As CEO of Hermes Equity Ownership Services, Colin Melvin provides advice and assistance to pension funds and other institutional investors in the areas of responsible investment, corporate governance, voting and engagement on assets managed by third party fund managers. Colin is currently an active member of various industry steering groups and committees including those of the United Nations Project on Principles for Responsible Investment, the Work Foundation Panel of Inquiry into Work and Enterprise, the Global Institutional Governance Network, the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change and the Enhanced Analytics Initiative. Colin joined Hermes in 2002 and became CEO of Hermes Equity Ownership Services in 2005. Previously, Colin was Corporate Governance Manager and Secretary to the Ethics Committee at Standard Life Investments and Head of Corporate Governance at Baillie Gifford. He is a member of the CFA Institute and the UK Society of Investment Professionals. He holds an MA from Aberdeen University and an MPhil from Cambridge University, both in History, and a Diploma in Investment Analysis from Stirling University. He is an Associate of the Centre for Corporate Governance Research of the University of Birmingham.
Leon joined Hermes Equity Ownership Services as Commercial Director in January 2009. In this role, he has responsibility for the commercial development of HEOS including managing all aspects of HEOS's client relationships. He also leads a number of HEOS's corporate engagements.
Previously, Leon worked for 7 years in Hermes UK Large Cap Focus Fund where he was responsible for executing the fund's engagement programmes with investee companies. Leon also has 12 years of strategy consulting and operational line experience, working with Braxton Associates, Deloitte Consulting's strategic consulting arm and for Marconi. Between 1989 and 2000, as one of Braxton's directors, Leon advised executive management of companies on a range of portfolio and business strategic issues. In this time, he specialised in Shareholder Value Based Management and its successful implementation within a company. In 2000, he joined Marconi plc, where reporting into a Board member, he initially managed a portfolio of start−up businesses and subsequently was responsible for Marconi's strategic channel and alliance partnering strategy.
Paul joined Hermes in March 2000. He manages the UK and Americas engagement teams and oversees the quality of EOS' operations. Paul is a member of the UK's Auditing Practices Board, a non−executive director of Australian engagement firm Regnan and sits on the advisory board of South Africa's Frater Asset Management. He is a member of the corporate governance committee of the Quoted Companies Alliance, and of the FRC's working party on Auditor Liability Limitation Agreements. He is a participant in the Corporate Reporting Users' Forum and the Audit Quality Forum. Having graduated with a first in law from Oxford University, Paul spent a decade as a journalist on various specialist legal and financial journals at Euromoney − including five years as editor of International Financial Law Review − and the Economist Group, most recently as managing editor of CFO Europe. He continues to write, including chapters for various corporate governance and strategy books and winning the PricewaterhouseCoopers European Shareholder Value Award for his article 'Not badly paid but paid badly'.
Hans manages the Continental European and Asia−Pacific engagement teams. He is the principal author of the Hermes Corporate Governance Principles and together with Colin Melvin wrote Corporate Governance and Performance − The Missing Links, a review and assessment of the evidence for a link between corporate governance and performance. He is a member of the Shareholder Rights and Remuneration Committee of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN). Prior to joining Hermes in September 2004, Hans spent two years with the leading international law firm Ashurst. Whilst at Ashurst, he was seconded to the Court of Appeal where he held the position of judicial assistant to the Master of the Rolls. Before joining Ashurst, he was a researcher and teaching assistant at the London School of Economics. Throughout his academic and professional career, he has carried out extensive research focusing in particular corporate governance, European company law and shareholder remedies and has published widely in these areas in leading corporate law journals. Overall, Hans has 10 years experience in corporate governance related work.
Jennifer joined Hermes in early 2003. Her role involves engaging with companies in EOS clients' UK portfolios to raise issues of concern relating to strategic, financial, social, environmental and governance issues. Before joining Hermes, Jennifer was a financial journalist on a number of high−profile business publications. She began her career at the Economist Group and before joining Hermes was Western Europe Editor of Euromoney Magazine. Jennifer is a graduate of St Hilda's College, Oxford.
Bess joined Hermes Equity Ownership Services in December 2005 to work on corporate governance and responsible investment in the Americas. In her role, Bess actively engages at board level with underperforming companies that are fundamentally sound, but have a variety of strategic, financial or governance issues. She works with regulators in both the US and Canada to progress the debate in North America on corporate governance and shareholder engagement. Over the past year, Bess has spoken at the SEC, various American Bar Association conferences, to North American corporate secretaries, and a consortium of the largest Canadian companies on public policy issues.
Bess is a Canadian qualified lawyer from the University of Toronto and articled at Stikeman Elliott LLP where she gained a background in corporate and securities law. Immediately prior to joining Hermes, Bess worked at the Department of Trade and Industry in London. Bess has 6 years' professional experience, with 4 years in governance−related positions.
Tom joined HEOS in December 2009 to develop the first responsible investment services tailored specifically to private equity. In his role, Tom undertakes policy development, training, consultancy and engagement activities for both investors (limited partners) and private equity houses (general partners).
Tom helped pioneer responsible investment in private equity, including development of the Principles for Responsible Investment's (PRI) work on private equity in March 2008. He currently Chairs the PRI's private equity Steering Committee, and led the drafting process for the PRI's "Guide for Limited Partners". Tom is also a member of working groups on responsible investment of the European and Australian private equity and venture capital associations.
Tom has spent over fourteen years in the field of sustainable development, including immediately prior to joining HEOS as Head of Corporate Responsibility at a UK-based consultancy advising FTSE100+250 companies. Before that, Tom spent 10 years advising governments and multinational companies on sustainable development policy, working variously within the intergovernmental, non-profit sectors and academic sectors.
Helena Mahoney manages the Equity Ownership Services' client servicing programme and marketing projects as part of the ongoing development of the business. Prior to joining Hermes, Helena worked in marketing and client service for Pequot Capital Management, a large US hedge fund. She holds a first class degree from the University of Warwick, an MA from the London Institute and has postgraduate qualifications in law.
