About us
Our DNA, our culture and our history are rooted in sustainability.
By pioneering global stewardship, developing innovative ESG strategies and advocating for a financial system that works for all, the international business of Federated Hermes has been at the forefront of investment and sustainability since 1983.
With industry-leading investment, stewardship and advocacy experts, we aim to deliver Sustainable Wealth Creation that enriches investors, benefits society and preserves the environment – for current generations and those to come.
Size and scale
Leading the way
Our track record in sustainability and investment proves the depth of our heritage. Through our own innovations and collaborations with industry bodies and academia to research, verify and advance best practices, we ensure that investing sustainably is our past, present and future.
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Our history
Our story as a leading responsible investor has been decades in the making – and an exciting new chapter is developing in our evolution as the international business of Federated Hermes.
- Hermes coins the term ‘engagement’ to help explain stewardship to international investors
- Credit ESG-risk pricing model developed
- Hermes launches Impact Opportunities and SDG Engagement Equity strategies
- Federated acquires Hermes
- SDG Engagement High Yield launched by Federated and Hermes
- Responsibility Office in Pittsburgh is established
- Federated Hermes brand launched
- EOS passes $1tn in assets under advice
- Saker Nusseibeh, CEO – International, awarded CBE for services to responsible business
Driving the agenda
Believing that investment outperformance should also generate positive outcomes in the world, and that stewardship should evolve to become the core of investment strategies in the 2020s, we have always advocated progressive change in our industry.
We led the working group that developed the PRI. In 2006, when the principles were launched, we became a founding member.
We were a founding signatory of the International Corporate Governance Network, and provided input into the Japanese and Malaysian Stewardship Codes.
As a firm, we are a member of 54 organisations that focus on or support sustainability and investment, and our employees sit on boards or committees that look at these issues at 33 organisations. They include:
PRI
Impact Management Project
CDP
Council of Institutional Investors
Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark
FCA-PRA Climate Financial Risk Forum
United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative
Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change
International Corporate Governance Network
Leadership
We hold ourselves to the same high standards of governance that we expect of the companies we invest in and engage with.
Our Board
Harriet Steel
Saker Nusseibeh, CBE
Gordon Ceresino
Deborah Cunningham
Thomas Donahue
John Fisher
Jane E. Lambesis
Theodore W Zierden III
David Stewart
Sally James
Richard Novak
Pars Purewal
Executive Committee
Harriet Steel
Saker Nusseibeh, CBE
Eoin Murray
Ian Kennedy
Chris Taylor
Keith Davies
Our Culture
We place responsibility, integrity and client focus at the heart of everything our people do.
The Federated Hermes Pledge
Established in 2015, the Federated Hermes Pledge compels us to put clients’ interests first and to act responsibly and transparently. The voluntary commitment has been signed by 99% of employees at the international business of Federated Hermes.
Corporate citizenship
Beyond our commitment to generating Sustainable Wealth Creation, we aim to positively influence our community through diverse partnerships:
Diversity and inclusion
Our mission is clear. It is to foster and promote a culture of inclusion which celebrates all forms of diversity, enables our people to maximise their potential, and encourages innovation and creativity. This enables us to become an employer of choice, support our wider responsibility aims and deliver Sustainable Wealth Creation for our clients.
We have a long-standing commitment to increasing diversity and inclusion in our business and acknowledge that we need to make further progress.
Our Inclusion Committee, comprised of senior members of the firm, is responsible for holding us all – including our Executive Committee – to account by reporting on our progress. In addition, our dedicated Talent & Inclusion Development Partner, with support from the Inclusion Committee, is responsible for implementing the initiatives set out in our inclusion strategy.
We are members of a number of networks and forums and will seek more opportunities to improve diversity and inclusion so that working in this industry is attractive and accessible for all.
At the international business of Federated Hermes, we are committed to supporting a fair and ethical workplace for all our colleagues.
Women in Finance Charter
We fully support the Women in Finance Charter and its objective of achieving gender balance in financial services. Having achieved our 2020 targets for gender diversity, we are delighted to be on track to meeting our 2021 goals.
Gender diversity: 2021 targets
Firm-wide:
45%
Board:
35%
Senior management:
35%
33% in 2020
Gender pay
We welcome the attention that the gender pay gap reporting regulations have brought to the diversity and inclusion cause and will continue to report annually on our mean and median pay and bonus gaps. In doing so, we will interrogate the data to understand how to close these gaps.
Equal opportunities policy
We believe in equal opportunities for all and aim to ensure that no current or prospective employee is treated less favourably on the basis of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity or expression, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, age, sexual orientation, or disability.