WHO WE ARE
A not-for-profit, practitioner-led membership organisation, set up by institutional investors in UK Equities. The Forum’s purpose is to position stewardship at the heart of investment decision-making by facilitating dialogue, creating long-term solutions and enhancing value.
Enhancing the practice of stewardship
Our approach is:
- Value-driven: we base collective engagement on economic rationale
- Discreet: we avoid unnecessary public confrontation
- Safe: we limit the legal and regulatory risks
- Constructive: we identify solutions
- Methodical: we have a consistent and robust process
- Best practice: we seek to enhance stewardship by investors and boards alike
We help investors:
- Realise long-term benefits for their clients
- Maximise their return on engagement effort
- Be confident that collective engagements will be safe, secure and discreet
- Demonstrate their commitment to stewardship activities to all stakeholders
- Contribute to the long-term success of UK-listed companies for the benefit of the broader economy
OUR PURPOSE
The Forum’s purpose is to position stewardship at the heart of investment decision-making by facilitating dialogue, creating long-term solutions and enhancing value.
Our History
In 2012, The Kay Review of UK equity markets and long-term decision-making recommended that ”an investors’ forum should be established to facilitate collective engagements by UK investors in UK companies”.
The Investor Forum was established in 2014 as a not-for-profit member organisation following the considerations of the Collective Engagement Working Group.
Kay Review (2012) obstacles to long-term engagement:
- A decline of trust and misalignment of incentives throughout the equity investment chain.
- Fragmentation has reduced the incentives for engagement and the level of control.
- Internationalisation of ownership with 54% of UK market owned by international investors.
- Perceived regulatory barriers inhibit collective engagement.
- A narrow engagement focus has crowded out discussion on fundamental drivers of long-term strategy and operational execution.
Taken together, this has contributed to an industry structure which too often favours exit over voice.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The independent Board of Directors is elected each year by the Forum’s Members at the Annual General Meeting.
The Board oversees the work of the Forum’s executive officers.
Michael McLintock | Oct 2021
Chair
Michael is Chair of Associated British Foods plc. Michael retired from M&G in 2016 having joined the company in 1992 and been appointed Chief Executive in 1997. In 1999 he oversaw the sale of M&G to Prudential plc where he served as an Executive Director from 2000 until 2016. He is also a Trustee of the Grosvenor Estate, Chair of Grosvenor Group Limited, and a member of the Takeover Appeal Board. He was a Director of Close Brothers Group from 2001-2008 and a member of the Finance Committee of MCC from 2005-2018.
Paras Anand | Dec 2023
Paras is Chief Investment Officer at Artemis Investment Management. Before joining Artemis in 2022, Paras was CIO for all asset classes and functions across the Asia-Pacific region at Fidelity, based in Singapore, where he led the group’s strategy on sustainability and was global sponsor for cultural diversity. Prior to that he held a number of senior fund management roles in London and New York including Head of European Equities at F&C Investments
Ruth Beechey | March 2022
Ruth was Chief of Staff at UBS Global Asset Management UK, where she worked for 22 years. As a qualified lawyer, her previous roles include being Legal Counsel at UBS and Morgan Grenfell.
Sir Peter Gershon | Jan 2018
Senior Independent Director
Sir Peter has held senior executive and non-executive positions in public and private companies in healthcare, technology, defence and telecommunications industries. His previous senior board level appointments include Chair of National Grid plc, Chair of Premier Farnell plc, Chair of Tate & Lyle plc and Managing Director of Marconi Electronic Systems. Sir Peter also has experience of the public sector through his appointment as Chief Executive of the Office of Government Commerce and leading 3 independent reviews for the UK Government. He is currently chairman of the Dreadnought Alliance and enfinium Limited.
Andy Griffiths | Sep 2014
Executive Director
Andy has over 25 years of international investment experience as a top rated investment professional at Capital Group and M&G. He was also an Operating Partner with Corsair Capital. Throughout his career, Andy has been responsible for financial sector investments and has consistently ranked among the leading equity investors in Europe. Andy is a Visiting Professor in Practice at the Grantham Research Institute (LSE), a former Fullbright Commissioner and a trustee of the MOE Foundation.
Alex Edmans | May 2022
Alex is Professor of Finance at London Business School who focuses on corporate governance, responsible business and behavioural finance. Alex is a Director of the American Finance Association and Financial Management Association, and a member of Royal London Asset Management’s Responsible Investment Advisory Committee. He gave the TED talk “What to Trust in a Post-Truth World” and the TEDx talks “The Social Responsibility of Business” and “The Pie-Growing Mindset”. He is the author of “Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit” and “Principles of Corporate Finance” with Brealey, Myers, and Allen. Poets & Quants named him Professor of the Year for 2021.
Luba Nikulina | Apr 2019
Luba is Chief Strategy Officer at IFM Investors, a global investment firm focused on private assets, owned by 20 Australian pension funds. Prior to this, she was global Head of Research at Willis Towers Watson, responsible for the global team of more than a hundred investment professionals, and co-Chair of the Investment Consultant Sustainability Working Group.
Andrew Millington | Dec 2020
Andrew is Global Head of Equity Research and Investment Process at abrdn. Andrew was previously Head of UK Equities at ASI, after starting his career at Baillie Gifford. He is a Trustee of Cattanach, a Scottish grant making charity. Andrew is a member of the IA Investment Committee.
Chantal Waight | Dec 2020
Chair of the Operating Oversight Committee
Chantal has worked as an investment analyst on both the sell and buy side, and was previously Head of Equity Research at M&G Investments. Chantal has more recently held corporate roles as Director of Strategy and Corporate Development at M&G plc and as the Director of Investor Relations at Prudential plc. Chantal is Managing Director, Group Risk at Athora.
THE TEAM
Andy Griffiths
Executive Director
Andy has over 25 years of international investment experience as a top rated investment professional at Capital Group and M&G. He was also an Operating Partner with Corsair Capital. Throughout his career Andy has been responsible for financial sector investments and has consistently been ranked among the leading equity investors in Europe.
Andy is a Visiting Professor in Practice at the Grantham Research Institute (LSE), a former Fulbright Commissioner and a trustee of MoE Foundation.
Victoria Sant
Managing Director
Victoria is a member of the investment committee of the National Trust and Chair of the Investment Committee of the Global Crop Diversity Trust. She is also a Non-Executive Director of Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust plc and an advisory board member at Ownership Capital B.V.
Previously, Victoria was an investment manager at the Wellcome Trust, and a Trustee of the Trust’s pension plan.
She started her career as an investment consultant at LCP.
Fiona Ellard
Senior Adviser
Fiona has over 30 years of investment and corporate governance experience. Fiona joined the Forum in September 2017 from BlackRock where she was COO of the BlackRock Investment Institute, Deputy Chair of the Americas Investment Stewardship Committee and previously had senior product strategist roles in the EM and UK Equity teams.Fiona began her career at UBS Asset Management where she was a UK equity portfolio manager.
Fiona is a fellow of the Chartered Securities Institute.
Saul Chambers
Stewardship Director
Saul joined the Forum in 2022 from the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), an independent think tank for central banking, economic policy and public investment, where he managed their Americas programme.
Prior to OMFIF, he led content and engagement at a financial media organisation.
Tim Shanagher
Senior Adviser
Tim has over 30 years of investment experience, advising and trading for international corporate clients and institutional investors. Working in Equity Research and Distribution at W.I. Carr, he was subsequently a director and board member of Schroder Securities and was instrumental in the sale of their Japanese business to Credit Suisse. Most recently he was head of research for Credit Suisse in Japan and co-head of APAC distribution in Europe.
Tim Is Strategic Adviser to Hyde Park Partners and is an investment research consultant at Quaero Capital LLP.
Sallie Pilot
Senior Adviser
Sallie has extensive experience in delivering stakeholder engagement and communications as a former partner, board member and strategic advisory and engagement lead at Black Sun Group.
She is a member of the Advisory Panel and Stakeholder Insight Group of the FRC and member of Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Communications Group.
Guy Walker
Senior Adviser
Guy has over 25 years investment and corporate finance experience. He was a UK & European equities portfolio manager at UBS and prior to that was Global Head of ESG Investment at Schroders.
Guy is a qualified pension trustee director and was board director on Schroders pension fund.
Ryan Hayday
Analyst
Laura Devonshire
Finance & Operations Manager
Laura joined the Forum in 2019 . Laura has 17 years experience in Business Operations roles with Microsoft UK Ltd and EY UK LLP.
Laura’s experience includes business systems implementation, process management, resourcing deployment, management information and training.
Maido Richards
Events & Office Manager
Maido joined the Investor Forum after 11 years with the Investment Association where she held a number of different roles; and had most recently responsibility for all activities supporting membership for over 200 accounts.
LEGAL PANEL
Since inception, the Investor Forum has received extensive pro bono support from a number of leading law firms.
The Forum’s Legal Panel plays a key role in helping the Forum maintain operating procedures which create a safe and secure legal and regulatory environment in which to undertake collective engagement.