Amplified: European legislation puts shareholder responsibilities under the spotlight

Dr Hans-Christoph Hirt is an executive director and board member at Hermes EOS and as head of the organisation leads a multi-national team ensuring the sustainable success of the business. In this role, he is responsible for and oversees the global engagement programme and the quality of the service Hermes EOS provides to its clients around the world. Hans also leads some high-profile stewardship activities, including priority engagements with major companies in Germany and the UK, as well as interactions with key regulators and organisations. Prior to joining Hermes EOS, Hans worked with international law firm Ashurst. He is the author of numerous publications on corporate governance and law, responsible investment and stewardship. He is a member of the Corporate Governance Advisory Council of the Council of Institutional Investors and the Advisory Board of the Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose's Strategic Investor Initiative. Hans is a UK-qualified lawyer, holds degrees in Business Administration from universities in Germany and the UK, the ACCA qualification and a PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE). He continues to be involved in academia as a Corporate Governance Fellow at the LSE’s Financial Markets Group and a Teaching Fellow at University College London. Hans speaks French, German and Mandarin.

Andy Jones focuses on extractives and the UK, US and Spanish markets where he engages with company boards, investor groups, industry associations and policy-makers on material environmental, social and governance issues. Prior to joining Hermes EOS, Andy spent 10 years as a consultant on sustainable business and finance at PwC, in London and Madrid. In this role he worked closely with over 50 companies, across sectors and 15 countries, on risk and opportunity. Andy was the lead author for the City of London’s position paper on globalising green finance, the BVCA’s responsible investment training, ASCRI’s responsible investment guide, the CDP annual reports on the Global 500, FTSE All-Share and IBEX35 and other publications, including integrated reporting in the IBEX35. He has also worked in strategy and risk consulting and banking, and holds a degree in physics.

Saker is CEO of Hermes, appointed November 2011, having joined in June 2009 as CIO. He is also a member of the Federated Investors Executive team. Prior to Hermes, Saker was Global Head of Equities at Fortis Investments, having previously been CIO Global Equities since 2005. Before this, he was CIO of Global Equities and Head of Marketing for SGAM UK. This followed SGAM’s acquisition of Trust Company of the West, where Saker was a Managing Director running global and international strategies, as well the London office. He started his career at Mercury Asset Management in 1987.

Saker is founder of the 300 Club and was an inaugural member of the CFA Institute’s Future of Finance Advisory Council from 2013 until 2019. He is a member of the IIRC Council, the FCA-PRA Climate Financial Risk Forum, the United Nations Environmental Programme Financial Initiative Steering Committee, the Banking Standards Board, the UK National Advisory Board on Impact Investing, and the advisory Board of the National Youth Orchestra.

In 2018, Saker was named CEO of the Year at the Financial News Asset Management Europe Awards. He has a BA and PhD in Medieval History from King's College, University of London.

Saker was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s 2019 New Year's Honours list for services to Responsible Business and Finance.