Governance professional of the year (large cap) M Aya Kiy-Morrocco, Cognizant
Like many people in the field, M Aya Kiy-Morrocco is a relative newcomer to ESG, having switched to that side of Cognizant’s business in 2020. Now, as head of governance and reporting for ESG – legal, she has made an impressive start and helped revolutionize how the company presents itself on key issues.
The company had published sustainability/CSR reports for several years but Kiy-Morrocco has taken disclosures a lot further. A key element of her work has been evaluating the effectiveness of the company’s internal controls over ESG data.
Her team helped create a risk framework to determine the control strategy for each metric Cognizant reports on. This ensures data integrity and consistency using a three-phase approach: compiling an inventory of externally reported data and assessing control strategies for each metric; evaluating and documenting the process and controls around each metric and establishing the appropriate level of internal controls; and monitoring and testing control effectiveness.
The team has implemented more than 400 controls for data metrics and created plans for metrics Cognizant will disclose in the future. The company also commissioned PwC to perform attestation procedures over its greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption metrics.
‘I’m proud to be part of a company that is proactive and committed to better data,’ Kiy-Morrocco says. ‘Better data leads to better decisions.’ Among many other reasons for taking ESG and related reporting seriously, she notes that employees care about what their company is doing and don’t want to see greenwashing, so ESG-related efforts affect the company’s ability to attract and retain talent.
During the awards period, Cognizant assessed its ESG priorities using a third party to measure which issues are most relevant to the firm. In 2021, Cognizant reported on its net-zero goal, which was submitted to the Science Based Targets Initiative, and its plans to reach that goal. Kiy-Morrocco is also in regular contact with clients and business partners to discuss Cognizant’s approach to non-financial disclosures. She says the company is engaging with its top 150 suppliers to encourage them to set net-zero targets.
