Leading environmentalist Lord Stern is among nine appointments to the £3bn Green Investment Bank Advisory Group, which is responsible for ensuring that the bank can start lending to infrastructure projects from April next year.
Business secretary Vince Cable revealed yesterday that leading figures from the financial, infrastructure and development sectors will join Sir Adrian Montague, former chairman of nuclear operator British Energy, who was named as chairman of the group in May.
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All clear on the GIB front?
Updated: Cable launches Green Investment Bank advisory group
Lord Stern of Brentford, author of the landmark Stern Review on the economics of climate change, chairman of the influential Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, and holder of previous posts at the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, is probably the most high-profile member of the group, which will hold its first meeting on 6 September.
However, Cable has also harnessed the expertise of Bob Wigley, the former chairman of Merrill Lynch in Europe whose 2010 report shaped government policy on the Green Investment Bank, and Simon Brooks, UK vice president of the European Investment Bank.
Cable said he is pleased that the group’s members have such a wide range of experience and abilities, from building and running institutions to project finance and making transactions, as well as expertise in green economics, sustainable and responsible financial services and development banking.
“The group has wide-ranging credentials relating to energy and other environmentally important industries, hands-on financing experience and a deep understanding of infrastructure projects,” he added.
“We also have people with a background of starting up new credit institutions and managing a development bank.”
The nine members appointed to the Advisory Group are:
Simon Brooks, UK vice president of the European Investment Bank
John Burnham, former managing director and global head of infrastructure at Citigroup
David Gregson, chairman of Phoenix Equity Partners and a trustee of WWF-UK
Melville Haggard, managing director of Quartermain Advisers and a former advisor on Defra’s Waste Infrastructure Delivery Programme
Dima Rifai, managing partner at sustainability specialists Paradigm Change Capital
Penny Shepherd, chief executive of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association
James Smith, former chairman of Shell UK and Carbon Trust board member
Lord Stern of Brentford, Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics
Bob Wigley, chairman of Yell Group
