News

01/09/2009

Simon Wong joins Governance for Owners

For immediate release

28 August 2009

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Simon Wong joins Governance for Owners 

Governance for Owners is delighted to announce that Simon Wong will join in mid-September as an Executive Partner and Managing Director with oversight of the Stewardship Services operation.  Simon has extensive experience in corporate governance and responsible share ownership, having most recently been Head of Corporate Governance at Barclays Global Investors based in London. 

Before joining BGI, Simon was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he served companies and governments in developed and emerging markets on a broad range of corporate governance, organization, strategy, and financial regulatory matters.

Simon’s wide-ranging experience includes developing market-specific corporate governance guidelines, overseeing the voting of clients’ holdings at shareholder meetings, and leading engagement with boards of directors and senior management of investee companies on matters of strategy, performance, governance and sustainability.  He has also participated in various forums focused on governance and engagement matters, including the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and Eumedion Investment Committees.  He is Chairman of the International Corporate Governance Network’s Shareholder Responsibilities Committee, Adjunct Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law, where he teaches an International Corporate Governance course, and policy adviser to the Organisation for Economic Co -operation and Development (OECD).

A securities lawyer by training, Simon has also worked at Linklaters & Paines and Shearman & Sterling in London, and served as Principal Administrator/Counsel at OECD in Paris, where he focused on corporate governance, company law, and insolvency reform policy matters.

Commenting on the appointment, Peter Butler, GO’s CEO said, “Simon’s breadth of experience and long-term interest in governance as a factor in corporate performance make him an ideal addition to GO’s team.” 

Simon added, “I am delighted to be joining an organisation which believes strongly in engagement by share owners with companies and has such a wealth of experience and expertise in this field.  The business development potential for Stewardship Services is very exciting and my initial objectives include bringing several of these to fruition.”

ENDS

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For further information contact:

Andrew Fleming, Penrose, + 44 (0)20 7786 4823

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Notes to Editors:

1. Governance for Owners (GO) is an independent partnership between major institutional share owners, a long-term financial backer and GO senior executives. GO is dedicated to adding long-term shareholder value for clients by exercising owners’ rights.  The GO European Focus Fund invests in a small number of European public companies where value can be added through exercising owners' rights to address key structural or strategic governance weaknesses that have historically impaired company performance.  The GO Stewardship Service offers independent corporate governance voting advice on the largest 1500 companies in the US, Europe, South East Asia and Japan, combined with a more intensive programme of enhanced-value engagement on selected companies within clients’ portfolios.