KeyBank has hired a corporate sustainability expert away from Wells Fargo to help the Cleveland-based company accelerate its environmental, social and governance work.
Jennifer Eastes is now the head of ESG at KeyBank, the banking arm of the $176.2 billion-asset KeyCorp. She reports to Eric Fiala, head of corporate responsibility at the bank.
Eastes, who started last month in the newly created role, is in charge of developing and implementing KeyBank’s ESG strategy. Those responsibilities include the expansion of relevant disclosures and an increase in efforts in the environment realm.
“Jennifer brings to KeyBank a strong record of helping companies build data-focused and quantifiable ESG leadership,” Fiala said in a press release.
In its first ESG report, published in May, KeyBank said it expects to improve its existing disclosures, evaluate opportunities to reduce its carbon footprint and improve the measurement and management of climate-related risks.
The bank also said it plans to start making two additional ESG disclosures — one for the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board and another for the Financial Stability Board's Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.
Eastes is a former Army reservist with more than 16 years of experience in sustainability work, KeyBank said. She was most recently the ESG reporting director at Wells Fargo, where she worked with investors, raters and rankers and led the development of the San Francisco-based company's ESG and climate disclosures.
