CAER's Board of Directors
STEVE GIBBS (Independent Chair)
CAER - Corporate Analysis. Enhanced Responsibility, Australia
Steve Gibbs is Chair of CAER. He is also Director-Government and Industry Liaison with the Investor Group on Climate Change (Australia & NZ). He was inaugural Chair of the Responsible Investment Academy Advisory Board and is an independent Director of Hastings Funds Management and related entities, and also Chairman of Australian Income Protection Pty Ltd. From early 2000 he was CEO of ARIA (formerly PSS/CSS) the superannuation (pension) schemes for federal government employees. When Steve left ARIA in January 2008 it had close to $A 20 billion under management. Prior to ARIA Steve was Executive Officer of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST). His earlier career was in the trade union movement.
Steve was personally invited by the then UN General Secretary to be a member of the steering committee and investor group which developed the PRI (the only Australian to be invited).
DUNCAN PATERSON (Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer)
CAER - Corporate Analysis. Enhanced Responsibility, Australia
Duncan is Chief Executive Officer and founder of CAER - Corporate Analysis. Enhanced Responsibility, the not-for-profit ESG research organisation based in Canberra, Australia. He has worked extensively in the field of responsible investment, both in Australia and in the UK with EIRIS - Experts in Responsible Investment Solutions. Duncan enjoys working with a broad range of investors to incorporate environmental, social and governance criteria into their investment processes. In addition to his work with CAER, Duncan is the Chair of the industry body for responsible investment in Australia, the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA), a Director of the Hong Kong-based Association for Sustainable and Responsible Investment in Asia (ASrIA), and is a member of FINSIA’s Managed Funds & Super Advisory Group.
KONRAD KNERR (Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer)
CAER - Corporate Analysis. Enhanced Responsibility, Australia
Konrad Knerr is an executive director and chief operating officer of the Centre for Australian Ethical Research. He has previous research experience at the Universität Bielefeld, in Germany and at the Australian National University in Australia. He previously worked for the ASX-listed funds manager, Australian Ethical Investment Limited, before helping to establish the Centre for Australian Ethical Research Pty Ltd. He is a board member of several local Australian community associations and the Association for Independent Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility Research (AI CSRR) based in Brussels, Belgium.
PHILIP SLOANE (Head of Research)
CAER - Corporate Analysis. Enhanced Responsibility, Australia
Philip completed a Bachelor of Applied Science (Honours) at the University of Canberra in 1997, specialising in resource and environmental science. Between 1997 and 2001 he worked as a research officer at the Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology in Canberra monitoring the biological health of rivers and streams throughout south-eastern Australia. In 2001 he began a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment through the Securities Institute, which he completed in 2002. Philip joined the CAER as a research analyst in September 2001 and became Head of Research in 2003. He is responsible for researching corporate environmental and social performance.
Anne O'Donnell (Non-Executive Director)
CAER - Corporate Analysis. Enhanced Responsibility, Australia
Anne is the Deputy Chair of Community CPS Australia Ltd and a Director of Equity Trustees Ltd, Grain Growers Ltd, Eastwoods Ltd and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is also a member of the Compliance Committee of UBS Global Asset Management (Australia) Ltd and the Audit and Evaluation Committee of IP Australia.
Anne has extensive experience in the ADI and Funds Management sectors. Her past executive roles include nine years as the Chief Executive Officer of Australian Ethical Investment Ltd and some twenty years with the ANZ Banking Group Ltd.
She is a Fellow of the AICD and the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.
Howard Pender (Non-Executive Director)
CAER - Corporate Analysis. Enhanced Responsibility, Australia
Howard received a university medal in economics from the Australian National University. He worked at the Commonwealth Treasury and then as senior economist at Bankers Trust in Sydney. From 1992 to 1997, he was a visiting fellow in the Centre for International and Public Law at the Australian National University. Howard has been a director of 3 ASX-listed companies.
James Thier (Non-Executive Director)
CAER - Corporate Analysis. Enhanced Responsibility, Australia
James Thier was an inaugural board member of the Ethical Investment Association (now the Responsible Investment Association of Australia), an industry body. He previously held senior positions in local government and within peak bodies of the credit union movement and taught at the University of NSW in several schools. James was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study shareholder advocacy mechanisms in the United States and Europe, in particular resolutions proposed at annual general meetings.
