Syahnon Ahmad is an Associate Manager in Corporate Sustainability & Stewardship at Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), one of Malaysia’s largest institutional investors. He works on proxy voting, shareholder engagement and stewardship policy across domestic and international investee companies, across different asset classes. His work focuses on the practical application of governance and stewardship principles, including board effectiveness, ESG and climate governance. Syahnon holds a BSc in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Juan is Executive Board Director and cofounder of the Spanish Institute of Board Directors, IC-A, (Instituto de Consejeros-Administradores) since 2003, as well as Board Director, Nomination and Evaluation Committee member and Honorary Chairman of ecoDa (European Confederation of Board Directors’ Associations).

He has more than 32 years’ experience in Boardrooms, as Non-Executive Chairman, Non-Executive Board Director (as Independent Director and as Lead Independent Director, among others), as Executive Director, Advisory Board member, as well as Senior Advisor to Boards on good corporate governance practices. Juan has boardroom experience in listed companies (IBEX-35), non-listed and large family firms. He maintains fluent relations with global institutional investors and proxies advisors/solicitors.

During his term in office as Chairman of ecoDa, he submitted to the European Parliament the first “Corporate Governance Guidance and Principles for Unlisted Companies in Europe” (2010) and participated in its drafting. ecoDa’s 2021 new edition of the “Corporate Governance Guidance and Principles for Unlisted Companies in Europe” was elaborated by a European working group lead by Juan Álvarez-Vijande (Spain/IC-A) and Roger Baker (UK/IoD). This Guide has been supported by the European Commission, the OECD, the European Association of Family Businesses, and the International Finance Corporation, IFC, (World Bank / OECD). He has also contributed to the elaboration of national and international corporate governance codes, in addition to corporate governance practical guides for Board Directors. He is Chairman/Board Directors Training Tutor.

As Senior Executive he served successfully as CEO/Managing Director/Corporate Development Director in multinational companies and affiliates. Juan holds a degree in Telecommunications Engineering from Polytechnic University of Madrid, a Master in Business Administration (MBA) and other professional degrees in Europe and USA.
 

Aaron Bernstein is the editor of Global Proxy Watch, a newsletter on international corporate governance for institutional investors and other experts. He was a non-resident Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project from 2007 to 2019, where he wrote papers on the materiality of social factors such as human capital and labor and human rights, most available here. Bernstein left BusinessWeek magazine in 2006 after a 23-year career as an editor and senior writer covering workplace and social issues. He received a BA in Politics and Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz and did graduate work in Political and Legal Theory for two years at Oxford University. He is the author of a book entitled “Grounded: Frank Lorenzo and the Destruction of Eastern Airlines,” and the co-author of “In the Company of Owners: The Truth About Stock Options.”

Adrian Bertrand is a governance and sustainable finance executive based in Cape Town, South Africa, with 17+ years’ experience across the retirement fund, responsible investment and ESG ecosystem. He built the ESG function at the Government Employees Pension Fund, Africa’s largest pension fund (ZAR 2.7 trillion, approximately US$164 billion), and served twice as Head: Africa & Middle East for the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment, where he led signatory growth and engagement across the region.

In 2022, Adrian chaired the CRISA 2 Review Working Group and served as project lead for South Africa’s revised stewardship code — a multi-year, multi-stakeholder process that reset expectations for institutional investor stewardship in the market. He is Co-Founder of Six Capitals ESG Advisory and Atleha-edu NPC, an Independent Committee Member of the Acorn Agri & Food Fund’s Compliance, Social & Ethics Committee. He formerly served as an Advisory Committee Member of the Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund I (2011–2014). Adrian has served as an Independent Judge for the ICGN Global Stewardship Disclosure Awards since 2020 and is a Member of the ICGN Global Stewardship Codes Network.

Fabienne Crisovan serves as Group Head of Governance, ESG Legal & Corporate Law at Zurich Insurance Group, a role she has held since November 2020. She leads a team responsible for a wide range of areas, including financial and non-financial disclosure and reporting, listing matters, ESG legal, governance and corporate law—including Zurich Insurance Group Ltd’s AGM and share register. Fabienne is also a member of the Sustainability Executive Team and serves as Vice-chair of the Disclosure Committee. Before taking on her current position, Fabienne led cross-border M&A (including bancassurance) and capital markets transactions, as well as Investment Management projects.

Prior to joining Zurich Insurance Group, Fabienne Crisovan worked with one of the major law firms in Zurich as a member of the Corporate / M&A practice group and prior to that, with a mid-sized law firm in Zurich focusing on Corporate and Tax Law. She holds a degree in law (lic. iur.) from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) as well as a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of Northwestern (Chicago). Fabienne is admitted to the bar of the Canton of Zurich and to the bar of the State of New York.

Hetal is the President & Chief Operating Officer of Institutional Investor Advisory Services India Limited. She is responsible overall business execution.

Institutional Investor Advisory Services India Limited (IiAS) is India’s foremost SEBI-registered India-based proxy advisory firm. IiAS publishes voting recommendations on about 950 Indian listed companies annually that represent over 95% of the total market capitalization on Indian exchanges. IiAS has developed a cloud-based application, www.iiasadrian.com, which provides searchable data on shareholder resolutions and voting outcomes. IiAS’ governance research published under its ‘Institutional EYE’ sub-brand, provides guidance to market participants on events, regulations, and trends. Some of the advocacy undertaken by IiAS has driven new regulation in India.

Hetal led IiAS’ team that worked with International Finance Corporation (of the World Bank Group) and BSE Limited (earlier known as the Bombay Stock Exchange) on the development of the Indian Corporate Governance Scorecard: this is the first such scorecard for India, which bases itself on the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. IiAS publishes the scores of the top 100 companies (accounting for about 70% of total market capitalization) annually, and helps both companies and investors benchmark governance practices.

Hetal provides oversight to IiAS’ advocacy of ESG in India. IiAS is the first domestic agency to develop an ESG scorecard for India, which is based on globally accepted ESG models fitted for the disclosures available for Indian companies. IiAS is working with investors in helping them embed ESG assessments in their investment decisions.

IiAS is institutionally-owned – its shareholders include (in alphabetical order) Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Limited, Axis Bank Limited, Fitch Group Inc, HDFC Investments Limited, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Limited, Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited, RBL Bank Limited, Tata Investment Corporation Limited, UTI Asset Management Company Limited, and Yes Bank Limited.

Prior to joining IiAS, Hetal worked with CRISIL Limited – a Standard & Poor’s company, and India’s largest rating agency. During her 13 years at CRISIL, Hetal held positions across several verticals in the ratings business. She joined as an analyst in the corporate ratings business and then moved to be part of the founding team of CRISIL’s Global Analytical Centre, which provided offsite and onsite analytical support to Standard and Poor’s North American ratings team. Hetal was instrumental in setting up the operations of CRISIL’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Ratings division: under her supervision ratings were assigned to over 13,000 SMEs across India. In her last role at CRISIL, she was Director, Business Development for Bank Loan Ratings.

Hetal is a Chartered Accountant and holds a management degree with a specialization in finance from NMIMS Mumbai, which was then affiliated to the Mumbai University.

Louise Davidson has spent her career with a focus on building long-term value for the millions of beneficiaries of Australian superannuation funds. Most recently this has included elevating the importance of environmental, social and governance factors in managing material financial risk in super fund investment portfolios.

As CEO of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) since 2015, Louise oversees ACSI’s program of company engagement, research and policy advocacy, backed by 30 years of senior experience in the financial services and ESG sectors. Her tenure as ACSI CEO has seen significant improvements in the way listed companies manage important issues including boardroom diversity, climate risk and human rights.

Prior to being appointed ACSI CEO, she was Investment Manager, ESG at Cbus superannuation fund.

Louise is the co-founder of the Mother’s Day Classic, which has raised over $50 million for breast and ovarian cancer research since 1998. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019 for her significant service to the superannuation sector and to breast cancer research.

She is a director of Chief Executive Women, the chair of the Client Advisory Board for EOS at Federated Hermes, and a former director of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the International Integrated Reporting Initiative and former chair and director of the Mother’s Day Classic Foundation.

Susanne Eickermann-Riepe FRICS is Chair of the RICS European World Regional Board and Chair of the Advisory Board of RICS Germany, a global professional association with over 134.000 members worldwide (www.rics.org). She is also the Chairwomen of the ICG Institute (www.icg-institute.de), which works with high-ranking German real estate companies on standards, values and sustainability to improve governance in the real estate industry. She was a partner at PwC for almost 20 years, led the German real estate business and was part of PwC’s EMEA and Global Leadership team. She works on sustainability issues and innovations in the real estate industry with the IMPACT format on the Platform Builtword Leading Innovation (www.builtworld.com). She also works as an independent Senior Executive Advisor and holds various advisory and supervisory board mandates.

Kornelia Fabisik is an assistant professor of Finance at the University of Bern. She does research in empirical corporate finance, corporate governance, and sustainable finance. She is a recipient of the 2021 Lamfalussy Research Fellowship from the European Central Bank (ECB) as well as a Research Affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).

In 2022, she received the Rising Star Award from the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN). Her research in the field of corporate governance and ESG has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics and presented at conferences such as AFA, WFA, EFA and many others.

Michael Hilb is Chair of DBP and the Board Foundation and serves on the boards of several listed and privately held companies, foundations, and international organisations, including ecoDa and the Global Network of Director Institutes (GNDI).

He is Dean of the Swiss Board School and teaches strategy, entrepreneurship, and corporate governance at universities in Switzerland and Singapore. He has authored and co-authored seven books and more than 50 articles.

Previously, Michael served as Vice President at DKSH, where he and his team built a leading and profitable digital business across Asia. He also held executive positions at Holcim and Roland Berger.

Michael has been a Visiting Fellow at INSEAD and Harvard University. He studied business at the University of Michigan, the Stockholm School of Economics, and the University of St.Gallen, where he earned his MSc and PhD.

Vincent Kauffmann has been CEO of Ethos Foundation and Ethos Services since 2015. He joined Ethos in 2004 as a Corporate Governance Analyst and has held progressive leadership roles across corporate governance, proxy voting, and sustainable investment. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Economics from the University of Geneva and is a Swiss Certified Expert in Accounting and Controlling. He has served on the board of Swiss Sustainable Finance and has been an active voice in shareholder engagement with Swiss and European listed companies.

Cédric Lavérie is a consultant providing services on corporate governance analysis, proxy voting and shareholder dialogue.

Previously, he was Head of French Research at Institutional Shareholder Services where he managed a team producing research and voting recommendations on French companies. Prior to that, he was Head of Corporate Governance at Amundi in charge of proxy voting and shareholder dialogue globally, and also worked as a governance analyst at CAAM and AXA IM.

Cedric holds graduate degrees in Banking-Finance from Paris II University, International Economic Law from Paris X University, and Politics from New York University.

Nana Li leads Impax’s sustainability research, stewardship strategy and policy advocacy across the Asia-Pacific region. She is responsible for overseeing sustainability analysis and engagement priorities, coordinating dialogue with investee companies and regulators, managing external sustainability- and stewardship-related inquiries, and contributing to the ongoing development of Impax’s proprietary sustainability frameworks and methodologies.

Prior to joining Impax in 2022, Nana served as Research and Project Director at the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA). During her tenure, she authored and co-authored multiple flagship research reports on corporate governance in Asia and regularly presented to regulators and market participants, including the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges and the Shenzhen Asset Management Association. Since 2018, Nana has chaired ACGA’s China Working Group, a role she continues to hold, and she remains a Specialist Consultant to ACGA following her transition to Impax.

Nana is a frequent speaker at international conferences and industry forums organised by financial institutions, multilateral organisations and market bodies, and she is regularly invited to contribute to discussions on corporate governance, stewardship and sustainability. She has been interviewed by leading international media outlets and serves as a guest speaker at universities in Asia, Europe and North America. In 2024, Nana co-authored Unlocking Corporate Success by the Power of Diversity, the first book to examine gender diversity in Japan from an investor perspective. She is also the author of Navigating Sustainability in Asia: A Practical Guide for Corporate Leaders and Investors, which provides an applied and region-specific perspective on sustainability, governance and stewardship across Asia-Pacific. In 2025, Nana was awarded the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) Excellence in Stewardship Award (the first Asian recipient), recognising her leadership and contributions to stewardship and policy advocacy in Asia.

Nana serves on the Stakeholder Advisory Council of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants. She is also a member of the Global Policy Committee of the ICGN, the Global Policy Reference Group of the Principles for Responsible Investment, the Advisory Group of the Global Capacity Building Coalition, the ESG Committee of Women in Finance Asia and the Caixin China ESG30 Forum. In addition, she participates in global standard-setting and capacity-building initiatives as a member of the IFRS Sustainability Reference Group and the Global Capacity Building Coalition Advisory Group. Nana is also an instructor with the Association of Stewardship Professionals.

Nana holds an MBA (Honors) from the University of Chicago, a Master of Finance from the University of Hong Kong (Dean’s List), and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of New South Wales (Distinction). She is a CFA charterholder and has completed the HKICPA Qualification Programme.

Sana is currently a Senior Policy Advisor in the Corporate Governance and Stewardship team at the UK’s Investment Association. Prior to this she worked at the World Federation of Exchanges as a Regulatory Affairs Manager on Sustainability. Sana started her career in the UK Government, where she worked on a number of industry and Government led Reviews relating to corporate governance and stewardship including: the Kingman Review, the Brydon Review and the Audit and Corporate Governance Reform package. She holds an LLB from the London School of Economics.

Chie Mitsui is a graduate of the Tokyo University of Science and has a masters degree from the Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science. Before joining Nomura Research Institute in 2008, she worked at Jiji Press Ltd.

Chie specializes in corporate disclosure information and associated systems, IFRS, and ESG.
Also a member of IFRS Taxonomy Consultative Group (ITCG) of International Accounting Standard Board 2014-2020, and a member of Corporate Disclosure policy council of CFA institute since 2021. She has been publishing articles and reports regarding efficient disclosure information for investors’ & analysts’ activities.

Since 2014, Chie has been expanding her research area to the trend of UK/EU corporate governance, reporting, and their impact. In the past several years, Chie has been also researching Sustainable finance, impact investments.
Currently, she is a member of the non-financial disclosure policy study group of METI.

Nga has 25 years of experience in financial education, research and advisory services. Nga is a senior research fellow and the Director of Research Impact at the Monash Centre for Financial Studies, Monash University. She works on climate change, modern slavery, corporate governance, shareholder activism and pension systems. Her research aims to inform investors in their decision-making process. She has been featured in prestigious media including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Australian Financial Review and SBS World News.

Nga chairs the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) Financial Capital Committee. Before that, she was a member of the Disclosure and Transparency Committee of ICGN.

Nga is an ESG consultant at the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank Group, working with the advisory team on services for corporate clients, policy advocacy and market capacity building for emerging markets.

Enobong Shittu is a Legal Director with DLA Piper Africa (Nigeria), with over a decade of experience advising financial institutions, corporates, boards, and investors across Nigeria and broader African markets. She works closely with organisations to strengthen governance frameworks, enhance board effectiveness, improve stewardship practices, and promote transparent disclosure to investors and other stakeholders. Her experience also includes advising early-stage and growth-stage businesses on governance structures that support sustainable growth and investment readiness.

She has advised the boards and governance committees of leading financial institutions, multinational companies, public interest entities, and growth-stage businesses on governance, compliance, sustainability, and board oversight matters. Through her work, she supports organisations in building resilient governance systems that foster long-term value creation, accountability, and stakeholder trust.

A recognised thought leader in corporate governance and sustainability, Enobong is the founder of Structure for Scale, a non-profit advisory platform dedicated to advancing governance architecture, board effectiveness, and ESG integration in Africa. Her work focuses on helping organisations navigate evolving governance expectations, sustainability-related risks and opportunities, and emerging disclosure requirements while aligning with international best practices.

Enobong has received specialist training from the World Bank Group Academy, the Corporate Finance Institute, and GRI Africa. She is a recipient of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) Rising Star Award in Corporate Governance, and has authored several publications on directors’ duties, climate risk governance, sustainability reporting, and corporate accountability under Nigerian law.

She remains committed to advancing high standards of corporate governance, stewardship, and sustainable business practices across emerging markets.

Susana Sierra is a corporate governance and compliance expert, board member, university professor, author, and international speaker. She is the co-founder and CEO of BH Compliance, a company that measures the effectiveness of corporate governance and compliance systems, helping organizations identify gaps, strengthen accountability, and ensure that policies and commitments are reflected in practice.

She currently serves on the Board and Executive Committee of FIBA and is Vice President of the South Florida Chapter of the Private Directors Association. She has also served as a corporate director, Chair of the Chilean chapter of Transparency International, and a board member of several business and nonprofit organizations.
Susana writes regularly on corporate governance, compliance, sustainability, and trust, and is co-author of the book Corrupción a la Carta. She has received multiple international recognitions for her leadership in governance, compliance, and integrity, including being named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Her work focuses on making governance visible and measurable, enabling boards and organizations to strengthen oversight, improve decision-making, and build long-term trust.

Joanna is the Chief Operating Officer of Stewardship Asia Centre (SAC), a thought-leadership centre established under Temasek Trust in Singapore. The Centre fosters stewardship and governance across Asia through its research and outreach platforms. 

Joanna joined SAC when the Centre started in 2014 and was initially responsible for establishing its outreach and engagement platforms, extending the partnership network across Asia-Pacific.  As Senior Vice President, she is also now heading the corporate and operational functions that have developed alongside the growth of the Centre. She is also the acting secretariat and an active member of the Steering Committee that looks after the Singapore Stewardship Principles for Responsible Investors, an initiative that helps shape positive corporate behaviour by encouraging investors to be responsible and active stewards. 

Joanna has extensive events research and management experience, having worked in this field for several years across a wide range of geographies and industries, but mainly focused on family business, tech and tourism sectors.  She was the Deputy Director of Conferences at Forbes Asia, developing strategic processes for organizing and managing the Forbes Global CEO Conference and other networking platforms around the region.  She has also led large-scale events and customer experiences for tech companies, driving projects from Singapore with global experts.  

Prior to joining Stewardship Asia, Joanna was a Group Publisher for Tourism at TTG Asia Media where she was responsible for managing the advertising revenue, editorial and distribution for a portfolio of publications.  She holds a BA in Media and Communications from RMIT, and specialised in film studies and history. 

Geof Stapledon is the Managing Director for GPS Global Advisors based in London. Geof’s previous roles at BHP included Vice President Governance and Company Secretary. Prior to joining GPS, he headed up Asia-Pacific research for ISS, having joined ISS when it acquired Proxy Australia, a Melbourne-based governance research firm he co-founded. Geof was also a professor of corporate law and corporate governance at the University of Melbourne, prior to which he worked as a lawyer specialising in corporate advisory and transactions. His book Institutional Shareholders and Corporate Governance was published by Oxford University Press in 1996. He has degrees in Economics and Law from the University of Adelaide, and a doctorate from the University of Oxford.

After obtaining the MBA at the University of Cologne and completing trainee programs in New York and London, Prof. Strenger joined Deutsche Bank in 1972, where he held senior positions in corporate finance and asset management in 
Frankfurt, New York, and London until 1991. 

In 1991, he became CEO (of the management board) of ‘DWS Investment GmbH’, Germany’s largest mutual fund company with current assets of around 800 billion euros. In 1999, he joined the supervisory board of DWS and assumed supervisory 
and advisory mandates of DAX companies. 

In his role as a founding member of the German Government’s Commission for the ‘German Corporate Governance Code’ he particularly represented investor interests from 2001 to 2016. Today, he participates in the governance discussion as Vice-
Chairman of the DVFA Corporate Governance Commission that represents the four major German asset managers and leading governance experts. 

Internationally he is a member and past chairman of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) and member of the BIAC Governance Committee at the OECD in Paris. In 2014, Prof. Strenger received the ICGN Lifetime Achiever 
Award in Corporate Governance for his continuing commitment in promoting international corporate governance. 

He is regularly invited to guest lectures at prominent universities (e.g. University of Münster, Philips University Marburg, and Yale University). Prof. Strenger regularly publishes articles on important governance topics in leading 
financial journals and magazines and is a speaker or panel participant at national and international conferences.

Michelle is a Partner in Hugessen’s Toronto office. She has over 20 years of experience in executive compensation and corporate governance. She consults with a variety of public and private clients across Canada and the U.S. covering a broad range of industries.

She has expertise on a wide range of compensation topics and a deep understanding of the shareholder perspectives on pay and governance issues. She writes and speaks regularly on the roles of the Board and the shareholder community in governance and executive compensation. Michelle is a faculty member at the Institute of Corporate Directors’ Director Education and Board Oversight of Climate Change programs, and a member of the Human Capital Policy Council at the C.D. Howe Institute.

Prior to joining Hugessen, Michelle spent 15 years at Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), where she was a key player in the analysis of large and small public issuers, development of ISS policy guidelines, as well as shareholder and issuer engagement initiatives for the Canadian market.

Michelle has an Honours B.A., specializing in Business Administration and Art History from the University of Toronto.

As a long-standing member of ICGN, Megumi has served on the former Global Governance Committee and as a judge panel on the ICGN Global Stewardship Disclosure Awards.

Megumi is the Founder & CEO of Megske Corporation, a corporate governance consulting firm with the aim of enhancing communication between Japanese companies and overseas institutional investors.

From 2013 to 2022, Megumi had been studied ESG Investing, focusing on shareholder stewardship and corporate governance as a Managing Director of the Institute of Social System Research, Nikko Research Center, Inc. During the period, Megumi co-authored PRI’s Fiduciary Duty in the 21^st Century: Japan Roadmap.

From 2007 to 2013, Megumi has been a first senior consultant specializing in ESG investing at Mercer Japan, introducing ESG investing to Japan.

Previously, Megumi worked in the corporate risk management consultancy services at KPMG Business Assurance, focused on internal control and corporate governance issues.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Kyoto University and a master’s degree in public affairs from S Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University. CFA, CMA.

Jana has worked in the investment industry for the past 20 years, and she has been with Momentum Investments for the biggest part of her career. She worked at Momentum Multi-Managers as Portfolio Manager, managing Institutional Balanced Portfolios. She also served as an alternative trustee for three years on the Momentum Retirement Annuity Fund. In 2016, she committed herself to being a full-time Responsible Investment Specialist, establishing a responsible investment strategy across all investment capabilities within Momentum Investments. In 2025 she was appointed as Head of Responsible Investing, where she continues to lead the strategic integration of responsible investment practices of the Momentum Investment Group. Jana has extensive experience in responsible investment practices, developing policies and setting strategies, and engaging stakeholders on sustainability and climate-related issues. Jana currently serves on various committees, including the ASISA Responsible Investment Committee, the Momentum Investments Responsible Investment Committee, and the Sustainability and Climate Risk Steering Committee of Momentum Group. In 2024 she completed the Sustainability Practitioner Programme of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Dr. Christoph Wenk Bernasconi is a founding partner at SWIPRA Services AG, a think tank for corporate governance and stewardship in Switzerland, founding partner of Trusted Board Advisors, a Swiss strategic reputation consultant and program manager at the Executive Education Program on Stakeholder Management at the University of Zurich.

He earned his Ph.D. in 2013 with a focus on Corporate Governance and Corporate Finance, has co-authored various studies on Corporate Governance and is leading annual SWIPRA research projects on governance and general meetings in Switzerland. He is also a co-author of the SFI Whitepaper “Corporate Governance: Beyond Best Practice” and a co-initiator of the first Swiss Stewardship Code.