Platinum hires ESG expert

Platinum Investment Management has hired a head of stewardship.

Julia Bailey joins Platinum Investment Management from Melior, where she was head of advocacy.

Platinum head of investment Douglas Isles cited Bailey's almost 20 year-experience as an investment analyst and her experience at Melior.

"This skillset and experience will help Platinum to enhance the way we engage with the company's we own, and use that to elevate the way ESG is integrated into our investment process," Isles said.

"Julia will also work to ensure the corporate and investment goals of the company are aligned."

Bailey previously held roles as a senior research analyst at Adamantem Capital and Perpetual Limited, as well as roles at Citi and Lehman Brothers in the UK.

Bailey previously spoke with FS Sustainability in her capacity at Melior on the need for ASX-listed boards and directors to "quickly evolve" to include ESG expertise and boards need to broaden the recruitment process to gain access to a wider pool of director talent.

Melior has evolved its proxy voting principles and in 2022 increased their focus on board composition, advocating for clearer disclosures around directors skills to better inform voting decisions.

Melior is advocating for greater diversity of candidates in company engagement and through fostering relationships with industry groups, such as the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), Bailey said.

Bailey highlighted disclosure around board skills as a concern.

"Under the ASX Corporate Governance Principles, boards are asked to use a board skills matrix, but it is up to the company which skills they choose to describe there, and the language used around ESG issues. There's no set formula around those description. When you look at a skills matrix, a company could say it has three directors with international experience, one with cybersecurity experience, but we don't even know which ones they're talking about."

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