The winners of the ICGN Global Stewardship Awards, recognising excellence and innovation in investor stewardship were announced at the ICGN Global Virtual Summit, attended by over 200 governance and stewardship professionals, on 5 November 2020. The awards were presented by the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), an investor-led body with members representing assets under management (AuM) in excess of US$54trillion.
Excellence in Corporate Governance Award
Lifetime Achievement Award
Global Stewardship Champion Award
Asset Owners – £60 billion and above AUM Winner
Asset Owners – Under £60 billion AUM Winner
Asset Managers – £60 billion and above AUM Winner
Asset Managers – Under £60 billion AUM Winner
The ICGN, an investor-led body with members representing assets under management in excess of US$54trillion, has announced awards to three individuals in honour of their exceptional achievements towards improving corporate governance.
Former ICGN Chairman, Former Associate Director of the Institute of Business Ethics Company Peter Montagnon was awarded posthumously with the prestigious ‘ICGN Lifetime Achievement Award’. A former Chair of the ICGN, Peter has been described as “the father of modern investor stewardship ”, and was highly influential in shaping the corporate governance debate through his work at the Association of British Insurers, the Financial Reporting Council and the Institute of Business Ethics.
Accepting the award on behalf of her father, Tamsyn Montagnon said: “My father would have been sincerely touched by this award, especially as it comes from the Members. He always enthused about and greatly enjoyed the projects he was involved with at the ICGN, to the point where I don’t think he even counted it as work. I think it was a place where he felt at home because his values matched the ICGN’s. He strongly believed the benefits to be gained from embracing good corporate governance would not only strengthen the institutions but would percolate out into society itself.”
John Wilcox, Chairman Emeritus, Morrow Sodali, was also awarded the ICGN Lifetime Achievement award. John has had a long and distinguished career with Georgeson & Company, TIAA-CREF and Morrow Sodali, throughout which he has consistently promoted better governance standards and practices by corporations, both in the United States and around the world.
Upon receiving the ICGN Lifetime Achievement Award John Wilcox said: “This award means a lot to me because the ICGN has played such an important role in my professional life. The work we did was exciting and had a big impact on the evolution of corporate governance. Although this is a lifetime award for me, it does not mean the end of my involvement. Today shareholders and companies are enlarging their focus to address corporate purpose, ESG, stakeholders and the social compact. There are profound changes happening all around us. These changes mean that the ICGN will be more important than ever before.”
Sarah Wilson, Chief Executive, Minerva Analytics, was awarded the ICGN Excellence in Corporate Governance Award. Sarah receives the award for her efforts to improve the essential infrastructure that underpins effective corporate governance and investor stewardship, such as cross-border voting.
Upon accepting the award, Sarah said: “It is an immense privilege to receive the ICGN Excellence in Corporate Governance Award. Over the years I have been constantly impressed and inspired by the hard work and success of the Network in grappling with complex ideas and some very wicked problems that face companies and investors. Research and innovation requires persistence, and sometimes the results are not overnight and sometimes it does work at all, the important thing is to persist and find a way forward. The track record of ICGN over the years is testimony to that. Thank you ICGN.”
ICGN Award candidates are nominated by ICGN Members who recommend the candidates for the impact of their efforts on corporate governance standards and practices around the world. Announcing the awards Robert Walker, Chair of ICGN’s Board of Governors, said “When attempting to bring about material improvements in corporate governance, there are very few quick wins. That is why the criteria for these awards include determination and resilience in overcoming difficulties and barriers. These are attributes that all three candidates have demonstrated in abundance, and we owe them all a debt of gratitude”.
ENDS
The winners of the ICGN Global Stewardship Awards, recognising excellence and innovation in investor stewardship were announced at the ICGN Global Virtual Summit, attended by over 200 governance and stewardship professionals, on 5 November 2020. The awards were presented by the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), an investor-led body with members representing assets under management (AuM) in excess of US$54trillion.
The winners are:
The ICGN Global Stewardship Champion Award recognises individuals, organisations or collaborations whose actions have contributed significantly to making effective stewardship a reality in the markets in which they operate. This year’s award was given to SBI Funds Management Private Limited for its pioneering work on ESG integration in investment decisions in India.
Accepting the award, Navneet Munot, Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer, said: “We are deeply honoured and humbled to receive the prestigious Global Stewardship Champion Award. In-depth engagement and active stewardship have been the integral pillars of our responsible investment philosophy. This global recognition will keep inspiring us to move forward with more rigour.”
The ICGN Global Stewardship Disclosure Awards recognise those investors whose public disclosures provide genuine insight into their stewardship policies and how they have been implemented, and whose approach to transparency and reporting provides a model that others might follow. Recipients are chosen by independent judging panels from a published shortlist.
Anne-Maree O’Connor, Head of Responsible Investment collected the award, for asset owners with less than £60 billion assets under management, on behalf of NZ Superannuation Fund: “Our performance is due to our organisation’s deep commitment to reporting and stewardship and the contribution and experience of our wider team. Our membership of the ICGN has provided the “go to” place for global standards, education and global perspectives. At the Guardians, we look forward to continuing to uphold excellent standards of disclosure, articulation of our investment beliefs and demonstration of how these beliefs are integrated in our policies and practices.”
Upon receiving the award for asset owners with over £60 billion assets under management, Carola van Lamoen Head SI Center of Expertise, Executive Director, Robeco “Robeco considers high quality stewardship, including reporting, a vital element in the fiduciary chain to drive positive, sustainable change. Appropriate disclosures are essential from companies to the market and also from investors towards their broader stakeholders. We are proud to receive recognition of our reporting from the ICGN, an organization whose members understand that disclosure is the starting point for accountability. We hope that ICGN’s acknowledgment of quality disclosures will continue to inspire the entire industry to further improve stewardship and governance efforts.”
On receiving the award for asset managers with less than £60 billion assets under management, Narina Mnatsakanian, Director Sustainable & Impact Investment, Kempen Capital Management, said: “Through our ‘real active’ approach to stewardship we aim to use our influence to positively change corporate behaviour for the benefit of all stakeholders and to help deliver long term value to our clients. We are honoured to receive this important award from ICGN, which is a great endorsement of the work of all our colleagues involved in stewardship. We are keen to hold ourselves to a high standard of transparency and disclosure that we also require of our investees and strive for continuous improvement.”
Announcing the awards Robert Walker, Chair of the ICGN Board of Governors, said “We have been delighted to see winners and nominees from so many parts of the world this year. We have an Indian stewardship champion, and the investors nominated in the disclosure categories came from nine countries in five continents. This shows that investor stewardship is no longer a niche interest in a small number of markets, but a global phenomenon”
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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.
