MSCI Inc. has appointed Chitra Hepburn as head of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) client coverage for Asia Pacific (APAC) effective July 8.
Hepburn is based in Shanghai and reports directly to Jack Lin, head of APAC Client Coverage at MSCI. She will be responsible for driving the growth of MSCI ESG research in the APAC market, as well as leveraging its ratings, research and data across MSCI, such as ESG indexes and ESG analytics.
“MSCI is a key leader of ESG and we were a first-mover in Asia helping investors pursue different approaches such as ESG integration, exclusionary or negative screening, or thematic investing. I am confident our clients will benefit from Chitra’s impressive ESG experience gained in different industries and locations,” says Lin.
Hepburn most recently was a managing director at ESG Global, a role she had held since February 2017, where she was responsible for working with issuers to create and implement their ESG metrics in preparation for investor roadshows.
Prior to this, Hepburn was Greater China head of sustainability, corporate communications and CSR for Bayer, across the three divisions of Pharmaceuticals, Crop Science and Consumer Care. Earlier in her career, she held roles at WestLB, Deutsche Bank and Adelphi Capital Partners. She also holds an MSc in Environmental Economics from the London School of Economics.
MSCI ESG Research, through its legacy companies, has been measuring and modelling ESG risk for over 40 years, providing ESG research to thousands of companies worldwide and driving ESG adoption since 1972 and from the mid-1990s in Asia.