GIC head of sustainability Rachel Teo is leaving the sovereign wealth fund by the end of this month, a little over a year after taking on the newly created role, The Business Times has learnt.

The dedicated sustainability office was set up in June 2022 to deepen the sovereign wealth fund’s research into key sustainability issues and integrate sustainability further into its investments and corporate processes.

When announcing its launch, a GIC spokesperson said: “As we enter the next phase of our sustainability journey, integration work is set to become far more complex, and will require deeper and broader coordination across GIC.”

Teo is concurrently head of total portfolio sustainable investing in the economics and investment strategy department. She took this post in April 2022 after spending close to five years heading its futures unit, where she delved into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and strategies.

A GIC spokesperson confirmed Teo’s resignation and said the firm “wishes her well in her future endeavours”. The spokesperson said that while the fund looks for suitable candidates to replace Teo, Shang Thong Chie, director of enterprise strategy, will take over as the head of the sustainability office in the interim.

GIC did not say where she is headed. Teo could not be reached for comment.

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Key sustainability issues

Asked if the manpower change will affect the work of the sustainability office, the spokesperson said it “will continue to advance sustainability” as it is integral to GIC’s mandate and its commitment to enabling the global transition to a net-zero economy. 

The spokesperson added that the office “will deepen research in key sustainability issues and further drive the integration of sustainability into all our investment and corporate processes”.

Teo’s career at GIC spanned more than 18 years, where she held positions including head of economics and capital markets and head of developed markets.

Teo most recently co-authored a report laying out GIC’s latest climate scenario analysis, which contemplates a new Too Little Too Late (TLTL) scenario. This assumes that policymakers are forced to act only when public pressures rise in response to severe extreme weather shocks.

The report, published in April, stated that GIC decided to explore this “highly disruptive” scenario because as an investor, it needs to contemplate a world of insufficient policy actions as a potential outcome. It went as far as to state that this TLTL scenario now appears to have the highest likelihood of coming true among three other possibilities.