James Holley

Partner, ESG Transaction Services

KPMG in the UK

James re-joined the firm in May 2022 as UK Partner from Bridgepoint, an international private equity and alternative fund management group, where he spent the last 5 years as Head of ESG.

James has over 20 years’ ESG & Sustainability experience in both an advisory and practitioner context, and has also held roles at Deloitte and ERM, a PE portfolio company where he started his career.

He is responsible for leading the ESG Transaction Services team and ESG Private Equity proposition to support clients embed ESG across their investment lifecycle from fundraising to due diligence, ownership and exit. He will also support the wider firm on specific strategic ESG priorities and opportunities as appropriate.

  • Masters Environmental Law

  • BSc Environmental Science

  • NEBOSH General Certificate in Health and Safety

  • Core member of Invest Europe’s Responsible Investment Roundtable Former member of PRI’s PE Advisory Committee (2018 - 2020)

  • ESG strategy for PE and portfolio companies

  • ESG opportunities and risk identification and management for Investor Relations and Investment Teams

  • ESG program integration and value creation

  • Development and implementation of ESG software

  • Development and implementation of ESG polices, processes and systems including 'playbooks'