Changing of the guard at Hermes Investment Management as former Odey boss David Stewart is named chairman
Hermes Investment Management today announced David Stewart is to replace Paul Spencer as chairman.
Spencer has been chairman since 2011, and on 1 January 2016 he took over as independent non-executive chairman of the Prudential Assurance Company (PAC), the UK subsidiary of Prudential.
Stewart is currently a non-executive director at Hermes having joined the board in April last year and will take up the chairmanship on 1 April. He was previously at Odey Asset Management for nine years, as chief executive and later as a non-exec director.
He is also chairman of IMM Associates, a non-executive director of the Caledonia Investment Trust, and sits on the investment committee of MacMillan Cancer Care.
Saker Nusseibeh, chief executive of Hermes, said:
Since joining the board as chair of the risk and compliance committee, David has quickly established himself as an insightful and trusted advisor. His advice and counsel will be greatly beneficial as we take Hermes through the next stage of its growth.
Paul Spencer has been a tremendous chair and great support to all of us in the business. During his tenure, we have seen Hermes evolve into a fully fledged asset manager, with third party assets increasing from £1.8bn to £9.2bn. On a personal level, Paul’s support and guidance has been invaluable.
Hermes has around £21bn of assets under management, and is know for ethical investing.
Stewart said in a statement: “I look forward to taking up my new role, and working with Saker, the leadership team at Hermes and my fellow Board members to build on the successes Hermes has already achieved. I see Hermes as an asset manager which is fully embedding responsible capitalism at the very heart of its business. This gives the firm a unique advantage, for which it is increasingly being recognised. ”