People Moves: Savills appoints Sustainability expert Hyon K. Rah as Director of ESG, North America

Press Release - Savills today announced the appointment of Hyon K. Rah as Director, based in the firm's Washington, DC office. Rah, a longstanding sustainability and resilience expert, will serve as a key advisor as the firm expands its environmental, social and governance (ESG) consultancy in North America.

Rah will serve as one of the firm's primary ESG advisors for key accounts and clients across the United States and Canada. Her main focus areas will be organizational sustainability strategies, climate and water risk mitigation, and internal and external knowledge sharing. 

"As passionate as Savills is about defining and accelerating its ESG efforts internally, the firm is equally motivated to provide its clients with every resource needed to reach their respective ESG objectives," said Savills North America President David Lipson. "Hyon's arrival is the latest in a series of strategic hires for Savills in North America. We are eager to continue recruiting top ESG professionals as we establish a continental presence in this critically important arena." 

Savills Earth is the firm's UK-based ESG consultancy launched in 2021. Rah will work with more than 100 Savills sustainability sector experts tasked with supporting and advising clients in establishing ESG programs. Savills Earth develops client strategies that turn sustainability targets and commitments into reality. The team includes Savills professionals with engineering, architecture, economics, energy, infrastructure, and sustainability backgrounds.

Over her career, Rah, who speaks English, Korean, Japanese, German, and Spanish, has worked in 20 countries and held leadership positions with several organizations focused on sustainability and ESG. Rah also served as an adjunct professor of historic preservation at Goucher College and an adjunct professor of architecture at the University of the District of Columbia.

Prior to joining Savills, Rah was principal and founder of RAH Solutions, her eponymous firm based in Washington, DC. The company specialized in future-proofing commercial real estate and renewable energy investments and assets through water resilience, ESG, and integrated and context-specific strategies. RAH Solutions supported development projects and portfolios of diverse scales, scopes, and contexts with multi-benefit strategies to reduce water and energy risks along with financial and community risks.

Rah maintains numerous professional certifications:

• Fitwel Ambassador for the CDC- and GSA-developed healthy buildings standard;
• EcoDistricts Accredited Professional for equitable and climate-resilient development processes;
• Envision Sustainability Professional for sustainable infrastructure planning; and
• LEED Accredited Professional for green building design and construction management.

She holds three degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in architectural studies with a minor in Japanese from the University of Washington, a Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan, and a joint M.Sc. degree in water management and hydroinformatics from BTU-Cottbus, Newcastle University, Polytech Nice Sophia Antipolis, and Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya.

Source: Press Release