High-profile shareholder activism is gaining traction on both sides of the Atlantic as a key tool in driving positive social and environmental change in business.

Three veteran voices in the field will explain what it is, how it works and share their experiences of forcing some of the biggest corporations in the world to commit to climate action and stronger policies affecting workers and consumers.

Catherine Howarth, Chief Executive of ShareAction, which has won a series of campaigns since 2020 at Barclays, HSBC, Tesco and Unilever, will join Georgia Stewart, CEO of Tumelo, a financial technology scale-up. They will be discussing where they see this movement going and explaining the importance of the shareholder as influencer and activist. Alongside them will be Merryn Somerset Webb, Editor in Chief at MoneyWeek, whose brilliant new book, Share Power, sets out how ordinary people can change the way that capitalism works – and make money too. Merryn will be signing copies of her book after the event.

Speakers:

Paul Van Zyl is a Co-Founder of The Conduit and its Chief Creative Officer. The Conduit serves as a home for a diverse community of people passionate about social change. Having grown up in apartheid South Africa, Paul trained as a human rights lawyer and went on to serve as the Executive Secretary of South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He then co-founded the International Centre for Transitional Justice, an organisation that works in over 40 countries that have endured massive human rights violations under repression and in conflict. Paul is also a Co-Founder and CEO of Maiyet, an ethical luxury fashion brand that cultivates traditional design and culture by partnering with global artisans. He has received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, was chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and served on its Global Agenda Council on Fragile States, and is a London Tech Week Changemaker. He holds a law degree from University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, an LLM in international law from University of Leiden, an LLM from New York University, and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Santa Clara School of Law.

Catherine Howarth joined ShareAction as Chief Executive in 2008. ShareAction coordinates investors across Europe to drive accelerated action by companies on climate change, loss of biodiversity, gender issues, public health and food system risks. She is a member of the UK Treasury’s asset management taskforce, where she led a programme of work on investor stewardship of companies. She is a board member of the Scott Trust, owner of The Guardian Media Group, serving on the investment committee. She is a member of the Business Commission to Tackle Inequality. Catherine was recognised by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2014.

Merryn Somerset Webb is Editor in chief of Moneyweek, the UK’s best-selling financial magazine. She is a Contributing Editor and weekly columnist for the Financial Times as well as being a non-executive director of two investment trusts, Murray Income and Blackrock Throgmorton and of wealth management firm Netwealth. She has recently published her second book, Share Power, an enthusiastic defence of shareholder capitalism. She is a non-executive adviser to the investment committee of UK platform Interactive Investor.

Georgia Stewart is CEO of Tumelo. Georgia studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and has experience from across the sustainable investment sector including equity investment analysis at Jupiter, cleantech venture capital at IP Group and conservation projects at Fauna and Flora International. She now runs financial technology scale-up, Tumelo. Tumelo’s platform gives investors and pension members visibility of the companies they are invested in and a shareholder voice on the environmental and social issues those companies are facing. Through partnerships with the largest investment and pension platforms around the world, Tumelo is driving mass engagement with sustainable finance and a grass-roots movement towards true shareholder democracy. Georgia is also a member of the Investment Governance Committee (IGC) at Aviva.

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