Simon Fraser, formerly chief investment officer of Fidelity Worldwide Investment, has become the first chairman of The Investor Forum, which was set
up in the wake of a report into short-termism in UK equity markets.
Fraser is currently chairman of Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust, a non-executive director of Ashmore Group, and a former non-executive director of Barclays PLC.
Andy Griffiths, formerly a research analyst at Capital Group where he had specific responsibilities for European banks and international equities, becomes executive director.
The Investor Forum is formed following the recommendations of the Collective Engagement Working Group – a group established by trade bodies including the Investment Management Association (IMA) and the government’s Kay Review in to UK equity markets and long-term performance of British businesses.
Announcing the appointments, the IMA says the Forum is an investor-led organisation, whose governance is independent of any trade association.
Its participants will be asset managers and asset owners such as pension funds, life assurers and sovereign wealth funds. The Forum will be open to all investors who have an interest in UK companies, whether based in the UK or overseas.
It is expected that The Investor Forum will hold its first meetings in September.
The IMA says the purposes of The Investor Forum are to improve long-term returns from investment in companies by, for example, “promoting cultural change throughout the investment chain – encompassing asset owners and their advisers, as well as asset managers and investee companies”.
John Kay, author of the Kay Review, says: “The Investor Forum was central to the recommendations of the Review and I am delighted to see it become reality. Asset managers working together can make a real contribution to improving the performance of British business.”
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