MLC Life sustainability manager joins impact firm

Sustainability and impact investment expert Désirée Lucchese has joined the board of a newly formed impact research and consulting firm as a non-executive director.

Impact Alpha Partners (IAP), founded in 2023, sought Lucchese's expertise spanning environmental science, climate risk and sustainable finance.

As FS Sustainability's sister magazine Industry Moves reported in April, Lucchese recently joined MLC Life Insurance as sustainability manager.

Prior, she was the head of ethics and impact at U Ethical Investors and an ESG consultant at MSCI ESG Research.

With a background in climate science, sustainability best practice and infrastructure planning, Lucchese worked for AECOM, the EU Commission, the UK's Capital Markets Union and the UN Global Compact's Cities Program.

Lucchese has been influential in the development of responsible investment standards and reporting frameworks, having advised the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA) Technical Expert Groups and teamed up with the Investor Group for Climate Change (IGCC) and Investors Against Slavery and Trafficking (IAST) on stewardship initiatives.

On her appointment as a non-executive director at IAP, Lucchese commented: "We are now at a crossroads: rising climate risks increasing the potential for hot-house disasters, versus promising technological progress in the clean economy transformation and innovations in policies and markets.

"The scale of socio-economic change and disruption for society and the natural world will require unprecedented ingenuity and business resilience. Positive change requires courage and humility, which IAP will bring to this space."

Managing Director Andrew Huang said: "We are excited to have an individual of Désirée's calibre lend her knowledge and support towards our company mission. Désirée's deep and cross-disciplinary expertise, which spans environmental science and systems, climate risk evaluations, and sustainable finance frameworks will provide invaluable guidance for IAP and our clients to appropriately and credibly navigate the impact investing ecosystem."