As CEO of Hermes Equity Ownership Services Ltd, Colin Melvin advises and represents pension funds and other long-term institutional investors in the areas of responsible investment and corporate governance.
Colin is an active member of several industry steering groups and committees including the Commission on Ownership in the UK and the Supervisory Board of Eumedion (the Dutch Corporate Governance Association.) He has co-founded and led various investor groups and initiatives such as the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (for which he was the first Chairman) and the Performance Pay Group and Socially Responsible Investment Forum in the UK. He also drafted guidelines for corporate disclosure on social, environmental and ethical matters, which have been widely adopted by the UK investment industry.
Previously, Colin was Corporate Governance Manager and Secretary to the Ethics Committee at Standard Life Investments and Head of Corporate Governance and Responsible investment at Baillie Gifford. He is also a former member of the Advisory Board to Aberforth Limited Partnership, a fund engaged in relational and active-value investing.
Colin joined Hermes in 2002 and became CEO of Hermes Equity Ownership Services in 2005. He is an associate member of the Chartered Financial Analysts Institute and the UK Society of Investment Professionals. He holds an MA from Aberdeen University and an MPhil from Cambridge University, both in History, and a Diploma in Investment Analysis from Stirling University. He is an Associate of the Centre for Corporate Governance Research of the University of Birmingham and a Non-Executive Director of Aedas, an architectural firm