People Moves: IFRS Foundation Trustees appoint four further members to the ISSB

10/06/2022

Press Release - The IFRS Foundation Trustees today announced the appointment of Richard Barker, Verity Chegar, Bing Leng and Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien as inaugural members of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

Richard Barker is currently deputy dean and professor of accounting at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK. In this capacity, he leads Oxford Saïd's sustainable business initiatives. He has published a wide range of academic research papers on accounting and sustainability disclosures. He chairs the expert panel of Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) and has previously served as a member of several committees and bodies focused on corporate reporting in the UK and Europe, including the UK Corporate Reporting Council, the Financial Reporting Advisory Board and the European Accounting Association's Accounting Standards Committee. Professor Barker has also served as a research fellow at the International Accounting Standards Board.

Verity Chegar brings a wealth of investment and standard-setting expertise to the ISSB. She has 20 years of experience in sustainable investment and stewardship, portfolio management and investment research with both asset owner and asset manager perspectives. She joins from the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), where she leads the pension fund's policy engagement on sustainable investment and stewardship issues and manages the fund's work to reach its net zero ambition. Ms Chegar was previously with BlackRock, where she integrated sustainability considerations into the investment process, portfolio company engagement and proxy voting. She is also currently serving as Co-Vice Chair of the SASB Standards Board, where she has been overseeing the development and maintenance of SASB's industry-based standards since 2017.

Bing Leng is currently a Director in the Accounting Regulatory Department of the Chinese Ministry of Finance, where he oversees sustainability reporting initiatives. He initiated and led the implementation of several reporting-related programmes, including the development of digital taxonomies to enable electronic reporting and plans focused on digitising the accounting profession. Mr Leng serves as a member of the International Accounting Standards Board's IFRS Taxonomy Consultative Group and has also served as a member of the board of directors of XBRL International. He is a Doctor of Management and has a Master of Accounting from Tianjin University of Finance and Economics.

Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien's career has been focused on building connections between business and sustainable development, working across multinational and indigenous companies, public institutions and civil society organisations, in Africa and Europe, to initiate sustainable development initiatives. In her last role, she served as the inaugural Group Chief Sustainability and Governance Officer of Dangote Industries Limited-one of Africa's largest manufacturing businesses. In this role, she was responsible for the developing the company's sustainability culture, strategy and reporting across 14 countries. Dr Nnoli-Edozien has founded and served on several boards, committees and initiatives focused on corporate culture, impact investing, sustainability reporting and governance.

All appointees will start their roles as full-time ISSB members in July 2022.