Diane South has been named director of social research at Citizens Advisers, investment advisor to the socially responsible Citizens Funds, the company announced last week. South joined Citizens in 2001 as social research manager.
In her new role, South will oversee all social research activities at Citizens, including social screening, proxy voting and shareholder activism. South said that in the next few months, Citizens will be waging a campaign to resolve auditors' conflict of interest, particularly Cisco and Microsoft [see MFMN 6/13/02].
"Diane's considerable background in research and social issues is an asset to Citizens and our shareholders," said Jeffrey Schappe, Citizens' recently appointed chief investment officer. "Her abilities and credentials to research the issues and expose social problems have brought a keen insight and superior level of experience to Citizens' investment process.
South's career has been largely in journalism and communications. She has worked on documentaries and projects involving numerous social issues and has received several fellowships and awards for her work.
She most recently taught writing and media ethics in the communications program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Prior to that, she owned and operated Agave Communications, which provided communications and marketing services to corporate, state and not-for-profit clients.
