ESG Book has named Justin Fitzpatrick, the founder and executive of several UK-based RegTech companies, as its new chief executive replacing global sustainability leader Daniel Klier.
The Germany-based data and tech company, which made headlines in 2021 when it put a large part of its ESG database on a free-to-use platform, said Fitzpatrick has “deep expertise in scaling and accelerating growth in investor-backed software companies”.
This will benefit ESG Book’s “global expansion and deliver its future success as a leader in sustainability data and technology”, said Nazo Moosa, an advisory board member at the company.
ESG Book, which was founded in 2018, operates a SaaS-based platform that delivers data on more than 200,000 corporate disclosures worldwide. It is part of the Arabesque Group, which also operates an asset management business. Its free database was launched in December 2021 backed by an alliance of institutions, including HSBC and Deutsche Bank, to help corporates, investors and standard setters with their sustainability operations.
Partnerships
Fitzpatrick joins ESG Book from FullCircl, a RegTech software provider that he co-founded and where he was chief operating officer. Before that, he co-founded and headed RegTech research firm DueDil. He is also a founder and non-executive director of UK FinTech industry group Innovate Finance.
“This is a business extremely well positioned to meet the fast-growing need for sustainability solutions across capital markets,” Fitzpatrick said, adding that he would continue to expand ESG Book’s “partnerships with financial institutions, reduce the friction for corporates in meeting ESG disclosure requirements, and deliver market-leading analytics and tools to help our clients achieve their sustainability goals.”
He replaces Klier, who has become an ESG leader following high-profile appointments as global head of sustainable finance at HSBC, where he devised the bank’s net-zero target, and as chair of the Bank of England’s Climate Working Group. He sits on the boards of the global sustainability reporting standard GRI and the international organisation Sustainable Energy for All and recently took the chief executive role at climate consultancy South Pole.
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