Dive Brief:
- JPMorgan Chase has hired Sarah Kapnick, the former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to lead the bank’s global climate advisory practices, the firm announced Monday according to an internal memo seen by ESG Dive.
- The appointment marks a return to JPMorgan for Kapnick, who previously worked at the managing director level as a senior climate scientist and sustainability strategist in the bank’s wealth management division in 2021 and 2022, according to her LinkedIn profile.
- Kapnick will be responsible for advising JPMorgan clients on climate, energy, biodiversity and sustainability, as well as leading the bank’s thought leadership on those topics, according to the memo. JPMorgan appointed Chuka Umunna in July to lead its global sustainable solutions practice.
Dive Insight:
JPMorgan is seeing “rising client demand for dedicated climate science capabilities” and advice, Troy Rohrbaugh, co-CEO of the bank’s commercial and investment banking practice, said in emailed comments.
“As our clients seek to realize the economic opportunities of the transition to a low carbon economy, and build resilience to extreme weather and climate events, Dr. Kapnick’s expertise and perspective will be very valuable to designing their long-term business strategies,” Rohrbaugh said.
Kapnick will work with the bank’s integrated corporate advisory team and partner with the commercial and investment banking and other corporate groups. She will also join JPMorgan’s firmwide environmental committee and green economy advisory board, according to Monday’s memo.
Kapnick’s career has been a mix of climate science and banking from the beginning, as she started as a Goldman Sachs investment banking analyst before interning as a graduate student at the Climate Registry and NASA. Kapnick served as a climate researcher at UCLA and Princeton before joining NOAA in 2015.
In her first NOAA stint, Kapnick spent six years as a hydroclimate scientist working on understanding the predictability and variability of snow storms, according to her LinkedIn profile. In 2018, she added the title of deputy division leader for NOAA’s Seasonal to Decadal Variability and Predictability Division to her resume. She joined JPMorgan for the first time in 2021.
As NOAA’s presidentially appointed chief scientist, Kapnick most recently was responsible for the agency’s policy and direction, as well as its scientific and technology priorities, according to the memo.
“[The] energy transition is a significant global commercial opportunity with the potential to generate economy-wide growth,” Rama Variankaval, JPMorgan’s global head of corporate advisory, said in emailed comments. “Dr. Kapnick’s science-based insights and technical expertise will help our clients see around corners and advance their decarbonization strategies.”
JPMorgan is one of two large U.S. banks that agreed to disclose their clean energy financing ratios this year — along with Citi — in response to a shareholder proposal by the New York City Comptroller’s Office. However, recent studies have found that most global banks — and U.S. banks in particular — are unprepared for climate change and U.S. banks lag behind their global peers in implementing best practices to reach net zero.
