Alastair Ross Goobey

He was the chief strategist of the brokers James Capel from 1987 to 1993. His final full-time job was as chief executive of Hermes Pensions Management (formerly PosTel), where he created a vibrant organisation, basing much of its reputation on being a “good owner” of the company in which it held shares rather than simply a trader in those shares. His contribution to the field of responsible investing and the charm and the tenacity with which he held often controversial positions earned global recognition. The Hermes shareholder activist funds, the largest in Europe, and their spin-off funds such as Governance for Owners, are a permanent legacy of his work, as are the growing global demands for better corporate governance championed through the International Corporate Governance Network of which he was chairman.

Ross Goobey was an active Conservative, standing for Parliament in the West Leicester constituency in 1979. But pressures of time precluded other attempts to become an MP. However, from 1986 to 1987 he served as a special advisor in the Treasury to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, a position he also occupied under Norman Lamont in the year’s run-up to the 1992 General Election. “I’m jolly glad I didn’t become a politician,” he later recalled.

He held numerous non-executive appointments: a director of John Wainwright and Co. Ltd and TR Property Investment Trust, 1994-2004, a governor of the Wellcome Trust — the world’s largest medical research charity — and a member of Council of Lloyds. He was also chairman of Invista, a senior independent director of Gcap Media, and on the European Advisory Board of Morgan Stanley, where he was later a senior advisor.

The chairman of the Wellcome Trust, Sir William Castell, said all had benefited from Ross Goobey’s highly engaged style as a governor. Admired by his colleagues for his intellect and practical perspectives, he had contributed to and influenced the trust’s investment policy, always willing to challenge conventional thinking and drive radical changes into the trust’s investment culture. During his six years there, the Trust — Europe largest charity — expanded its funds almost 70 per cent to just over £15 billion. The Trust continued aggressively evolving its policies, issuing debt, eliminating its domestic geographical bias and investing more than 50 per cent of its assets in alternative investments.

“Alastair enabled the trust to hold its nerve during the market loss in 2003 and sell out of over-valued assets ahead of the credit crunch in 2007. Medical science will benefit enormously as a result,” Sir William said.

He will be best remembered, according to those who knew him well in business, as an outspoken proponent of sound corporate governance. David Pitt-Watson, chairman of Hermes’ Equity Ownership Service said: “He was convinced, as later research has proven, that companies with active and engaged shareholders, who allow management to manage but hold them to account when they do not, will deliver more value, both in financial and social terms.” He campaigned controversially for many elements that are now incorporated into the UK Combined Code, which governs management of public companies. Among them are limitation of directors’ contracts, transparency and professionalism in appointments, accountability and openness.

When asked how he squared these often controversial positions with his Conservative politics, he responded: “In the 1970s and 1980s, the issue was whether we were going to have capitalism, now the issue is how we can make it work properly.” In another context, he was ready to say he was “a card-carrying capitalist.” And in an interview he gave in 2003, on the question of corporate governance scandals, he commented: “When the tide goes out that’s when you see where the stinking fish really are.”

On his retirement that same year and despite his treatment for blood cancer, Ross Goobey hardly seemed to have slackened his pace at all. “I do all sorts of things,” he said. “I’m a portfolio person. But it would have been ridiculous to work harder than I did before. I take longer and longer holidays.”

Nevertheless, he would turn up to board and investment committees fully briefed, patiently going through the details of the case for investment and identifying any flaws and, unnervingly, spotting any spelling or grammatical errors that had been made.

Ross Goobey took great pleasure in his work. An exponent of management-by-walking-around, as one former colleague put it, he always remembered the staff at Hermes. When he could, he would always eat in the staff canteen and never sought the high financial rewards that other colleagues in the fund management industry received: “I just think I missed out on the greed gene.”

His book on investment management, The Money Moguls, was published in 1986 and Bricks and Mortals, his history of the boom and bust of the commercial property market, was published in 1992. He wrote a monthly column in the Estates Gazette.

Ross Goobey was chairman of the Private Finance Panel from June 1996 to May 1997, a member of the Goode Committee on Pensions Law and was also a member of the Middleton Committee on the Financing of the British Film Industry in 1996. He served on the board of Scottish Life and of Cheltenham & Gloucester.

Ross Goobey relaxed by playing the clarinet and singing and supporting Arsenal. His trusteeships included Cancerbackup, and the Royal Opera House pension and benevolent funds. He served on the investment committees of the National Gallery and was also a governor of the Royal Academy of Music from which he received an honorary fellowship. He was also a director of the Almeida Theatre. His broadcasts on radio and television included seven series as a regular panellist on Radio 4’s Board Game.

A Liveryman of the Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers Company, Ross Goobey was appointed CBE in 2000 for services to pensions.

He is survived by his wife, Sarah, and by a daughter and a son.

Alastair Ross Goobey, fund manager, was born on December 6, 1945. He died on February 2, 2008, aged 62