Deutsche Bank has appointed the company’s first head of ESG (environmental, social and governance) for Asia Pacific.
Taking on the role is former World Bank, JP Morgan and Obama adminstration executive Kamran Khan, who joins the multinational bank from sustainable investment firm Infra-Tech, where he was chief executive and managing partner.
Khan will be responsible for developing and coordinating the regional business strategy around ESG across all of Deutsche Bank’s business divisions in Asia Pacific. He will be based in Singapore.
His appointment comes the day after Deutsche Bank announced a series of new sustainability targets, including a plan to pump Euros 200 billion (US$216 billion) into sustainable financing and investments by 2025.
The bank’s Asia Pacific CEO Werner Steinmueller said in a statement that Deutsche Bank created the role “as a statement of intent” to put ESG at the heart of the company and the service it provides to clients.
In Khan’s career, he started out working in mergers and acquisitions for JP Morgan. He had a 9-year stint with the World Bank as programme director for Singapore, and in 2013 was appointed by the Barack Obama administration to run the global operations for the United States Millennium Challenge Corporation, an investment portfolio with a focus on ESG-led investments.
Khan is on the advisory board of a number of organisations including airline industry carbon exchange AirCarbon and Fudan University Fintech Center, where he gives ESG advice on Belt and Road Initiative projects.
