Riverside appoints chief sustainability officer

Munich — The River­side Company, a global private equity firm that invests in small and medium-sized compa­nies, has appoin­ted Dörte Höpp­ner (photo) to the newly crea­ted posi­tion of Chief Sustaina­bi­lity Offi­cer. She will lead and drive ESG initia­ti­ves at River­side globally. Dörte Höpp­ner, who joined River­side in 2017, will conti­nue to be based in Europe and report directly to Riverside’s co-CEOs, Stewart Kohl and Béla Szigethy.

“Crea­ting this posi­tion is the next logi­cal step for us, and Dörte is the perfect person for the job,” said River­side Co-CEO Béla Szige­thy. “She has been at the fore­front of our firm’s ESG initia­ti­ves for some time and is reco­gni­zed in the private equity commu­nity for her deep under­stan­ding and commit­ment to ESG and all its dimen­si­ons. This appoint­ment reflects the great work she has done on ESG in Europe.”

In her new role, Dörte will iden­tify and drive ESG initia­ti­ves and inte­grate them into Riverside’s various fund areas. In doing so, it will work closely with the mana­ging part­ners of the indi­vi­dual funds.

“Diver­sity and inclu­sion, envi­ron­men­tal respon­si­bi­lity and high stan­dards of corpo­rate gover­nance have rightly become core busi­ness issues in recent years,” says River­side co-CEO Stewart Kohl. “Profes­sio­nal inves­tors expect private equity firms to have good ESG prac­ti­ces, and we in turn expect this from our port­fo­lio companies.”

Dörte will retain her leader­ship role in fund­rai­sing and inves­tor rela­ti­ons for River­side in Europe, in addi­tion to her expan­ded ESG respon­si­bi­li­ties, and will conti­nue to serve as the primary Euro­pean inves­tor cont­act for the global River­side company. She has been promo­ted to Mana­ging Direc­tor, Fund­rai­sing & IR.

“I have great respect for these tasks, but at the same time I am highly moti­va­ted,” Höpp­ner said. “As a company, we want to be a beacon for respon­si­ble ESG prac­tice, and I look forward to working with my extre­mely know­led­geable colle­agues, who are all passio­nate about ESG as well.”

The River­side Company is a signa­tory to the Prin­ci­ples for Respon­si­ble Invest­ment (UN PRI) and supports the ESG Data Conver­gence Project, which was laun­ched last year by leading private equity firms and their inves­tors to agree on an indus­try stan­dard of ESG metrics that would allow compa­ra­tive reporting.

The River­side Company

River­side Company is a global private equity firm focu­sed on inves­t­ing in growing compa­nies valued up to $400 million. Since its foun­ding in 1988, River­side has made more than 870 invest­ments. The company’s inter­na­tio­nal private equity and struc­tu­red capi­tal port­fo­lios include more than 130 compa­nies. River­side Europe is an inte­gral part of the company’s broad global network and has been inves­t­ing in Europe since 1989. River­side belie­ves that having a global presence provi­des special insight and access into each local context, culture and busi­ness prac­ti­ces, making River­side employees better inves­tors and busi­ness partners.