[2] In January 2015, it was announced that Kell would retire as Executive Director of the UN Global Compact after over 25 years of service to the United Nations.
Kell was a researcher whilst undergoing his postgraduate studies – he was a financial analyst specialising multinational portfolios in Asia and Africa.
[6] Popular reaction to the speech led to the official creation of the United Nations Global Compact in 2000, with Georg Kell as the founding Executive Director.
The Global Compact calls on companies to align strategies and operations with universal principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and take actions that advance societal goals.
[10] In making the announcement Kell said: “After spending most of my professional career building an ESG [environmental, social, and governance] framework for companies, joining Arabesque seems the logical next step to help integrate this framework into portfolio management for the benefit of investors, corporations and all stakeholders alike.”[11] Arabesque integrates environmental, social and governance data with quantitative investment strategies.