Paul Clark was named as global head of stewardship at Northern Trust Asset Management.
The newly created role will be based in London. Clark will be expected to lead NTAM’s investment stewardship strategy, and engage with companies to produce long-term value, improved financial performance and better investment outcomes, a news release said.
Clark will also become chair of the Northern Trust proxy voting committee and will lead a global team of stewardship professionals. Clark will report to Sheri Hawkins, head of investment platform services.
“We believe effective investment stewardship helps protect and enhance the assets our clients have entrusted us to manage," Daniel Gamba, president at NTAM, said in the release. "The actions announced today support NTAM’s strong existing investment stewardship capabilities, as well as lay the foundation for growing and adding depth of expertise to our global stewardship team."
Clark spent 30 years with UBS Asset Management, where he had been head of stewardship since 2015. Of Clark's departure, a UBS spokesperson said: "Through the integration of UBS AM and Credit Suisse AM, we are bringing together the best of both organizations to provide our clients with an expanded sustainable and impact investing offering, leveraging our combined expertise, insights, and innovation.
"As a result, there have been some changes to the set up and responsibilities within the team. The engagement team continues to be led by Francis Condon and Stephan Scharrer has been appointed head of proxy voting execution."
NTAM is also introducing a proxy voting choice solution for investors in select U.S. common and collective funds. Eligible investors will be able to choose from four voting guideline options, including the option to leverage proxy voting guidelines developed by Northern Trust’s proxy voting committee, giving investors in certain institutional pooled investments the ability to exercise more direct control over their votes.
NTAM had $1.2 trillion in assets under management as of June 30.
