ICGN Global Stewardship Disclosure Awards Judges
Frederick Alexander
CEO, The Shareholder Commons
Rick is the CEO of The Shareholder Commons, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping shareholders use their power to protect common resources and vulnerable populations.
Rick practiced law for 30 years at the law firm Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell, LLP, including four years as managing partner. During that time, he was selected as one of the ten most highly regarded corporate governance lawyers worldwide and as one of the 500 leading lawyers in the United States. In 2015, Rick became Head of Legal Policy at B Lab, where he worked to create sustainable corporate governance structures around the globe. He left that position in 2019 to organize The Shareholder Commons.
Rick is a member of the Delaware Corporation Law Council, the body responsible for maintaining the premier corporate statute in the United States, where he previously served as Chair, testifying multiple times in the Delaware General Assembly, and drafting and shepherding important legislation, including provisions prohibiting mandatory arbitration, enabling proxy access, protecting majority voting and authorizing benefit corporations. He served eight years on the American Bar Association Corporate Laws Committee and was the chief draftsperson of its White Paper on Benefit Corporations.
Aaron Bernstein
Editor, Global Proxy Watch
Aaron Bernstein is the editor of Global Proxy Watch. He was a non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program’s Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project from 2007 to 2019, where he wrote papers on the materiality of social factors such as human capital and labor and human rights, most available here. Bernstein left BusinessWeek magazine in 2006 after a 23-year career as an editor and senior writer covering workplace and social issues. He received a BA in Politics and Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz and did graduate work in Political and Legal Theory for two years at Oxford University. He is the author of a book entitled “Grounded: Frank Lorenzo and the Destruction of Eastern Airlines,” and the co-author of “In the Company of Owners: The Truth About Stock Options.”
Adrian Bertrand
Co-Founder, Six Capitals Advisory
Prior to co-founding Six Capitals Advisory with Alternative Prosperity in 2017, Adrian worked as Head: Africa & Middle East for the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). Adrian served as ESG Manager at the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) from 2011 - 2015, where Adrian was responsible for managing and implementing the GEPF’s Responsible Investment programme with responsibility across GEPF’s ZAR1.5 trillion investment portfolio. Adrian also currently serves as a part time consultant to ASISA, which serves as the Secretariat for the Code for Responsible Investing in South Africa (CRISA). In this capacity, Adrian currently Chairs the CRISA Stewardship Code Review Working Group.
Post his MBA studies at the University of Stellenbosch, Adrian worked as a researcher at the Centre for Corporate Governance in Africa at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. Here his research in 2008/9 included the development of an ESG ratings matrix for the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and the rating of JSE listed companies for the annual JSE SRI Index ranking of companies in 2009 and 2010.
Adrian has presented at numerous local and international investor conferences. Adrian has facilitated board workshops for retirement funds on the topics of responsible investment, retirement fund governance & ethics and transformation and BBBEE for retirement funds. Adrian has been responsible for editing a number of Consumer Education supplements published in partnership with Today’s Trustee in 2018 and 2019. Adrian has written several articles on the topic of responsible Investment which have been published in Today’s Trustee, Financial Mail’s Collective Insight, The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) Yearbook and Responsible Investor, amongst others.
Giuseppe Crisci
Giuseppe Crisci, Managing Partner & Founder, Crisci & Partners – Shareholders and Board Consulting
A graduate of the Milan Polytechnic University’s Engineering program, with Master from same University, Giuseppe Crisci worked for Olivetti-General Electric and Coca-Cola (Italy), becoming Marketing Director for Italy.
At Fiorucci, from the company’s start up, he served as General Manager.
Crisci then joined Egon Zehnder International, where he became a Partner, then Managing Partner for Italy for 12 years and Chairman for over 7 years. At Egon Zehnder International, he handled Corporate Governance and established the Italian Board Practice.
From 1995 to 2000, Giuseppe Crisci was Advisor to the Italian Treasury Ministry and Mario Draghi, its General Director at the time, for appointments in state-owned companies.
In 2008, he founded Crisci & Partners - Shareholders and Board Consulting, and is Managing Partner.
Giuseppe Crisci has served as a member of Boards of Directors and is active in the non-profit organisation Amref Health Africa, for which he is Promoter in Italy.
He is a Fellow of ICSA – The Chartered Governance Institute of London and a Member of ECGI and ICGN.
Fabienne Crisovan
Group Head of Governance, ESG Legal & Corporate Law, Zurich Insurance Group
Fabienne Crisovan is the Group Head of Governance, ESG Legal & Corporate Law at Zurich Insurance Group.
She joined Zurich Insurance Group in 2010 initially leading cross-border M&A (incl. bancassurance) and capital markets transactions as well as Investment Management projects. Since September 2019, Fabienne acts as Head of Governance & Corporate law and was promoted to Group Head of Governance, ESG Legal & Corporate Law in 2020. Prior to joining Zurich, Fabienne Crisovan worked with one of the major law firms in Zurich as a member of the Corporate / M&A practice group and prior to that, worked in a mid-sized law firm in Zurich focusing on Corporate and Tax Law.
Fabienne Crisovan holds a degree in law (lic. iur.) from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) as well as a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of Northwestern (Chicago). Fabienne is admitted to the bar of the Canton of Zurich (Switzerland) and to the bar of the State of New York (USA).
Meshack Joram
CEO, The Institute of Directors (Kenya)
Meshack is a skilled business professional with a wealth of management experience gained over the last fifteen (15) years in Senior Management positions and corporate governance practice. This experience has been gained from working in the private sector across the Finance & Administration, Human Resources, Supplies and Governance sectors. He has a demonstrated track record in deriving value for organizations as a Management Executive and also as a Director
Meshack is currently engaged as The Chief Executive Officer at The Institute of Directors (Kenya) and has the responsibility of driving the overall strategy and corporate governance agenda of the Institute on behalf of the members. His work experience includes thirteen (13) years with the Institute of Directors (Kenya), where he has served in various capacities such as the Administration Manager in Charge of membership recruitment and finance, and also as Senior Manager in charge of membership, training, Director Development and projects.
In 2018, Meshack was elected as the Chairman of the African Corporate Governance Network (ACGN) for a two year term. He previously served in the Executive Committee, representing Kenya in the Network’s agenda of promoting Corporate Governance in Africa. He has participated in numerous forums locally and internationally both as an invited guest and as a participant.
He has a Degree in Economics from Moi University and CPA qualification. He also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Corporate Governance from KCA University and is a Certified Trainer in Corporate Governance by the Centre for Corporate Governance in Kenya and the International Finance Corporation (IFC/World Bank), in Board Evaluation and Leadership training.
He is a member of the Institute of Directors (Kenya) and the League of Young Professionals in Kenya.
Dr. Tetsuo Kitagawa
Emeritus Professor of Aoyama Gakuin University and Professor of Tokyo Metropolitan University
Professor Tetsuo Kitagawa Ph.D. has been Professor of Aoyama Business School since 2005.
His main areas are Corporate Disclosure, Investor Relations, and Corporate Governance. Formerly as an analyst of Investment Management Company (JP Morgan Asset Management) and Securities Company (Nomura Securities), he had been more than 25 five years experience.
Professor Tetsuo Kitagawa has written many articles for those areas and is a member of the editing committee of Securities Analyst Journal. Tetsuo Kitagawa has a PhD in Economics from Chuo University and MA in Commerce from Waseda University.
He is a representative of ESG Disclosure Study Group in Japan.
Pedro Melo
CEO, Instituto Brasileiro Governanca Corporativa (IBGC)
CEO of the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance - IBGC and independent member of the Board of Directors of Santander Brazil Bank.
Pedro Melo was President of KPMG in Brazil and South America from October / 2008 to September / 2017, when he served as a member of the Global Board and International Global Council of KPMG and the Board of KPMG Americas. Pedro Melo is an accountant, registered at the Regional Accounting Council (CRC) in São Paulo and the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM). He is one of the partners responsible for the KPMG initiative in the area of Corporate Governance, which coordinates the activities of the Audit Committee Institute (ACI).
Pedro Melo was an active member of the Committees of the Institute of Independent Auditors of Brazil - IBRACON and the American Chamber of Commerce in Brazil - AMCHAM Brazil. He is an Academic at the Brazilian Academy of Accounting Sciences - ABRACICON and at the Paulista Accounting Academy.
Recognized by the market, Pedro Melo received the “Highlight IBEF 2009 Award” and “ANEFAC Professional of the Year 2014”, in the Accounting category. In February 2018 he awarded the medal “Presidente Annibal de Freitas”. He is the author of the theme “Operational Continuity” of the Update Program in Accounting / Independent Auditing developed by Secad in partnership with the Brazilian Academy of Accounting Sciences (ABRACICON) and renowned professionals.
He dedicated himself to the Audit profession from 1981 to 2020, and for two years participated in the exchange program at the KPMG office in Minneapolis, United States. He holds a degree in Accounting and a Postgraduate degree in Accounting and Financial Analysis.
Anthony Miller
Coordinator, United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges
Anthony Miller is the Coordinator of the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative and the focal point for responsible investment within the Investment and Enterprise Division of the United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Dr. Miller is a specialist on sustainable finance, corporate sustainability and corporate governance. He has managed the SSE initiative since its launch by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2009. In 2011, the initiative was named by Forbes magazine as one of the “world’s best sustainability ideas” and in 2019 was endorsed by UN Secretary General António Guterres. Today the SSE counts over 100 partner exchanges around the world.
He is a regular contributor to UNCTAD’s flagship World Investment Report, and was lead author of an interagency paper to the G20 “Promoting standards for responsible investment in value chains”. For over 10 years he served as an annual guest lecturer on corporate sustainability and responsible investment at the Centre for Development Studies at Cambridge University. He holds a B.A. from Trent
University, Canada, and an M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Cambridge University, England.
Andrew Ninian
Director, Stewardship & Corporate Governance, The Investment Association
Andrew is responsible for representing The Investment Association members interests as institutional investors on corporate governance and engagement matters. He has oversight of The Investment Association’s Institutional Voting Information Service (IVIS), corporate governance policy development and company consultations or collective engagement with the companies in which Investment Association members invest. Andrew joined The Investment Association in June 2014, through merger of the Investment Affairs division of the ABI with the IMA. He joined the ABI in 2005 as a Corporate Governance Analyst and was promoted to Head of IVIS in October 2011 and Head of Corporate Governance in January 2012. Before joining the ABI, Andrew was a Socially Responsible Investment analyst at HSBC, having joined HSBC’s graduate scheme in 2001 after reading Economics at the University of Bath.
He dedicated himself to the Audit profession from 1981 to 2020, and for two years participated in the exchange program at the KPMG office in Minneapolis, United States. He holds a degree in Accounting and a Postgraduate degree in Accounting and Financial Analysis.
Anne-Maree O’Connor
Head of Responsible Investment, New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZSF)
Anne-Maree O’Connor is Head of Responsible Investment for the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZSF). Her main role is the development and oversight of the Guardians’ responsible investment (RI) framework which includes integrating environmental, social and governance considerations across the New Zealand Superannuation Fund’s investments. Anne-Maree was a Commissioner on the Financial Sector Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking (Liechtenstein Initiative) supported by the UN during its mandate. She was a member of the NZ Sustainable Finance Forum and represents NZSF on the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund initiative on climate change. Anne-Maree is a past board member of the RI Association Australasia and a recipient of the Women of Influence 2017 award for Board and Management.
Anne-Maree has over 20 years of RI experience in senior roles including Managing Director of CoreRatings and Associate Director RI at Aviva’s Morley Fund Management.
Ali Saribas
Partner, SquareWell Partners
Ali is a corporate governance and activism specialist with 17 years’ experience. Ali started off as a research analyst at the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) in Washington DC. In 2009, Ali moved to London to work with Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) to cover the UK market as well as help set-up the contentious M&A/ Activism team to cover the UK and continental Europe. Ali has a dual undergraduate degree in Finance and Economics from the George Washington University and an Executive Masters in Business Administration from CASS Business School.
Narina Mnatsakanian
Executive Director, Sustainability Centre - Van Lanschot Kempen
Narina until recently was heading sustainability and impact investing at Kempen Capital Management and is now Executive Director at the newly formed Sustainability Centre at Van Lanschot Kempen. She works closely with portfolio managers on ESG integration across asset classes, active ownership and positive impact as well setting and implementing sustainability strategy for the firm. Narina is also portfolio manager for the Global Impact Pool, a multi asset impact fund.
Previously Narina was Director Investor Relations, Impact and ESG at Sarona Asset Management, a boutique private equity firm investing in emerging and frontier markets. Narina also worked at MN, a large Dutch pension fund asset manager, where she led the ESG integration project across listed and non-listed asset classes and engaged with oil & gas and mining companies on sustainability and governance topics. Prior to MN, Narina was Head of Networks and Global Investor Outreach at Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and at UNEP Finance Initiative. She began her career at KPMG in Strategy Consulting and at Ernst & Young in Advisory.
Narina holds a BA (Hons) and MA (Cantab) degree in Land Economy from Cambridge University and an MSc degree in Financial Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and is a CAIA charter holder.
Bassem A. Shakeel
Vice-President & Corporate Secretary, Magna International Inc.
Bassem Shakeel has served as Magna International’s Corporate Secretary since 2008. In this role, he supports Magna’s Board of Directors and Executive Management team in areas such as: corporate governance; sustainability strategy; executive compensation; shareholder engagement; and securities compliance. Since joining Magna in 1999, he has provided legal advice to Magna’s head office, operating groups and/or divisions in a broad range of other areas which have included: anti-corruption; antitrust law; corporate/commercial law; enterprise risk management; insurance; litigation; M&A; real estate; and tax/transfer pricing.
Shameela Soobramoney
Chief Sustainability Officer, JSE
Shameela is the Chief Sustainability Officer of the JSE. She joined the JSE in 2007.
Passionate about the systemic importance of sustainability thinking in corporate strategy, she is responsible for advising the Executive Committee and Board of the JSE Limited on sustainability and the integration into strategy. She is the immediate past chair of the World Federation of Exchange’s (global) Sustainability Working Group and a member of the Strategy Group of the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance (GISD).
Her responsibilities for Sustainability at the JSE include the FTSE JSE Responsible Investment Index series. She represents the JSE on various industry advisory panels[1] related to sustainability, responsible investing and climate change internationally. As a sustainability specialist she has, inter alia, been a key contributor to the JSE’s work into climate change, the potential for a local market to trade in carbon credits and environment-related products, the development of a Green, Social and Sustainability bonds framework, impact investing, the JSE’s sustainability, innovation and CSI strategies as well as the annual sustainability investor briefing sessions.
She is a non-executive director of the WWF (South Africa), the board chairperson of Ubuntu Wilderness, and a non-executive director of the Green Building Council of South Africa.
She is the winner of the IRMSA[2] ESG Sustainability Professional 2020 award. Her previous experience includes senior roles in the banking and insurance industries, and she was the JSE’s senior manager of strategy prior to assuming responsibility for the Sustainability portfolio.
Shameela completed a Master’s degree in Sustainability Leadership (MSt) at the University of Cambridge and holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Pretoria, Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). She is a recipient of the Chevening and Mansion House scholarships, and is a member of the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa (IoDSA).
[1] Integrated Reporting Committee (IRC) of SA Working group, CRISA, Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative member group, ASEA Sustainability working Group etc.
[2] Institute of Risk Management of Southern Africa
Joanna Soh
Senior Vice President, Stewardship Asia Centre
Joanna is the Senior Vice President of Stewardship Asia Centre (SAC), a thought-leadership centre established under Temasek Trust in Singapore. The Centre fosters stewardship and governance across Asia through its research and outreach platforms.
Joanna joined SAC when the Centre started in 2014 and was initially responsible for establishing its outreach and engagement platforms, extending the partnership network across Asia-Pacific. As Senior Vice President, she is also now heading the corporate and operational functions that have developed alongside the growth of the Centre. She is also the acting secretariat and an active member of the Steering Committee that looks after the Singapore Stewardship Principles for Responsible Investors, an initiative that helps shape positive corporate behaviour by encouraging investors to be responsible and active stewards.
Joanna has extensive events research and management experience, having worked in this field for several years across a wide range of geographies and industries, but mainly focused on family business, tech and tourism sectors. She was the Deputy Director of Conferences at Forbes Asia, developing strategic processes for organizing and managing the Forbes Global CEO Conference and other networking platforms around the region. She has also led large-scale events and customer experiences for tech companies, driving projects from Singapore with global experts.
Prior to joining Stewardship Asia, Joanna was a Group Publisher for Tourism at TTG Asia Media where she was responsible for managing the advertising revenue, editorial and distribution for a portfolio of publications. She holds a BA in Media and Communications from RMIT, and specialised in film studies and history.
Professor Christian Strenger
Director and Governance Expert
After obtaining a MBA at the University of Cologne and trainee programs in New York and London, Prof. Strenger joined the Deutsche Bank in 1972, where he held senior positions in corporate finance and asset management in Frankfurt, New York and London until 1991.
In 1991, he became speaker of the management board of ‘DWS Investment GmbH’, Germany’s largest mutual fund company with current assets of around 750 billion Euros. In 1999, he joined the Supervisory Board of DWS and assumed supervisory and advisory mandates of DAX companies.
In 2001 he became a founding member of the German Government’s Commission for the ‘German Corporate Governance Code’, representing investors’ interests until 2016.
In 2014 Prof. Strenger, often referred to as the German ‘Mr. Corporate Governance’, received the ICGN Lifetime Achiever Award in Corporate Governance for his continuing commitment in promoting good corporate governance.
Today, he participates in the discussion to develop German governance as Vice Chairman of the DVFA Corporate Governance Commission with representatives of the four major German asset managers and with leading governance experts,
As Academic Director of the Corporate Governance Institute of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management he lectures and organizes symposia on corporate governance issues. He is regularly invited to guest lectures at other universities (e.g. HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, University of Münster, Philips University Marburg).
Internationally, he is member and Past Chairman (2005/06) of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) and member of the BIAC Governance Committee of the OECD in Paris and Deputy Chairman of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the Global Corporate Governance Group of the IFC (World Bank),
Prof. Strenger regularly publishes articles on important governance topics in leading financial journals and magazines and is a speaker or panel participant at national and international conferences.
Amit Tandon
Founder and Managing Director, Institutional Investor Advisory Services India Limited (IiAS)
Amit Tandon is the founder Institutional Investor Advisory Services India Limited (IiAS) and its managing director since July 2011.
Prior to founding he was the managing director and CEO of Fitch Ratings: India (October 2001-June 2011). Amit took over as CEO of Fitch in India in October 2001. Since his joining Fitch Ratings expanded its India footprint from 18 staff in 2001 to over 110, with 75 analysts, by June 2011. Fitch saw its coverage extend from 50 odd corporates and NBFC’s to over 900 national ratings of corporates, banks, NBFC’s, infrastructure projects, municipalities, securitization, distress debt pools, public finance ratings. In addition to India, Amit had oversight of Fitch Ratings Lanka operations.
Before joining Fitch, Amit was with the ICICI group for 17 years. He joined ICICI in 1984, as an operations officer, in Delhi where he was involved with project appraisals and post sanction monitoring of projects. He moved to ICICI Securities, when I was formed in 1991. He was Chief Northern Region, and responsible for its PSU relationships on an all-India basis. He moved to Mumbai as Senior Vice President and Head of Investment Banking in December 1998. Some of the transactions worked on include the purchase of Modern Foods by Hindustan Lever Limited (now Hindustan Unilever Limited), purchase of BALCO by Sterlite Industries Limited, the sale of the flavors and fragrances business by Hindustan Levers Limited to Quest Chemicals, sale of the Maharashtra fixed line telecom business by Hughes Tele.com Limited to Tata’s, and numerous IPO’s, follow-on offerings and debt placements.
Amit is a member of the CII Corporate Governance Committee and the FICCI Capital Markets Committee. He has been a member of the Reserve Bank of India’s Technical Advisory Committee on Money, Foreign Exchange and Government Securities Markets, a member of one of the working groups convened by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to review comments received on the Companies Act and the Kotak Committee on Corporate Governance constituted by SEBI.
Amit studied economics at St Stephens College, Delhi and has an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi and has an MPhil degree from the University of Cambridge, UK.
and tourism sectors. She was the Deputy Director of Conferences at Forbes Asia, developing strategic processes for organizing and managing the Forbes Global CEO Conference and other networking platforms around the region. She has also led large-scale events and customer experiences for tech companies, driving projects from Singapore with global experts.
Prior to joining Stewardship Asia, Joanna was a Group Publisher for Tourism at TTG Asia Media where she was responsible for managing the advertising revenue, editorial and distribution for a portfolio of publications. She holds a BA in Media and Communications from RMIT, and specialised in film studies and history.
Dr. Wang Dequan
Dr. Wang Dequan is the founder and CEO of Governance Solutions Group (GSG). GSG is a data analytics enabled independent corporate governance and ESG advisor. Based in Hong Kong with offices in Beijing and Shenzhen, GSG covers the PRC Mainland and Hong Kong capital markets, advising institutional investors on corporate governance as well as the broader ESG and sustainable investment issues. GSG’s services primarily include ESG research and rating, alternative ESG data, engagement assistance, and proxy voting advise. https://gsg.hk/
Trained as a lawyer, Dr.Wang is licensed to practice law in China and the State of New York. Before founding GSG in 2017, he was the Greater China Managing Partner for international law firm Simmons and Simmons, and before that he was a partner at the law firm of King & Wood and a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.
Dr. Wang holds a bachelor degree from Peking University, an LLM degree from Harvard Law School, and JSD in corporate governance and securities regulation from Stanford University. He is a founding council member of the China Finance 40 Forum, Vice Chair of the Sustainable Investment Committee of the HK Chinese Asset Managers Association, a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors, and an invited Expert on the China ESG30 Forum.
