Catherine Howarth has been Chief Executive of ShareAction since 2008. ShareAction is the leading civil society organisation in Europe promoting Responsible Investment, transparency and good governance by institutional investors. Core to the organisation’s work is giving pension savers a voice in the investment system, and opportunities to influence and monitor how their retirement savings are invested. The organisation undertakes shareholder activism to promote corporate policy change on a range of social and environmental topics, as well as research-led policy engagement with UK and EU policy makers and regulators responsible for capital markets.

Catherine is a board member of the Scott Trust, owner of The Guardian, where she serves on the Investment Committee, and is a board member of Green Alliance, the UK’s leading environmental think-tank. She serves on the Investment Committee of the Trust for London, an endowed philanthropic foundation tackling poverty and inequality in London. She was a Member Nominated Trustee of The Pensions Trust (the multi-employer pension scheme for the UK’s not-for-profit sector) for five years until 2013, where she served on the Investment Committee of this £7bn pension fund. Catherine holds a First Class BA in Modern History from Oxford University and an MSc in Industrial Relations from the London School of Economics. In June 2011 Catherine was named a ‘Rising Star of Corporate Governance’ by Yale University’s, Millstein Center. Catherine was recognised by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2014.