GMI Ratings names ISS pay expert Hewitt as its new research head

GMI Ratings, the US-based environmental, social, governance (ESG) research firm, has nabbed Gary Hewitt from rival Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) as its new Head of Research.

He’s the latest ISS alumnus to join GMI. They include Dan Concannon, the former ISS sales chief who become GMI’s chief executive in May, Jeff Lubitz, Executive Vice President of Sales, and Cheryl Gustitus, the former head of ISS’s global marketing and communications who is now GMI’s Chief Marketing Officer.

Hewitt joins as GMI as Managing Director, responsible for global research and thought leadership across its ESG and forensic accounting businesses. He spent seven years with ISS, most recently as an Executive Director and Senior Governance Research Analyst focusing on executive pay.He was formerly with consulting firm Watson Wyatt, predecessor firm of Towers Watson. He has degrees from Yale and Princeton universities.

He will take a role vacated by Kimberly Gladman who is joining a new sustainable start-up company called Just Capital.

And it comes as MSCI said on October 31 that it was exploring “strategic alternatives” for ISS, one of the dominant proxy voting advisory firms.

“Gary brings to GMI a wealth of knowledge and a unique combination of qualitative and quantitative research capabilities that will serve our clients diverse needs and support their decision-making,” said Gustitus in a statement.