Ethical leaders of 2008 Former CWU President

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Special Reports:
Ethical leaders of 2008.

http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=6226

Donald MacDonald, chairman, UN Principles for Responsible Investment

For leading the UNPRI through the most significant year of its history

The UN Principles for Responsible Investment continue to go from strength to strength under the leadership of Donald MacDonald – and never more so than in 2008.

MacDonald, who is also a trustee of the £38bn BT pension scheme, has chaired the board of the initiative since it began in 2005. This year he has been instrumental in galvanising supporters of the principles, which already has more than 400 signatories with combined assets of $15 trillion, to become more vocal advocates of corporate responsibility.

In 2008, PRI signatories have started to use the principles as a banner under which to rally support for campaigns against companies perceived to be lagging on sustainability.

In November, PRI institutional investors with combined assets of $4.4 trillion called on 9,000 companies to sign up to UN Global Compact, a set of corporate responsibility principles. This followed a campaign in January by a smaller group of PRI asset managers to demand that companies already signed up to the compact met their commitments to report on their progress under the guidelines.

This more vocal and campaigning direction would seem to suit the PRI, and should raise the profile of the principles. MacDonald must take much of the credit for this. Using the skills he perfected as a former president of the UK Communication Workers Union, former BT engineer MacDonald rallies his fellow asset owners on the PRI board to back campaigns that start to bring more investor pressure to bear on companies to be responsible.