UOB sets up sustainability advisory panel with trio of members

UOB has set up a sustainability advisory panel with three members to independently advise the bank’s board and management on its sustainability strategy, targets and initiatives.

The appointed members are Neo Gim Huay, managing director of the Centre for Nature and Climate at the World Economic Forum (WEF); Yoon Young Kim, Schneider Electric’s cluster president for Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei; and Seatrium chairman Mark Gainsborough.

Over their one-year term from Oct 1, they will work with UOB’s corporate sustainability office.

They will also advise the bank’s board and management on a range of matters such as sustainability trends, the management of environmental, social and governance-related risks and opportunities, as well as UOB’s overall sustainability strategy, targets and initiatives.

On Wednesday (Oct 4), UOB said all three members are experts in their own fields of climate science, sustainability in South-east Asia and in the wider industrial economy – particularly in energy transition.

Such areas are aligned with UOB’s commitment to net zero and its support of “a just transition that advances socioeconomic development in tandem with decarbonisation in the region”, said the bank.

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Highlighting sustainability as “a critical global issue that requires urgent attention and action”, UOB’s deputy chairman and chief executive officer Wee Ee Cheong said these three members will provide “global perspectives and regional expertise” through the bank’s new sustainability advisory panel.

Prior to her role at WEF, Neo was the first managing director for sustainability and climate change strategy at Temasek, where she built and drove the state investor’s sustainability and initiatives across its investment portfolio and the broader Temasek ecosystem.

UOB noted that Kim, who fronts and drives Schneider Electric’s sustainability engagements in Singapore and the region, is well-versed in the latest developments in energy management and power distribution, and how they can enable the green transition.

Aside from chairing Seatrium, Gainsborough is also chairman and co-founder of Low Carbon Advisors, a Singapore-based advisory business to help boards and CEOs develop credible plans to transition to a lower-carbon economy.

He previously spent nearly four decades with Shell, where he helped to develop the company’s carbon intensity reduction targets and policies to reduce the environmental impact of its refining operations and the production of more sustainable fuels and lubricants.