Impax Funds to add two indies to offset upcoming retirements

The board of the Impax Funds has asked shareholders to elect two retired portfolio managers from Neuberger Berman and Matthews International Capital Management as new independent trustees to compensate for upcoming retirements at Impax during the next two years.

The board overseeing the $10bn ESG-focused fund complex will expand from eight to 10 members if Ingrid Dyott and Teresa Kong are elected at a special shareholder meeting on Aug. 21, according to a June 21 proxy filing.

The filing added that the board would shrink back to eight members following the expected retirements of independent trustees Anne Goggin and D’Anne Hurd, who will reach the board’s mandatory retirement age of 75 and step down in November 2024 and November 2025, respectively.

Dyott, 51, retired in 2022 from her role as managing director and co-head of the sustainable equity group at Neuberger Berman, LLC, where she had worked since 1997. She previously worked as a research analyst at the Council on Economic Priorities, an environmentalism-focused nonprofit research firm, from 1995 to 1997.

Dyott currently sits on the boards of the Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Journal of Impact & ESG Investing, and nonprofit organization Arbor Rising.

Kong, 52, was head of fixed income and a member of the executive committee at Matthews International Capital Management from 2010 to 2022. She was previously head of emerging markets investments at Barclays Global Investors and held analyst roles at OppenheimerFunds and JP Morgan.

Kong also sits on the board of AI fintech startup Delphia.

The Impax board’s current independent trustees include Goggin, 75; Hurd, 73; Adrian Anderson, 69; Gregory Sheehan, 68; Nancy Taylor, 68; and chair John Liechty, 70.

Impax Asset Management president Edward Farrington and non-executive director Lindsey Martinez are the board’s two interested trustees.

According to the proxy, Martinez will step down following the upcoming election, and the board has asked shareholders to elect Impax non-executive director Lyle Logan as her replacement.

John Boese is the funds’ CCO.

The board, which oversees 12 funds, maintains an audit committee, a governance and nomination committee, and a compliance committee.

Compensation for the independent trustees ranged from $85,206 to $99,360 for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2023.

Impax Asset Management Group is a London-based ESG asset manager that aims to promote global environmental sustainability through its investments. It managed approximately $51.4bn globally as of March 31.