University of Oxford emeritus professor Gordon Clark will oversee IP Group's approach to ethical dealmaking and report to the firm's board of directors.
Gordon Clark, senior consultant and emeritus professor at University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, was named yesterday as the first chairman of commercialisation firm IP Group’s newly-established ethics committee.
Clark will supervise IP Group’s efforts to make environmentally and socially responsible investments in line with its ethics framework. He will report to IP Group’s board of directors but will not take a seat.
The committee acts as part of IP Group’s executive function, comprising two investment partners in addition to representatives of the firm’s risk and compliance unit.
University of Oxford chose Clark to direct its Smith School in 2013 having employed him as Halford Mackinder professor of geography from 1995 until 2012.
His current titles include co-director of the Smith School’s collaboration with insurance group Zurich Insurance and a professorial fellowship with Oxford college St Edmund Hall.
Clark has also performed a series of additional duties for the university, including functions for its staff pension scheme and as a faculty associate with its Institute of Ageing.
He became co-founding partner at institutional investors’ consultancy Kalytix Partners in 2014, and was appointed external adviser in 2013 and 2014 respectively at beverages producer Diageo and asset management firm Arabesque Asset Management.
Clark continues to hold visiting professor roles at Monash University’s Faculty of Business and Economics and Stanford University’s Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, having been selected in 2009 and 2012.
Clark said: “I look forward to working with IP Group on its environmental, social and governance and ethics initiative.
“It is a remarkable time, of course, with the Covid-19 challenge and the issue of climate change – two particularly pressing and substantial issues, which both investors and the public are increasingly vocal about.
“I am pleased to be part of IP Group’s work and contributing to a better understanding of the role that the company can play in addressing these issues.”
– Image courtesy of LinkedIn
