The IFRS Foundation Trustees has appointed Sustainalytics founder and former CEO Michael Jantzi and SASB Standards board chair Jeffrey Hales as members of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
Launched in November 2021 at the COP26 climate conference, the ISSB aims to develop IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, in order to provide a global baseline of disclosure requirements that can be used by jurisdictions on a standalone basis or incorporated into broader reporting frameworks.
In March, the ISSB released the first exposure drafts of proposed standards for company sustainability and climate related disclosures.
With the appointments, the ISSB has reached its quorum threshold of 8 members, allowing the organization to formally operate.
Jantzi led a multiple-company merger that formed ESG ratings and research provider Sustainalytics in 2009, and he currently serves as managing director of ESG Strategy at investment research firm Morningstar, which acquired Sustainalytics in 2020.
He also serves on the board of directors of the Principles for Responsible Investment the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF), which is currently being integrated into the IFRS.
Hales is a professor of accounting at the University of Texas in Austin, and has served since 2018 as chair of the SASB Standards Board, which is accountable for the due process, outcomes, and ratification of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards.
SASB was created with the aim to establish industry-specific ESG disclosure standards for companies, and merged with the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) last year to form the VRF.
Hales has also served as an academic research fellow at the Financial Accounting Standards Board and as a member of its Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, as well as a member of the Climate Disclosure Standard Board, now consolidated into the IFRS Foundation.
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