Hermes EOS Director of Policy and Product Development departs

Paul Lee, Director of Policy and Product Development at Hermes Equity Ownership Services (EOS), has left the company. Lee’s departure was effective from October 11 and Hermes said its clients had been informed. It is not known if Lee, who has been with Hermes for over 13 years, has yet taken on a role elsewhere. Lee has been a significant figure in corporate governance in the last decade, sitting on a number of influential committees and working groups around governance, audit and financial reporting issues in the UK and internationally.

Hermes EOS, which is owned by the BT Pension Scheme, the UK’s largest pension fund, has 35 clients globally and around £115bn (€135.7bn) assets under advice.

Contacted by RI, Lee said he could not say anything about a new position. He said his departure from Hermes was by mutual consent.
In a statement, Hermes thanked Lee for his contribution to Hermes Equity Ownership Services and said it wishedhim all the best for the future. Lee was responsible for EOS’s international engagement on public policy and engagement work with board members of companies in client portfolios. The current co-chair of the 
International Corporate Governance Network’s (ICGN) Shareholder Responsibilities 
Committee, where he has had a role in the ICGN’s “model mandate” initiative, Lee is also a Council Member of the Audit and Assurance Council of the UK’s Financial Reporting Council, the independent regulator on corporate governance and reporting. He sits on the Financial
 Reporting Faculty Advisory Group at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of
 England and Wales and is a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the
 IFC’s Global Corporate Governance Forum. Other roles include membership of the UK’s Auditing Practices Board and a non-executive directorship of Australian engagement firm Regnan. Lee joined Hermes in 2000 having previously spent a decade as a financial journalist.