be played by global finance, investment and insurance as part of multi-stakeholder efforts to forge new, UN-backed development goals.
IPCM is the vehicle of investment pioneer Matthew Kiernan. Over the past three years the fund manager, which is focused on a Strategically Aware Investment concept that builds into its investment analysis the importance of a series of sustainability-related Global Mega-Trends, has built a network of senior advisors from around the globe including David Pitt-Watson who will undertake the UNEP FI co-chair role.
Dr Matthew Kiernan, Founder and Chief Executive of IPCM, commented: “IPCM is genuinely honoured to have been appointed as Co-Chair of UNEP FI. Since the global financial crash of 2008 the worldwide financial services and investment sector, quite rightly, have been called to account. UNEP FI has a pivotal role to play in this debate as well as to catalyse new thinking and actions that rehabilitate large swathes of what is a critically important sector for global economic and social development. We are delighted at David’s appointment to the Co-Chair role.”
Paul Clements-Hunt, head of UNEP FI for twelve years (2000-2012), who now also advises IPCM, commented: “Pitt-Watson’s unique combination of capital market and policy-related experience, as well as being a globally recognised thought leader in the responsible investment space, make him the strongest choice to lead UNEP FI at such a critical period post the financial crash.”
Notes to Editors
Inflection Point Capital Management (www.inflectionpointcm.com) is a new multi-strategy asset management boutique offering exclusively sustainability-enhanced investment products across a broad range of asset classes. A research-driven organization, IPCM builds on the knowledge base and networks of its predecessor company, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, ranked by the Thomson Extel survey of institutional investors as the world’s #1 research firm in the sustainability space. IPCM has offices in London, New York, Toronto, and Melbourne.
The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (www.unepfi.org)
is a partnership that dates back to the UN’s Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and draws together more than 200 of the world’s largest banks, insurers and investment firms. Also, UNEP FI seeded and then launched in 2006 the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (www.unpri.org), an industry body now supported by more than 1200 institutional investors representing
USD 32 trillion in assets.
David Pitt-Watson, a Senior Global Advisor to IPCM, has assumed the position of Co-Chair at UNEP FI as the IPCM representative for a three-year period. As a former Chair and CEO
at the Hermes Focus Funds, David was co-founder of the largest responsible investment programme of any fund manager in the world, which established Hermes as a leader in the field. In addition to IPCM, the South African bank First Rand, represented by Madeleine Ronquest, will fill the second Co-Chair spot.
ENDS
Editors Note: Interviews with Matthew Kiernan, David Pitt-Watson and Paul Clements-Hunt can be requested by calling +41 76 753 34 42
www.inflectionpointcm.com
100 King Street West • Suite 5700 • Toronto ON M5X 1C7 • Canada • +1 416 399 2861 • inflectionpointcm.com