Press Releases

Simon Fraser Stewardship Award – Winners 2024

(London, 22nd January 2025)

The Investor Forum is pleased to announce the winner of the Simon Fraser Stewardship Award for 2024 is Chris Anker, Head of Stewardship and Regulatory Change at Redwheel.

The Award, presented at the Investor Forum’s 9th Annual Review event on 21st January, is named in honour of the founding Chair of the Investor Forum in recognition of his commitment to stewardship, his generosity of spirit and his ability to both recognise and bring out the best in the people around him.

Chris Kinder, Chief Executive Officer of the Investor Forum, said:

“We would like to congratulate Chris, a deserved winner of this year’s Award. Chris is a widely recognised industry leader and I am delighted to acknowledge his contribution to the stewardship profession, both through his work at his own institution and through thought-leadership to the wider investment industry.

We are also pleased to highly commend Ruchi Biyani as a growing force within the corporate governance world.”

The winner

With 15 years of experience in a wide range of responsible investment roles, working both for asset owners and asset managers, Chris has a clear appreciation of the role that effective stewardship can play as an input to the investment processes, the delivery of investment returns and the overall client experience. His colleagues value his thoughtful challenges, which foster innovation and accountability within the field.

Chris serves as a member of the Investment Association’s Stewardship Committee and co-Deputy Chair of its Sustainability and Responsible Investment Committee, offering valuable insights to the industry. Additionally, he actively participates in the Investor Forum’s initiatives, proposing collective engagements and contributing to intellectual debates on project work.

Highly commended

The judging panel were pleased to also ‘highly commend’ Ruchi Biyani, Corporate Governance Lead at Janus Henderson Investors. As a key member of the Responsible Investment and Governance division, Ruchi leads initiatives in investment team support, corporate governance, and the development of corporate governance data capabilities. Her colleagues comment that, having switched over from a legal career, she very quickly got up to speed with investment management and has steadily increased her impact and responsibilities.

Ruchi’s dedication to responsible investment extends beyond her role at Janus Henderson. She actively participates in various Investor Forum Working Groups, contributing her expertise to collaborative engagements, discussions and events. Her efforts in promoting the Investor Forum as a stewardship champion across relevant investment teams have been particularly noteworthy.

Rising stars

The nominations panel were also impressed with the highlighted contributions of:

  • Ailsa Bridges, an Investment Analyst atthe Wellcome Trust, for her efforts at the forefront of developing how Wellcome engages, embeds and reviews stewardship matters through their ‘Licence to Operate’ framework.
  • Ramón Secades, Responsible Investment Analyst at Quilter Cheviot,for leading Quilter Cheviot’s Investment Trust sector engagement. Colleagues highlighted the engagement as ‘the perfect example of long-term stewardship in action and how it can have a tangible outcome on the companies we invest in’, and have praised the reports Ramon has produced as ‘pioneering’.

The Award

Nominations from Member firms were judged against the following criteria:

  • Putting stewardship at the heart of investment decision making.
  • Demonstrating sound judgement and the ability to deal with challenging situations effectively and with integrity.
  • Taking an initiative, individually or collectively, which demonstrates either personal development or helps others to develop stewardship skills.
  • Focusing on practical outcomes which have had an observable impact.

Contact:

Investor Forum

Chris Kinder, Chief Executive Officer

[email protected]

Notes to editors:

  • Simon Fraser, 1959 – 2021, was instrumental in the establishment of the Investor Forum, taking on the role of founding Chair on a pro bono basis in 2014.
  • The Investor Forum is an independent, not for profit organisation founded in October 2014. At the end of 2024, 51 investment firms are Members, including asset managers, insurance companies, pension funds, and endowments.
  • The purpose of the Investor Forum is to position stewardship at the heart of investment decision making by facilitating dialogue, creating long-term solutions and enhancing value.