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Pantheon taps ICG’s head of responsible investment, Eimear Palmer

ICG has appointed Barclays’ Elsa Palanza as global head of sustainability & ESG from Barclays, while Eimear Palmer joins Pantheon’s investment team as global head of ESG.

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Eimear Palmer, Pantheon

Pantheon has appointed its first global head of ESG: Eimear Palmer, who was head of responsible investment and a managing director at London-listed private markets firm Intermediate Capital Group. Meanwhile, ICG has appointed Elsa Palanza, Barclays’ global head of sustainability & ESG, to ICG’s investment office as global head of sustainability & ESG.

London-based Palmer, who will join Pantheon in August, will be part of the firm’s investment team and report to Alex Scott, investment partner and co-head of Pantheon’s ESG committee. Her role will involve overseeing the firm’s ESG strategy, “reflecting our ongoing commitment to integrating ESG principles throughout our business” and “coordinating our broader approach to ESG, both within the firm and across our investment processes, as well as in our engagement with our clients, the industry and our wider communities”, a statement from Pantheon said.

Palmer was also a founder of Initiative Climat International’s UK platform and previously worked in ESG at Carlyle Group.

Palanza, also based in London, will join ICG in September and will lead the firm’s ESG strategy and responsible investing. Palanza was global head of sustainability and ESG at Barclays for four years. She also held roles at the Clinton Global Initiative and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “giving her a unique and global perspective on best practices in sustainability and cross-sector partnerships”, according to a statement from ICG.

Elsa Palanza, ICG

ICG closed its first SDG-aligned infrastructure fund at €1.5 billion in April. The firm’s portfolio-wide net-zero target was validated by the Science-Based Targets Initiative in November – one of the seven first private equity firms to achieve this. The firm secured a €1.45 billion ESG-linked subscription credit facility for its eighth private debt fund from a consortium of banks led by Standard Chartered for Fund VIII last year, after arranging a £550 million ($689 million; €646 million) £550 million ESG-linked credit facility in February 2021 for various liquidity needs across the firm.