Lisa Woll to Step Down as CEO of US SIF | Chief Investment Officer

Lisa Woll, CEO of US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, will step down at the end of January after more than 16 years at the helm. A press release from the organization says Woll will stay on as an adviser through April to help with the transition.

Woll, who joined US SIF in 2006, has been responsible for the organization’s strategic planning, as well as developing policy presence and expanding and diversifying funding. She also launched US SIF’s national conference and created the Center for Sustainable Investment Education, which provides education and research on sustainable investment.

For more stories like this, sign up for the CIO Alert newsletter. 

Prior to her time at US SIF, Woll was executive director of the International Women’s Media Foundation, which focuses on press freedom and expanding women’s role in the media. Before that, she was senior adviser on child rights at Plan International, a development and humanitarian organization.

“I want to thank Lisa for her immense contributions to US SIF and the US SIF Foundation and her work advancing the sustainable investment field,” Diederik Timmer, chair of US SIF’s board of directors, said in a statement. “The board is also grateful for her thoughtful and diligent approach to supporting us with a smooth transition. Lisa will be deeply missed, but I know that what she does next will be as impactful as what she was able to achieve at US SIF.”

The US SIF board said it has formed a search committee to appoint a new CEO and has hired executive recruitment firm Korn Ferry to lead the search process.

“I believe that we will attract a diverse and talented pool of candidates and am confident we will find an outstanding new CEO,” said Timmer. “The board is seeking a candidate who will further grow the impact and reach of the organization by continuing to effectively serve US SIF members, advance the field and promote industry best practices.”

The search will be led by led by Kate Shattuck, senior client partner, global financial services and co-leader, impact investing, and Becky Graham, principal and association practice leader.

“Serving as US SIF’s CEO has been the professional highlight of my career,” said Woll in a statement. “I love this job and am so proud of the impact our field has generated, but I am ready for my next professional adventure,” she said, adding that “as Serena Williams said at the start of this year’s US Open, ‘I am not retiring, but evolving.’”

Charles Counsell to Step Down as TPR CEO

Swedish Pension Fund AP3 Names Staffan Hansén CEO

Tags: Diederik Timmer, Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, Korn Ferry, Lisa Woll, US SIF

Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks has pulled approximately $100 million in state funds out of BlackRock investments, according to The Salt Lake Tribune, in protest over the asset manager’s focus on environmental, social and governance investing.

In January 2020, BlackRock CEO and founder Larry Fink announced that the world’s largest asset manager was making sustainability the central focus of its investment strategy. Growth in ESG investing has been strong in recent years, and ESG-mandated assets are on pace to account for half of all professionally managed assets worldwide by 2024, according to Deloitte. However, that growth has led to a recent pushback from conservative politicians who decry ESG as a way to force a left-wing agenda on the public and claim ESG investing is a breach of fiduciary duty.

Want the latest institutional investment industry news and insights? Sign up for CIO newsletters. 

“The key asset that any investment manager has is trust. It’s hard to trust an investment manager who has adopted more than one goal,” Oaks said, according to the Tribune. “When a manager is trying to achieve a dual purpose, there is the potential for returns to suffer or volatility to increase.”

On the Utah state treasurer’s website, Oaks said that he is “committed to pushing back against ESG” and called it “a political score that, intentionally or not, can result in market participants using economic force to drive a political agenda.”

Oaks isn’t the first to go after BlackRock for its strong pro-ESG stance. Last month, a group of 19 Republican state attorneys general wrote to BlackRock criticizing the firm for its ESG investments, which are held by many state pension funds.

“BlackRock appears to use the hard-earned money of our states’ citizens to circumvent the best possible return on investment, as well as their vote,” wrote the attorneys general in their letter. They added that BlackRock “has used citizens’ assets to pressure companies to comply with international agreements such as the Paris Agreement that force the phase-out of fossil fuels, increase energy prices, drive inflation, and weaken the national security of the United States.”

BlackRock declined to comment on Oaks’ decision to pull $100 million worth of BlackRock investments; however, it cited its response to the letter from the attorneys general, which said that the firm’s participation in ESG initiatives is “entirely consistent with our fiduciary obligations,” adding that governments representing more than 90% of the world’s GDP have committed to net zero in the coming decades.

“We believe investors and companies that take a forward-looking position with respect to climate risk and its implications for the energy transition will generate better long-term financial outcomes,” said the BlackRock statement. “These opportunities cut across the political spectrum.”

And in his annual letter to CEOs earlier this year, Fink argued that “stakeholder capitalism is not about politics. It is not a social or ideological agenda. It is not ‘woke.’” He added that “it is capitalism, driven by mutually beneficial relationships between you and the employees, customers, suppliers and communities your company relies on to prosper. This is the power of capitalism.”