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, we have 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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- Led drafting of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
- Driven the integration of sustainability and investment since 1983
- Defining responsible equity ownership since 2002
- Responsible property investment since 2008
- Invented proprietary ESG analysis tools
- Pioneering SDG engagement funds
- Industry’s first Responsibility Office
- One of the first asset managers to build a dedicated governance team to engage and improve companies
- Global, effective stewardship: engaging companies worldwide on issues that matter most to an international client base
- In stewardship and engagement: $1.3tn in assets under advice
- One of the largest, most experienced and diverse stewardship teams
- Saker Nusseibeh, CEO – International, awarded the CBE designation for services to responsible business in 2020
- ESG performance-contribution metrics in use
- Integration of sustainability factors effective in public and private markets
- Long-term, ongoing research proving the effectiveness of ESG and stewardship integration
- Academic research partnerships track and prove the positive impact of stewardship
- Investing for Sustainable Wealth Creation is all we do – in public and private markets worldwide
- Continuing to expand and improve our global stewardship capabilities
- Leveraging the growth of sustainability in investment to change investment for good
- Exporting our pioneering stewardship and responsibility model to new markets
- EOS at Federated Hermes is a co-leader of Climate Action 100+
- Member of 54 leading investment and sustainability organisations, and our employees sit on boards or committees that look at these issues at 33 organisations
- UK and EU government lobbyists on sustainability matters
- Saker Nusseibeh, CBE, CEO – International, founded The 300 Club to challenge the industry to truly serve end investors
- Advisors on stewardship codes in developed and emerging markets
- Lecturing on responsible investment at leading European universities
- “The Why Question”: a call to change investment to serve society as well as investors
- “Stewardship: the 2020 Vision”: a call for the investment industry to seek Sustainable Wealth Creation empowered by stewardship
- Seeking real-time ESG analysis by collaborating with fintech firms
- Academic research partnerships with leading European universities
- Our 2020 stewardship activity:
- 1,245 companies engaged
- 123,988 voting recommendations made at 11,759 meetings
- 224 public policy actions
- 85% median active share across equity strategies over three years1
- 54% of EOS engagements surpass 8 years in duration
- Regenerating inner-city areas through real-estate placemaking
- Impactful AGM interventions: Volkswagen, Hon Hai, Deutsche Bank and more
1This is calculated by Federated Hermes.
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.
- 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 at Federated Hermes Limited, 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.
I pledge to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment and in accordance with my role, this covenant:
- I will act ethically, responsibly and with integrity.
- I will put the interests of our clients first, consistent with our fiduciary responsibilities.
- I will encourage responsible behaviour in the firms in which we invest and on which we engage.
- I will act with consideration for our community and the environment both now and in the future. I will encourage others to do the same.
- I will work with industry colleagues and other key stakeholders to develop and improve our industry’s contribution to society.
- I will treat my clients, my colleagues and all other stakeholders with dignity and respect and as I would wish to be treated.
- I will deal with our regulators in an open, co-operative and timely way.
- I will communicate clearly and honestly with all parties inside and outside our firm.
- I will manage conflicts of interest fairly between all parties.
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 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.