What does shareholder “engagement” with companies really mean?

Thursday 27 April 2023 | 18:30 - 20:30 | Evening Event

For an asset manager to be a great steward of money for a company, they need to effectively engage with management and the board. But what does effective engagement look like?

In Redington’s Stewardship Code Reporting Analysis, effective engagement is “active dialogue with a specific and targeted objective”. Meanwhile, FTSE 100 chairs interviewed by Tulchan in last year’s The State of Stewardship report complained of a “decline in the quality of engagement with their key shareholders”.

At this event an expert panel of speakers will discuss what is going right, and what is going wrong within this crucial company-investor relationship.

Hear from:

Jane Fuller, FSIP, Visiting Professor at City University and Fellow of CFA Society of the UK
Paul Lee, Head of Stewardship and Sustainable Investment Strategy at Redington
Alan Livsey, CFA, Lex Research Editor of the FT and Chair of the Structured Learning Committee at CFA Society UK 
Susan Swabey, Former Company Secretary 

Timings

Registration: 18:00

Event: 18:30 - 19:30

Networking: 19:30 - 20:30

CPD Points: 1.00

Speakers

Jane Fuller
Jane Fuller is a Fellow of CFA Society of the UK. She is a past chair of the Financial Reporting and Analysis Committee and, more recently, the working group responding to the UK Government’s “Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance” agenda. As a Visiting Professor at City University of London, she teaches on the MA in Global Financial Journalism.

She spent 19 years at the Financial Times, where her roles included Financial Editor, Assistant Editor and Lex writer, and she continues to train FT journalists. From 2008 to 2021, she was Co-director of the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, an independent think-tank, and she has served on the audit and assurance council of the Financial Reporting Council. She is a regular columnist for the ACCA’s digital magazine, Accounting and Business.

Paul Lee, Head of Stewardship and Sustainable Investment Strategy, Redington
Paul Lee is Head of Stewardship and Sustainable Investment Strategy at Redington, the investment consultant. Paul has spent more than 20 years delivering ESG and stewardship work in practice – starting before either term was used in the investment context.

He was at Hermes for more than a decade, helping create and build its Equity Ownership Services (EOS) stewardship business, and after a brief spell as Head of Investment Affairs at the NAPF (National Association of Pension Funds, now the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association or PLSA) he joined Aberdeen AM as its first global head of governance and stewardship. He left shortly after the merger with Standard Life and spent three years as an independent consultant before joining Redington.

Among his roles while operating independently, Paul advised both fund managers and asset owners, led the climate accounting project for PRI, developed best practice for the Investor Forum and ICGN, was a member of the secretariat for the Brydon Review into the Quality and Effectiveness of Audit, and was the principal author of the training manual for the CFA UK’s Certificate in ESG Investing.

Paul is also one of three investor members of the UK Endorsement Board, charged with deciding on the adoption of IFRS accounting standards for application in the UK.

Alan Livsey, CFA Chair, Structured Learning Committee
Alan Livsey has worked with CFA UK since 2011 and is currently chair of the Structured Learning Committee.

He joined the Lex column at the Financial Times in 2014 after fifteen years in investment management. He is based in London. His specialties include energy and natural resources as well as the emerging markets. In the past he worked in Hong Kong and later in Tokyo as a market strategist for Kleinwort Benson. He attended both Oxford University and University of Maryland and holds the CFA designation.

Susan Swabey, Former Company Secretary

Susan Swabey has over thirty-five years’ experience as a company secretary and governance professional in FTSE100 listed companies including Smith & Nephew, Prudential, RMC and Amersham. She advised her Boards on best governance practice and managed the Chair and Non-Executive Director engagement programmes with shareholders. Her executive career covered responsibility for risk remuneration, registration, share plans, subsidiary governance and sustainability.

She retired as Company Secretary of Smith & Nephew in 2022 and is now developing a NED portfolio. She is Chair of the share donation charity, ShareGift and the CBI Companies Committee. Previously, she was a member of the FRC Lab Steering Group and sat on a number of working groups comprising investors and corporates, developing best practice guidance in a range of governance related issues.

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