ISS’s Caprasse and ex-Barclays exec Tomlinson join engagement boutique Camberview

CamberView Partners, the US corporate engagement advisory boutique that recently got private equity backing, has hired Institutional Shareholder Services’ Jean-Nicolas Caprasse and Lindsay Tomlinson, former Vice Chairman of BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors UK, to head up its new European business.

San Francisco-based Camberview, founded in 2012 by Abe Friedman, the former Global Head of Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment at BlackRock, said Caprasse, the former head of proxy firm ISS in Europe, would join as Managing Partner for Europe.

Tomlinson, currently non-executive director of the Investor Forum, the UK investor-corporate engagement body, will join as Chair of its European Advisory Board. Tomlinson is a former chair of pensions industry body the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), now renamed the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association.

Camberview said the duo “bring a deep understanding of the investor landscape in Europe” and a “deep capacity” to bring investor-led advice on governance, investor engagement and shareholder activism to public companies across Europe.

Tomlinson will take up his post in December when he completes his service on the board of Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) and on the board of the Investor Forum – the engagement body that was grew out of a recommendation by the Kay Review. LGIM has been one of the driving forces behind the Investor Forum.

Tomlinson is a former Vice Chairman of BlackRock Advisors (UK) Ltd (the former Barclays Global Investors), having been CEO at BZW Asset Management.

Caprasse said that Jocelyn Brown, the former Corporate Governance Adviser at the UK’s Financial Reporting Council who joined ISS in 2014 and who heads up its ESG offering globally, would take over from him as the main point of contact for all EU and country level regulatory affairs.“It has been a real pleasure interacting with you in the last several years,” Caprasse said in an email blast to his contacts.

The appointments are the latest in a string of senior hires at Camberview. This year alone it has taken on former Wellington Partner Jonathan Payson and David Martin from Willis Towers Watson – although partner Ken Bertsch left to become Executive Director of the Council of Institutional Investors (CII), the US investment industry body.

“A deep understanding of the investor landscape in Europe”

Among other top governance figures involved in the firm are Chad Spitler as Chief Operating Officer & Head of Sustainable Business Practices. He was previously Global Chief Operating Officer (COO) for BlackRock’s Corporate Governance & Responsible Investment Team. Andrew Letts, the former Head of Corporate Governance at State Street Global Advisors is another senior industry figure on the payroll. Camberview is chaired by Frank Yeary, the former Global Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at Citigroup.

Earlier this month CamberView announced a “strategic investment” from Corsair Capital, the terms of which weren’t disclosed. Corsair’s Ignacio Jayanti, who led the firm’s spin-off from J.P. Morgan in 2006, took a seat on the Camberview board.

Corsair is chaired by Lord Davies, the former Standard Chartered CEO who was the UK’s Minister for Trade and Investment from 2009-2010. Among its principals is Dick Thornburgh, the Vice-Chair at Credit Suisse. Thornburgh is also on the board at index firm S&P Global — alongside Sir Win Bischoff, the banking grandee who chairs the Financial Reporting Council. Link