The leading executives of FTSE 100 companies might be able to sleep a little easier after one of the leading corporate governance hawks said that he was retiring from the investment management industry.
Guy Jubb, 62, the global head of governance and stewardship at Standard Life Investments, which manages £250 million of investors’ money, said yesterday that he would leave next year after a three-decade career at the Edinburgh-based asset manager.
Mr Jubb developed a formidable reputation for attacking some of Britain’s biggest companies over issues ranging from the award of what he calls “overly generous” bonuses to their corporate strategies. BP, HSBC and WPP, the advertising agency, were among the subjects of Mr Jubb’s relentless focus on businesses that he believed were being managed more in the interests of their executives than of their shareholders.
Mr Jubb won a big victory when the coalition government enabled investors to have a binding vote against companies’ pay policies, a perennial subject of shareholder ire.
Standard Life said that Mr Jubb would retire at the end of March and that the company was looking for a replacement.