{"id":1594746,"date":"2022-08-08T13:33:47","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T17:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1594746"},"modified":"2022-08-08T13:33:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T17:33:57","slug":"anti-israel-exec-departs-ratings-giant-amid-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anti-israel-exec-departs-ratings-giant-amid-scrutiny\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Israel Exec Departs Ratings Giant Amid Scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fanti-israel-exec-departs-ratings-giant-amid-scrutiny%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1594746&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/latest-news\/\">Latest News<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Heather Lang steps down after allegations that Morningstar subsidiary blacklists companies that do business in Israel<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\"><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tLinkedIn\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/alana-goodman\/\" title=\"Posts by Alana Goodman\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Alana Goodman<\/a> \u2022 August 8, 2022 1:30 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A senior executive at the ratings giant Sustainalytics\u2014who spent years working at an anti-Israel advocacy group\u2014announced last week that she is stepping down amid scrutiny of the company&#8217;s reliance on sources that critics say lead to bias and discrimination against Israeli companies.<\/p>\n<p>Heather Lang, a onetime official at the anti-Israel activist organization B&#8217;Tselem, announced last week her departure as a senior vice president at Sustainalytics, a subsidiary of the corporate-ratings giant Morningstar, after 18 years at the company.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Tomorrow is my last day at Sustainalytics after an incredible 18-year journey!&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/heather-lang-a500b576_tomorrow-is-my-last-day-at-sustainalytics-activity-6958170533146353664-QDxg?utm_source=linkedin_share&#038;utm_medium=member_desktop_web\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a> Lang in a social media post last week. &#8220;It&#8217;s been an absolute privilege to work with such wonderful colleagues and friends.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The news comes as Sustainalytics\u2014one of the major ratings agencies that score companies based on their environmental, social, and governance practices\u2014has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/financial-giant-morningstar-relies-on-research-from-anti-israel-orgs\/\">faced<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/latest-news\/how-financial-giant-morningstar-blacklists-companies-that-help-israel-stop-terrorism\/\">allegations<\/a>\u00a0that its scoring system is biased against Israel and that it downgrades companies that help the Jewish state&#8217;s national security operations. Prior to joining Sustainalytics, Lang worked at B&#8217;Tselem, a self-described human rights group that asserts that\u00a0&#8220;Israel&#8217;s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations,&#8221; according to its website.\u00a0NGO Monitor, a watchdog group that monitors Middle East organizations, describes B&#8217;Tselem as &#8220;part of a network of NGOs that promote artificial and manufactured definitions of apartheid to extend the ongoing campaigns that seek to delegitimize and demonize Israel.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Morningstar enlisted law firm White &#038; Case to conduct an internal <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.contentstack.io\/v3\/assets\/blt4eb669caa7dc65b2\/blt14225aa50ae4fa4d\/2022-05-11_Report_of_Independent_Investigative_Counsel_(Final).pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">investigation<\/a> into potential anti-Israel bias at Sustainalytics. This came after the Illinois Investment Policy Board, a state commission, launched a probe into whether the company was in violation of Illinois laws against anti-Israel boycotts.<\/p>\n<p>Lang&#8217;s presence at Sustainalytics raises questions about the neutrality of its executives, a week after the Missouri attorney general launched an investigation into allegations of anti-Israel bias at the ratings giant.<\/p>\n<p>Lang did not indicate that her departure is related to the investigation or allegations of bias. But Israel advocates said the company should be cautious about anti-Israel activism among its leadership.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If Morningstar is serious about rooting out anti-Israel bias in their ranks, it would behoove them to ensure no more of their officers have a history of demonizing the Jewish state,&#8221; a former Israeli government official told the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Lang did not respond to a request for comment. Sustainalytics did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>According to an online\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.maala.org.il\/%D7%9B%D7%A0%D7%A1-%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%9C%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%91%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%99\/speakers\/heather-lang\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">biography<\/a>\u00a0of Lang, posted by a conference at which she spoke, she previously worked as a &#8220;corporate social responsibility consultant and spent several years living in Israel, working for leading human rights watchdog organization B&#8217;Tselem.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While at B&#8217;Tselem, Lang was the editor of the group&#8217;s 1999 Human Rights Report, which accused Israel of various humanitarian abuses, including blocking water from Palestinians and discriminatory deportations.<\/p>\n<p>Lang&#8217;s prior work for B&#8217;Tselem was not mentioned in the White &#038; Case probe.<\/p>\n<p>According to the White &#038; Case investigation, Sustainalytics has relied on research from Who Profits, a group that supports boycott campaigns against Israel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Latest News Heather Lang steps down after allegations that Morningstar subsidiary blacklists companies that do business in Israel  LinkedIn  Alana Goodman \u2022 August 8, 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1594746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1594746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1594746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1594746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1594746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}