Peter Butler (CEO) became a founder partner of Governance for Owners (GO) in November 2004. From 1996 to 2004 Peter was responsible for building the highly respected Corporate Focus and Focus Fund teams at Hermes Pensions Management Limited in London. Hermes is the in-house fund manager of BT Pension Scheme which is the largest pension fund in the UK. During this period he established the largest corporate governance team in the world – some 45 people working on 2,500 stocks across all major global markets– and developed the concept of the Hermes Focus Funds, the first institutionally-owned fund to invest in underperforming companies across Europe and employ relational shareholder engagement techniques to add value to the fund. Under Peter’s leadership the Hermes Focus Funds grew to over £1.5 billion of funds under management from c40 major institutional clients in Europe, North America and Japan and achieved substantial out-performance against benchmarks.

Peter had over 20 years’ global experience in a wide range of industries as a senior executive before joining Hermes, and for seven years was a director of public companies in both executive and non-executive positions. As CFO he steered Berisford International, a UK based conglomerate with £1.9 billion of turnover, through two difficult years of crisis management and work-out under refinancing agreements when 68 banks called a standstill on over £1.4 billion of debt. As Finance Director of British Sugar plc he led a team of 170 and introduced radical changes which doubled annual profits to over £100m. His early career was spent at global accountants Touche Ross & Co and BOC Group plc in the oilfield services and welding industries.

Peter is at the forefront of the global debate on the development of corporate governance and is a past board member of the International Corporate Governance. He frequently participates in seminars and conferences worldwide.

He is Chairman of Essex & Southend Sports Trust, a member of the General Committee of Essex County Cricket Club and the former Chairman of the Essex Auto Group Southend Cricket Festival. He is an avid follower of Southend United Football Club.
 

Steve Brown has worked in investment management since 1986, having spent 18 years at Hermes Pensions Management. Following three years as Director of UK Equities in the mid-1990s, in 1998 he founded Hermes Focus Asset Management (HFAM) with Peter Butler. The first HFAM fund, the Hermes UK Focus Fund, performed strongly during 1998-2004, and in February 2002 the Hermes European Focus Fund was launched. Prior to the European expansion, Steve was appointed Managing Director (Investments) to be the senior investment professional overseeing the development of the shareholder engagement funds across Europe. The European fund also performed strongly in 2002-2004. Steve resigned from Hermes in November 2004 to found Governance for Owners.

Robert is a Partner at Governance for Owners in the investment team of the GO European Focus Fund. Robert joined GO in 2005 from JP Morgan Asset Management where he headed the pan-European equity team. With nearly two decades of investment experience, based in Frankfurt and London, he has an extensive knowledge of Europe's listed corporate sector. A Chartered Financial Analyst, he has achieved significant outperformance in his portfolios through fundamental long-term investing. Before his career in investment management he served as an officer in the British Army for 6 years

Gavin is a Partner at Governance for Owners in the investment team of the GO European Focus Fund. Gavin has over fifteen years experience as a Chief Financial Officer of large companies, mostly publicly quoted, in a variety of industries, and an earlier background in finance and corporate strategy. He has extensive experience of corporate change management, M&A and corporate governance notably in manufacturing and business-to-business services.

He joined GO from D S Smith Plc, a €2bn turnover international paper and packaging company, where he was CFO for six years. Gavin was previously CFO of Philips Lighting, Chairman of Philips Batteries, CFO of Ionica Plc, Alfred McAlpine Plc and Norcros Plc. His career started at Citibank and he then spent 5 years with Bain & Co. in the US and UK before becoming a principal in a leveraged buyout of a business which he sold to Nippon Seiko KK of Japan, joining their International Management Committee.

Gavin graduated summa cum laude in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh, having been an exchange scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds an MBA in Finance from the Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago. Gavin is fluent in English, German and Spanish, with good French too.

Paola is a Partner at Governance for Owners in the investment team of the GO European Focus Fund. Paola has over twenty five years experience in the finance industry, most recently before GO through her role at Hermes Focus Asset Management Europe, where she was responsible for identifying, valuing and investing in stocks for the Hermes European Focus Fund and then working with select portfolio companies to enhance value. Her in-depth understanding of how companies add or destroy value through corporate activity was largely developed during the thirteen years she spent in investment banking roles with Deutsche Bank and, prior to that, as an auditor with KPMG. At Deutsche Bank she was a managing director and head of the Industrial Technology Group, which she established. Paola is a Chartered Accountant by training and has also completed the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators exams. She is fluent in Italian, English and Spanish and is also conversant in mandarin Chinese.
 

Pedro is a Partner at Governance for Owners in the investment team of the GO European Focus Fund. Pedro joined GO from AIB IM where he headed the Pan-European equity team. Previously he spent 17 years at Citigroup Asset Management where he more recently managed the S&P AA rated Citiselect Euroland and Citiequity PanEuropean Funds.

Pedro brings over 20 years experience in managing equity markets with strong performance and in-depth understanding of corporate governance.

Pedro holds a Degree in Economics from Universidad Complutense in Madrid, MBA from IE and a Masters in Finance from London Business School.
 

Patrick joined GO in November 2010 as an Investment Analyst for the GO European Focus Fund. Before joining GO, Patrick spent two years working for UniCredit CAIB Securities. As a strategist in the highly rated EMEA strategy team, he focused on Emerging European markets and as junior equity analyst, he focused on the EME infrastructure sector. He was also briefly a member of Watson Wyatt’s (now Towers Watson) Thinking Ahead Group, where he researched new trends in the investment industry.
However, Patrick began his career in academia as associate lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, where he taught Finance and Economics.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) and a Master of Commerce (Research) degrees from University of Witwatersrand and Master of Science (Accounting & Finance) degree from London School of Economics & Political Science.

Patrick is a CFA charter holder and is fluent in English and Polish.
 

Rebeca joined the Governance team in January 2010 as Services Analyst covering Europe. She brings a wealth of knowledge in proxy issues around the world to support the team with voting, engagement and policy development. Before joining GO, Rebeca was a researcher with PIRC, where she was involved in the production of corporate governance reports for companies based in developed and emerging economies across North and South America, Europe and Southeast Asia. She developed research, voting and policy papers on proxy issues for several developing markets. Previously, Rebeca worked at Manifest where she was involved in corporate governance research and analysis on Europe. Prior to joining the governance industry, Rebeca worked as a Lecturer in International Relations at Regent’s American College London. A political scientist, Rebeca holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics in Global Politics and is fluent in English, Spanish and French.
 

Josiane was formerly Associate Director of European Corporate Governance at Hermes Pensions Management, which she joined in 2001 and where she worked on governance matters relating to both the indexed portfolios and the European Focus Fund. Prior to this, Josiane worked for Friends Ivory & Sime (FIS), now F&C, where she established their continental European corporate governance programme. She has also worked in a number of legal, investor relations and project management related roles in Paris, at Elf, the oil company, and others. A French lawyer and economist by training, Josiane has a wealth of international experience in researching and developing governance change programmes for individual companies and in campaigning for best practice corporate governance across Europe. She is fluent in French, English and German.
 

Hélène is an investment analyst for the GO European Focus Fund. Before joining GO, she was formerly a sell-side analyst in the European oil services industry with KBC Securities, and an investment analyst on the French small and mid-cap sectors, with Chaussier Gestion, in Paris. Through those roles she developed her ability to analyse companies’ financial statements and develop investment ideas.

Hélène is a French national and holds a Master in Corporate Finance and Financial Engineering and a “Maitrise” in Finance from Dauphine University in Paris.
 

Alex joined GO from fund-group Lincoln Vale where he was an investment manager focusing on equity investments in Europe. For the Swiss investment fund GoldenPeaks Capital, Alex set up and ran the London office and concentrated on listed equities in Western Europe. At Credit Suisse (formerly CSFB), Alex worked in the Equities division, responsible for the development of trade ideas and valuation advisory to institutional clients. Alex's further experience includes consulting assignments with consultancies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers in Zurich and London, as well as private equity advisory. Alex holds a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the London Business School, and a degree in economics (Licence ès sciences économiques) from Université de Neuchâtel (Switzerland) and Stockholm Business School (Sweden). Besides his native German, Alex is fluent in English and French and conversant in Spanish

Anne takes the lead on voting and engagement with companies in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway, as well as a large number of UK FTSE 350 companies. She is also involved in policy development and takes part in public consultations. Anne is also responsible for GO\'s engagements on social and environmental matters and is an active member of a number of ESG networks and forums. She has a special interest in ethical supply chains and global labour relations. Anne joined GO in 2005 after having covered the voting season at Hermes. She has previously worked in marketing and for a dot-com.

She holds a BA (Hons) in Management, First Class, and a MA in Marketing and Management. In addition to English and her native Danish, Anne is proficient in German, Swedish and Norwegian.

When not working Anne spends time with her family and is co-chairman of her local NCT branch.
 

Kalina joined the GO Stewardship Services team in October 2010 as Services Manager covering Europe. She brings a wealth of knowledge in corporate governance and proxy issues. Before joining GO, Kalina was a corporate governance analyst at Fidelity International, where she was responsible for engagement with portfolio companies on ESG issues, as well as for proxy voting and corporate governance analysis of companies in a number of European jurisdictions.

Prior to this, she was a corporate governance executive with PIRC, where she was involved in the production of corporate governance reports and policy guidelines for the analysis of UK and US companies.

Kalina holds a BA (Hons) in European Studies from King’s College London, an MSc in Regulation from the London School of Economics and has a Postgraduate Certificate in Finance from Birkbeck College London. She is fluent in English and Bulgarian, as well as being conversant in German.

Dr Roland Rott is an Associate Director, working on the GO European Focus Fund. He is responsible for identifying and valuing portfolio companies and, after investing, works with selected portfolio companies to enhance long-term value. Prior to joining the GO investment team, Roland was responsible for governance and engagement analysis of European large cap companies within GO\'s Stewardship Services. He started his career as a management consultant in the financial industry working for KPMG and Deutsche Bank and served as an independent corporate governance consultant to institutional investors, corporate boards and international organisations.

Roland is a CFA charterholder and holds a PhD in Finance as well as an MSc in Economics and Business Administration from Goethe-University in Frankfurt (Germany). He is fluent in German and English.
 

Marc is an Associate Director on the GO European Focus Fund. Prior to joining GO, Marc worked as a Portfolio Manager within Fortis Private Banking. By co-managing the equity part of the discretionary model portfolio, he gained experience in international financial markets. Marc holds a ‘Maitrise’ in Economics from the University of Montpellier (France) as well as an MSc in Banking and International Finance from Cass Business School (London).

Marc is a CFA charterholder and, besides his native Luxembourgish language, Marc is fluent in French, German and English.
 

Nadia initially joined the Investment team in 2008 to assist with the process of identifying and evaluating new investment ideas. She now supports the team with in-depth investment analysis and research of potential and invested stocks.

Nadia holds a master’s degree in Marketing Communications funded through the reputable British Chevening Scholarship and is currently pursuing her CFA studies. Nadia is originally from Central Asia where she worked on projects of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Freedom House Inc. In addition to her native Russian, Nadia is fluent in English and French.
 

Ian Smith has 30 years of business experience across several sectors in the UK, Continental Europe and Middle East. Ian has 10 years of experience on public company boards, including as Chief Executive at Reed Elsevier, Taylor Woodrow and Exel Europe, and non-executive director of Howden\'s Joinery (formerly MFI). Previously, Ian was CEO at General Healthcare Group (a privately equity-owned company), and CEO at Monitor Company Europe, a leading strategic consultancy. Ian began his business career with Shell, working mostly in the Middle East. Aside from his GO responsibilities, Ian will continue in his current role as special business and economic advisor to the Office of the Quartet Representative, led by Tony Blair, which is engaged in the peace process in Israel/Palestine.