SASB Hires New Head of Standards Setting

SAN FRANCISCO, May 4, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB)™, a 501c3 non-profit organization that provides sustainability accounting standards for use by publicly listed corporations in the U.S, today announced that Michael Kinstlick will serve as its new Head of the Standards Setting Organization (SSO).

As Chief of Standards Setting, Kinstlick will oversee research, analytics, consultation, and codification and maintenance of the SASB standards. He is responsible for ensuring stakeholder feedback is solicited, heard, analyzed and reflected in changes to the standards. In addition, he will oversee the body of evidence substantiating the materiality of the issues addressed in SASB standards, and ensure the decision-usefulness and cost benefit of associated metrics and technical protocols.   

Over his career, Kinstlick has worked predominantly in finance, including almost a decade at quantitative equities firm AXA Rosenberg. While there, he held roles in both core research and the management of billions of dollars in long/short strategies across the full spectrum of equities. Michael brings to SASB a keen ability to objectively understand and price risks of all types across industries for the benefit of investors.

"As we enter the next phase of standards development, evaluating the evidence and testing the materiality of the information arising from the standards is paramount. Financial materiality is an objective legal standard that can be evaluated by the magnitude of the impacts on the financial condition and operating performance of companies or even an entire industry," says Dr. Jean Rogers, SASB Founder & CEO. "We're thrilled to have Michael working with us to build the analytics capabilities of our team of dedicated sector analysts in order to maintain and strengthen our materiality focus and evidence-based, consensus-driven process."

On average, each of SASB's provisional standards—which are now available for 79 industries—has five disclosure topics and 13 metrics per industry. SASB sector analysts will test the materiality of each topic through financial modeling, evaluation of the aggregate patterns of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk across a typically diversified portfolio, and engagement with key stakeholders.

"I am honored to take on the role of Head of Standards Setting Organization and lead SASB's team of extraordinary analysts," says Kinstlick. "I intend to ensure the integrity of SASB's standards development process to turn sustainability factors into material, decision-useful metrics to help both investors and executives make effective capital allocation decisions."

On April 7, SASB entered a period of deep consultation on the provisional standards and the proposed process to codify and maintain them. SASB invites stakeholders to submit a comment on SASB's proposed codification process or schedule a consultation to provide feedback on the provisional standards.

About SASB
The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB)™ is an independent 501(c)3 organization that issues industry-specific standards for use in disclosing material sustainability information in filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, and Mary Schapiro, former SEC chairman, serve as chair and vice chair of SASB's Board of Directors, and Dr. Jean Rogers serves as Founder and CEO. More than 2,800 individuals representing $23.4T assets under management and $11T market capital have participated in multi-stakeholder industry working groups informing standards development. For more information about SASB, visit www.sasb.org, or follow us on YouTube, Twitter or LinkedIn.

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SOURCE Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

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