Nan Luo was named head of China at the Principles for Responsible Investment, the community of asset owners, money managers and service providers dedicated to building a sustainable global financial system, said PRI spokeswoman Joy Frascinella.
It is a new position. Ms. Luo previously worked in the British embassy in Beijing, where she served as head of institutional infrastructure investment. Ms. Luo said in a telephone interview that role involved promoting investment by Chinese institutional investors and state-owned enterprises in energy infrastructure projects in the U.K.
Interest in environmental, social and governance issues among Chinese investors, while growing, remains at a “very early stage” at present, said Ms. Luo. Promoting awareness of those issues and wider adoption of the principals for responsible investment will be a top goal, she said.
While only seven of the organization's 1,852 signatories around the global are based in China at present, Ms. Luo said hopeful signs include the promotion by China's government of “green bond” issuance and the adoption of PRI's principles in March by one of the country's biggest money managers — China Asset Management, the Beijing-based manager with assets under management of $115 billion as of Dec. 31.
Of the seven, six are money managers and one is a service provider. Ms. Luo said another priority will be reaching out to asset owners in China, as their adoption of the organization's principles could provide further momentum in attracting money managers and service providers as well.
