Hiroki Sampei

Founder & Principal, Astonering Advisor LLC
Co-Founder & member of the steering committee of the Forum of Investors Japan
Visiting Researcher of Hitotsubashi University CFO Education and Research Center

Astonering Advisor, established in 2021, is an independent management advisory firm primarily focusing on sustainable value creation and also plays a role to support institutional investors’ stewardship activities such as effective engagement with investee companies and proxy voting decisions.

Hiroki Sampei had long served at institutional investors such as Fidelity International and Nippon Life Insurance in their investment management and research. He has long experience in investing in equities globally since 1989 and led shareholder engagement since 2005.

Since 2007 he had led Fidelity International’s equity analyst teams as a Director of Research. He was appointed the Head of Engagement in 2017 and had been engaging with management of investee companies to promote change for better outcomes. Prior to joining Fidelity, he was an equity analyst/fund manager and then led investment teams in Nippon Life Insurance Co and its asset management arms, based in New York, London and Tokyo.

Hiroki has been an active member of regulatory councils and working groups in Japan advising on the capital market, corporate governance and ESG issues. These include the Financial System Council of the Financial Services Agency (FSA), the Legislative Council of the Ministry of Justice, working groups of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the Council of Experts Concerning the Follow-up of Market Restructuring (TSE), and etc.

Hiroki Sampei

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Hiroki Sampei

Will Farrell

Federated Hermes
Assistant Manager, EOS
London

Will co-leads the climate change theme at EOS, the stewardship arm of Federated Hermes Limited, where his coverage includes companies in Europe and Australia, primarily financial services, energy, chemicals, and materials. Prior to joining EOS, Will worked in the energy and infrastructure investment banking team at Macquarie Capital, where he specialised in renewable energy. Before that, Will held a number of roles across the UK climate policy space, including as a parliamentary researcher for Rt. Hon. Chris Skidmore MP on climate and energy issues, and as a climate and economic policy analyst at a diplomatic institute. He was appointed as a voluntary adviser to Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma MP, President of COP26, on preparations for COP26 after co-founding a Westminster climate policy group in 2019, which engaged MPs and Members of the House of Lords to advocate for more ambition on climate action in public policy. Will has a Bachelor’s degree (1st Class Honours) in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.