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Global Investor Stewardship (previously Global Shareholder Stewardship) is a research group that brings together academics from around the world and national, regional, and international standard setters and practitioners to share experiences, enhance dialogue, disseminate good practice, guide scholarship, and shape future stewardship policy through evidence-based recommendations. Led by Dr Dionysia Katelouzou, and supported by Dan Puchniak, the group consists of more than 100 members from 27 jurisdictions across the world.

We are funded by the British Academy's Partnership with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the ESRC Social Science Impact Fund, The Dickson Poon School of Law and the Transnational Law Institute.

Publications

Book: Global Shareholder Stewardship

On 27 May 2022, we launched Global Shareholder Stewardship (CUP, 2022), our new edited book that was created following conversations and collaborations first established at our inaugural conference in 2019. The book brings together 42 contributors from 27 universities around the world and provides a comprehensive understanding of global shareholder stewardship. The book challenges both existing theories and many of the most important debates in comparative law and governance.

Order Global Shareholder Stewardship

Watch the contributors talking about the book.

A collection of papers produced by academics working as part of the Global Shareholder Stewardship project:

Activities

GSS Video Series 2_2
Video series 2: ‘A paradigm shift in how we think about investment’

What are the recent developments in Investor Stewardship? Filmed at our second GSS Conference on 27 May 2022.

Lisbon View
Stewardship roundtables - Lisbon, July 2022

We organised two (hybrid) stewardship roundtables, on sustainability and stewardship beyond equity respectively.

Global Shareholder Stewardship book launch
Global Shareholder Stewardship Conference, 27 May 2022

Climate change & global conflicts. What does it mean to be an effective steward of capital in times of uncertainty?

Group photo of attendees of the Shareholder Stewardship Conference 2019
Global Shareholder Stewardship Conference - September 2019

National, regional & international standard setters share experiences & good practice to shape future policy.

What is Stewardship 1
Video Series 1: The main aspects of Shareholder Stewardship remain unclear - find out more!

Filmed at the 2019 Global Shareholder Stewardship Conference, watch our informative videos featuring global experts.

Funders and Members

Funded research

The Varieties of Investor Stewardship Rhetoric Versus Reality (British Academy) terren-hurst-blgOFmPIlr0-unsplash
The Varieties of Investor Stewardship: Rhetoric Versus Reality (British Academy, January - December 2023)

Investor stewardship – how investors monitor and engage with portfolio assets – is often presented as a solution to sustainability, social equality, biodiversity, and climate risks, but there is limited attempt to position stewardship policies within investment management and compare the stewardship rhetoric to the stewardship reality. This project will fill this gap. It will expand previous funded research on the role of institutional shareholders and develop an empirically-based taxonomy of what it identifies to be the varieties of investor stewardship. The project will empirically assess the extent to which the reporting of stewardship coheres to investors’ practices. In so doing, it will engage with two key stakeholder groups: the regulators (financial regulators and private standard-setters), and regulated entities, including institutional investors and their associations.

Covid-19 and Investor Stewardship The Need for Responsible Ownership in a Time of Emergency (British Academy) martin-sanchez-Tzoe6VCvQYg-unsplash
Covid-19 and Investor Stewardship: The Need for Responsible Ownership in a Time of Emergency (British Academy, July 2020 - June 2022)

This grant was used to empirically examine how the Covid-19 outbreak has impacted stewardship activities in the UK with a particular focus on how a focus on stewardship and sustainability was maintained during the first year of the pandemic. In order to undertake this assessment, this project involves an analysis of documents released by a number of stakeholders (including signatories to the UK Stewardship Code, FTSE 100 companies and NGOs) from a period dating March 11th 2020 to March 31st 2020.

Shareholder Stewardship Transnational Codes, Public Policy and Corporate Governance Reform pexels-jimmy-chan-2552595
Shareholder Stewardship: Transnational Codes, Public Policy and Corporate Governance Reform (British Academy, April 2019 - March 2020)

This grant was used towards the costs of organising the first-of-its-kind Global Shareholder Stewardship Conference. The conference was held at King’s College London on 23-24 September 2019 and unpacked shareholder stewardship by looking at 20 different national stewardship codes/principles as well as the amended EU Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II), the EFAMA stewardship code and the ICGN Global Stewardship Principles. The grant also helped to build partnerships between academics, policymakers and practitioners.

 

Members

In addition to Dr Dionysia Katelouzou and Dr Dan Puchniak, the project has a large number of other members drawn from academia, the legal sector, business, the investment community, civil society, government and regulators.

Academic Members

Non-Academic Members

This is an indictive list:

  • Roger Barker, Barker & Associates
  • Ami de Chapeaurouge, de Chapeaurouge and partners
  • Claudia Chapman, Financial Reporting Council
  • Rebecca Christie, Bruegel, European think tank
  • Daniel Daeniker, Homburger AG
  • Takaaki Eguchi, Consultant, Member: Council of Experts Concerning the Japanese Version of the Stewardship Code; Financial Services Agency; Corporate Reporting Lab of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; and Steering Committee of the Forum of Investors (Japan)
  • David P. Frick, Nestlé S.A.
  • Andy Griffiths, Investor Forum
  • Hans-Christoph Hirt, Head of Hermes EOS (signatory to the UK Stewardship Code)
  • Amanda MD Ho, Senior Manager, Securities and Future Commission, Hong Kong
  • Chris Hodge, Chair of Global Stewardship Codes Network, International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)
  • Rosemary Hunter, Fasken Attorneys
  • Toshitake Inoue, Financial Services Agency, Government of Japan
  • Andy Jones, Hermes Investment Management
  • Guy Jubb, The University of Edinburgh Business School
  • Sau-Wing Mak, Securities and Futures Commission, Hong Kong
  • Liz Murall, Investment Management Association
  • Monica Mee, Pure Consulting
  • Austin Ouko, Advocate of the High Court of Kenya
  • Aleksandra Palinska, EFAMA
  • Welch Robert, Tesco Group Company Secretary
  • Euan Stirling, Aberdeen Standard Investments
  • Kerry Waring, Executive Director, International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)
  • Sarah Wilson, Chief Executive, Manifest

Publications

Book: Global Shareholder Stewardship

On 27 May 2022, we launched Global Shareholder Stewardship (CUP, 2022), our new edited book that was created following conversations and collaborations first established at our inaugural conference in 2019. The book brings together 42 contributors from 27 universities around the world and provides a comprehensive understanding of global shareholder stewardship. The book challenges both existing theories and many of the most important debates in comparative law and governance.

Order Global Shareholder Stewardship

Watch the contributors talking about the book.

A collection of papers produced by academics working as part of the Global Shareholder Stewardship project:

Activities

GSS Video Series 2_2
Video series 2: ‘A paradigm shift in how we think about investment’

What are the recent developments in Investor Stewardship? Filmed at our second GSS Conference on 27 May 2022.

Lisbon View
Stewardship roundtables - Lisbon, July 2022

We organised two (hybrid) stewardship roundtables, on sustainability and stewardship beyond equity respectively.

Global Shareholder Stewardship book launch
Global Shareholder Stewardship Conference, 27 May 2022

Climate change & global conflicts. What does it mean to be an effective steward of capital in times of uncertainty?

Group photo of attendees of the Shareholder Stewardship Conference 2019
Global Shareholder Stewardship Conference - September 2019

National, regional & international standard setters share experiences & good practice to shape future policy.

What is Stewardship 1
Video Series 1: The main aspects of Shareholder Stewardship remain unclear - find out more!

Filmed at the 2019 Global Shareholder Stewardship Conference, watch our informative videos featuring global experts.

Funders and Members

Funded research

The Varieties of Investor Stewardship Rhetoric Versus Reality (British Academy) terren-hurst-blgOFmPIlr0-unsplash
The Varieties of Investor Stewardship: Rhetoric Versus Reality (British Academy, January - December 2023)

Investor stewardship – how investors monitor and engage with portfolio assets – is often presented as a solution to sustainability, social equality, biodiversity, and climate risks, but there is limited attempt to position stewardship policies within investment management and compare the stewardship rhetoric to the stewardship reality. This project will fill this gap. It will expand previous funded research on the role of institutional shareholders and develop an empirically-based taxonomy of what it identifies to be the varieties of investor stewardship. The project will empirically assess the extent to which the reporting of stewardship coheres to investors’ practices. In so doing, it will engage with two key stakeholder groups: the regulators (financial regulators and private standard-setters), and regulated entities, including institutional investors and their associations.

Covid-19 and Investor Stewardship The Need for Responsible Ownership in a Time of Emergency (British Academy) martin-sanchez-Tzoe6VCvQYg-unsplash
Covid-19 and Investor Stewardship: The Need for Responsible Ownership in a Time of Emergency (British Academy, July 2020 - June 2022)

This grant was used to empirically examine how the Covid-19 outbreak has impacted stewardship activities in the UK with a particular focus on how a focus on stewardship and sustainability was maintained during the first year of the pandemic. In order to undertake this assessment, this project involves an analysis of documents released by a number of stakeholders (including signatories to the UK Stewardship Code, FTSE 100 companies and NGOs) from a period dating March 11th 2020 to March 31st 2020.

Shareholder Stewardship Transnational Codes, Public Policy and Corporate Governance Reform pexels-jimmy-chan-2552595
Shareholder Stewardship: Transnational Codes, Public Policy and Corporate Governance Reform (British Academy, April 2019 - March 2020)

This grant was used towards the costs of organising the first-of-its-kind Global Shareholder Stewardship Conference. The conference was held at King’s College London on 23-24 September 2019 and unpacked shareholder stewardship by looking at 20 different national stewardship codes/principles as well as the amended EU Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II), the EFAMA stewardship code and the ICGN Global Stewardship Principles. The grant also helped to build partnerships between academics, policymakers and practitioners.

 

Members

In addition to Dr Dionysia Katelouzou and Dr Dan Puchniak, the project has a large number of other members drawn from academia, the legal sector, business, the investment community, civil society, government and regulators.

Academic Members

Non-Academic Members

This is an indictive list:

  • Roger Barker, Barker & Associates
  • Ami de Chapeaurouge, de Chapeaurouge and partners
  • Claudia Chapman, Financial Reporting Council
  • Rebecca Christie, Bruegel, European think tank
  • Daniel Daeniker, Homburger AG
  • Takaaki Eguchi, Consultant, Member: Council of Experts Concerning the Japanese Version of the Stewardship Code; Financial Services Agency; Corporate Reporting Lab of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; and Steering Committee of the Forum of Investors (Japan)
  • David P. Frick, Nestlé S.A.
  • Andy Griffiths, Investor Forum
  • Hans-Christoph Hirt, Head of Hermes EOS (signatory to the UK Stewardship Code)
  • Amanda MD Ho, Senior Manager, Securities and Future Commission, Hong Kong
  • Chris Hodge, Chair of Global Stewardship Codes Network, International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)
  • Rosemary Hunter, Fasken Attorneys
  • Toshitake Inoue, Financial Services Agency, Government of Japan
  • Andy Jones, Hermes Investment Management
  • Guy Jubb, The University of Edinburgh Business School
  • Sau-Wing Mak, Securities and Futures Commission, Hong Kong
  • Liz Murall, Investment Management Association
  • Monica Mee, Pure Consulting
  • Austin Ouko, Advocate of the High Court of Kenya
  • Aleksandra Palinska, EFAMA
  • Welch Robert, Tesco Group Company Secretary
  • Euan Stirling, Aberdeen Standard Investments
  • Kerry Waring, Executive Director, International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)
  • Sarah Wilson, Chief Executive, Manifest

Our Partners

British Academy

British Academy

Department for Business

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Economic and Social Research Council

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

European Corporate Governance Institute

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Contact us

If you have further questions about our project, the ongoing research or you would like to join us, please get in touch: global-stewardship@kcl.ac.uk.

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Join the conversation on Twitter: #GSSProject

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