Dive Brief:
- Chuka Umunna, a former member of the British Parliament, has taken on the role of JPMorgan Chase’s global head of sustainable solutions, according to a LinkedIn post last week.
- Umunna will take on the new responsibility in addition to his role as head of the bank’s green economy investment banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Umunna has led ESG and green investing efforts for the EMEA regions since joining the company in 2021.
- In his expanded role, Umunna will lead JPMorgan’s global ESG and sustainability team. The appointment comes as JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was floated as a potential treasury secretary pick for a second Donald Trump presidential term, though Trump has since walked it back.
Dive Insight:
Umunna joined the bank as its managing director and head of ESG for the EMEA regions, before a title change to head of EMEA ESG and green economy investment banking in 2023. As global head of sustainable solutions, Umunna will be providing advice and transaction support for clients looking to advance sustainable solutions or for access to sustainability-focused capital in the equity, debt and private markets, per his LinkedIn post.
Umunna said in an interview with London’s Financial News last month that he prefers the term “sustainability” over ESG.
“There’s been a move towards using the term sustainability in the U.S. over ESG just because it has become quite a politically loaded phrase,” he told Financial News. “Whereas in Europe, I think the two terms are used interchangeably.”
Prior to joining JPMorgan, Umunna spent nearly a year as global co-head of ESG at consulting firm Edelman and was a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations from 2018-2021. Umunna served as a member of the British parliament for more than nine years, first as a member of the United Kingdom’s Labour Party before joining the Liberal Democrats.
As an MP, Umunna served on a Treasury committee to inquire about the 2008-09 global financial crash; as both a Shadow Minister for small business and enterprise and shadow Secretary of State for business, innovation and skills for the Labour Party; and as treasury and business spokesperson and then Shadow Foreign Secretary, responsible for international trade, for the Liberal Democrats.
His appointment comes as Senate Democrats are pressing JPMorgan CEO Dimon on the bank’s alleged “about-face” on climate and environmental commitments. The bank exited the Climate Action 100+ coalition, alongside State Street, in February, while BlackRock revised its membership.
Dimon later blasted regulations and proxy advisors in his annual letter to shareholders, which also included a shift in climate tone. He said in that letter that the firm would use the term “commitments” for its climate and environmental goals more sparingly, replacing them with “aspirations.”
JPMorgan’s research has shown the clean energy transition could take “decades or generations,” and the firm has continued to finance fossil fuel expansion. A report from the Rainforest Action Network tabbed the bank as the top financier of fossil fuels since 2016.
When asked about Dimon as a treasury secretary pick, former President Trump initially told Bloomberg Businessweek that Dimon is “somebody that [he] would consider” and that he has “a lot of respect” for Dimon.
Trump walked the speculation back a week later on his Truth Social platform, as well as denying speculation from the New York Post that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink could also be a contender for treasury secretary, despite his firm’s status as a favorite target of the anti-ESG movement.
