Kerry Ten Kate
Director, Investor Responsibility - Insight Investment

Director, Investor Responsibility Insight Investment

Kerry ten Kate started her professional life as a barrister. In 1990, she joined the Secretariat of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development to work with Secretary-General Maurice Strong during the Earth Summit negotiations of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity and Agenda 21. Since then, she has conducted research and offered policy advice to governments, industry and the UN on issues ranging from conservation and sustainable development strategies to trade and environment policies. Her focus since 1994 has been on biodiversity, particularly access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing, on which she has written extensively. At the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, she established and managed the CBD Unit, developing and implementing genetic resources policy and developing Kew as a centre of expertise on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Subsequently, as Policy Adviser, reporting to Kew's Director Peter Crane, she conducted policy research and advised the UK and other governments on the CBD and sustainable development strategies. From 1999 to 2002, she was a member of the UK delegation to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and negotiating sessions of the CBD's Conference of Parties, Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, Expert Panels and working group on ABS and Meeting on the Strategic Plan. She is now Director of Investor Responsibility at Insight Investment, engaging with the multinational companies in which Insight's ?'s71 billion fund is invested to encourage them to adopt best practice on environmental, social and ethical issues and working with her bonds and equities colleagues to integrate these issues into investment decisions. She writes and broadcasts for the BBC Radio 4. She is Senior Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies of the UN University, Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House),a Fellow with Forest Trends, a Washington-based NGO, and a member of the Katoomba Group (a group of 100 international experts on markets in ecosystem services).