Governance

Institutional Shareholder Services gets new president

MSCI’s corporate secretary Gary Retelny takes over from Stephen Harvey

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Stephen Harvey has been replaced as the head of US proxy voting and corporate governance firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) by Gary Retelny, the corporate secretary of parent firm MSCI.
MSCI acquired the ISS business when it bought RiskMetrics for $1.55bn (€1.1bn) last year.
Harvey has run ISS for three years, having joined RIskMetrics in 2000 after 12 years with Dow Jones & Co. in senior sales roles.
There have been several high profile departures since the acquisition, including Ran Fuchs, the former global head of RiskMetrics’ ESG/Sustainability Business, who left in February. Greg Larkin, the former Head of Financial Sector Research at RIskMetrics went in June. RIskMetrics’ founder Ethan Berman left a year ago.
The revamp comes as MSCI’s governance sector earnings have been slipping. They dipped in the second quarter by 7.7% to $7.4m, according to the company’s most recent earnings report last month.

“In addition to his current responsibilities as Corporate Secretary of MSCI Inc., Mr Retelny will now assume overall leadership of ISS,” MSCI said in a statement key objective will be to work with the ISS product development team to “expand the company’s current range of governance solutions”.
Harvey will stay with ISS in an unspecified “key leadership role” and report to Retelny.
“This significant appointment recognizes the strong performance of ISS over the last year and our confidence in the future of the governance business,” said MSCI Chief Executive Henry Fernandez. He cited Retelny’s “entrepreneurial experience, business management skills and track record in strategy and business development”.
Retelny joined MSCI in 2003 and was most recently Chief Administrative Officer, responsible for Strategy, Business Development, Legal, Internal Audit and Human Resources.

Meanwhile, MSCI has launched emerging markets coverage in MSCI ESG Impact Monitor, available on the MSCI ESG Manager platform. The service allows institutional investors to analyze a company’s significant social and environmental impacts and its ability to manage those impacts.