Location London
Job-type Permanent
Salary £Competitive
Reference 15548

Federated Hermes is guided by the conviction that responsible investing is the best way to create long-term wealth. The Firm provides specialised capabilities across equity, fixed income and private markets, in addition to multi-asset strategies and proven liquidity-management solutions. Through their world-leading stewardship services (EOS), they engage companies on strategic and sustainability concerns to promote investors' long-term performance and fiduciary interests. Their goals are to help individuals invest and retire better, to help clients
achieve better risk-adjusted returns, and to contribute to positive outcomes in the wider world. EOS represents $1.75trn assets under advice as at end of June 2021.

The Role
The candidate will be responsible for supporting, primarily through research, senior colleagues to engage directly with publicly listed companies advocating for faster transition to more sustainable business models and socially equitable corporate practices.

The team's aim is to achieve substantial and demonstrable change on material stewardship, corporate governance, long-term strategy and environmental and social issues. The role will focus for the first years on researching ESG themes, best practices and company performance then supporting subsequent engagement with companies and policymakers. Through working with established team members, the candidate will gain experience to eventually take on and lead their own portfolio of engagement strategies and companies.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Support engagement strategies of senior engagers through detailed company research and consultation with investment colleagues, development of an engagement strategy and objectives on material issues.

  • Assist with the provision of the full range of wider stewardship services, including making voting recommendations to clients at company shareholder meetings and identifying high risk controversies at companies which require escalated engagement.

  • Support integration of stewardship work into the Federated Hermes' investment process and wider products and services provided to clients.

  • Support the development of allocated market, sector and/ or theme stewardship strategies includingi dentifying impactful market leading opportunities. Support the whole team in achieving tangible change in atargeted combination of priority markets, themes and sectors consistent with the client engagement plan.

  • Develop and maintain a positive external profile by representing EOS at relevant committees and working groups, including occasionally speaking at public events.

  • Support the client team in the development of strong client relationships by attending at client events and responding to ad-hoc client queries and requests on stewardship activity.


Capabilities Sought:

  • A significant degree of initiative and self-management is required in this role. Time management and personal discipline are vital, particularly on extended research tasks, as is the ability to work to short deadlines and under pressure in reaction to market events at other times.

  • The successful applicant will be motivated, proactive and passionate about environmental, social and governance issues and achieving positive change.

  • Knowledge in a complementary field(s) such as strategy, investor relations, finance, accountancy, internal audit, risk management or investment/ business consultancy, equity or debt research or legal advisory services. This may be in a corporation, government, academia, NGO or other.

  • Experience of living and/or working in an Asian or emerging market country and an understanding of the culture and business context would be an advantage.

  • Ability to communicate fluently in a major Asian language, in particular Japanese, Mandarin and/or Korean would also be an advantage.

Equal Opportunities
Federated Hermes are committed to reflecting and representing the diversity of the UK and to equal opportunities in employment and will take every possible step to ensure that no prospective employee will receive less favourable treatment (direct discrimination) or will be disadvantaged by requirements or conditions that cannot be shown to be justifiable (indirect discrimination) on the grounds of their age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage/civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. The Firm will take positive steps to ensure that All applicants are treated equally and fairly throughout the recruitment and selection process and particularly encourage applications from eligible candidates from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, as these groups are underrepresented throughout the financial services sector.

Next Steps
This is a development opportunity for a highly motivated individual to join a global investment manager with a track record of innovation across the responsible investment landscape for over a decade. If you feel this aligns with your core skills and future aspirations, please get in touch today with Andrew Mullins via andrew.mullins@acre.com.