Standard Life strengthens ESG team
Global asset manager Standard Life Investments has boosted its ESG investment team with the appointment of Deborah Gilshan as governance & stewardship director.
Reporting to Euan Stirling, head of Stewardship & ESG Investment, Gilshan will play a significant role in the implementation of governance and stewardship considerations into the wider mainstream investment process. She will also actively engage with companies, their boards and regulators on governance issues.
Gilshan will join Standard Life in May 2017. She is currently head of Sustainable Ownership at RPMI Railpen where she leads their work on active ownership and sustainable investment strategies. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the 30% Club, a global initiative to promote diversity, and co-chairs the 30% Club’s institutional investor group in the UK.
She also serves on the Business Ethics Committee of the International Corporate Governance Network. In October 2011, Gilshan founded The 100% Club, a network for professional women, which Standard Life supports.
Gilshan started her governance career in December 2000 at the UK’s Co-operative Insurance Society. She read Mathematics and English at the University of Manchester and previously worked in corporate tax at Ernst & Young.
“We are delighted Deborah will join our ESG Investment team, which is growing in size and importance, as we move ESG considerations further up the investment agenda. The consideration of environmental, social and governance issues is now formally integrated as part of our investment research process,” Euan Stirling, head of Stewardship & ESG Investment at Standard Life, said.
“As active investment managers, engagement continues to be at the heart of our approach to ESG matters and it is important for us to influence the standards of governance that apply. With her depth of knowledge and experience, Deborah will be a terrific addition to the team and invaluable in helping us to hold boards to account,” Stirling added.
