James Upton is Senior Corporate Governance Specialist at Pictet Asset Management, where he is responsible for governance-focused stewardship activities across the firm’s global investment portfolios. With an emphasis on company-specific materiality, his work spans company engagement and proxy voting, with a particular focus on core governance topics, sustainability governance and emerging challenges. He is a member of a number of ICGN and ACGA working groups, and the Eumedion Investment Committee.

Prior to joining Pictet in 2021, James spent nine years at BHP, most recently as Head of ESG policy and engagement within the Group Governance function, where he advised the Board and senior management on governance and sustainability matters and led engagement with investors and other stakeholders. Earlier in his career, he held senior corporate governance roles at the Association of British Insurers, including Head of Corporate Governance and head of IVIS. James holds a Master’s degree from the University of St Andrews in Philosophy and Latin.

James Upton

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James Upton

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.