Peter Taylor

For over 20 years Peter has combined an investment career with a role as an ESG specialist, both in the asset management industry as a portfolio manager and with the International Finance Corporation as an advisor to securities regulators, stock exchanges and companies. 

From 2007 to 2020, Peter worked for Aberdeen Asset Management, one of Europe’s largest asset managers, as a senior fund manager and Head of Corporate Governance. He was based initially in Singapore with the Asian Equities team before moving to join the Global Emerging Markets equities team in London. His corporate governance responsibilities encompassed leading on shareholder engagements with portfolio companies and building out the global corporate governance function. Peter wrote the Aberdeen Corporate Governance Principles and established Aberdeen’s global proxy voting committee.  

In 2016 Peter moved to Brazil as lead portfolio manager for Latin American equities, growing assets under management to $4 billion to become the world’s largest manager of Latin American regional investment mandates. He also established Aberdeen as the leading investment firm in the region for shareholder engagement – electing the first two independent directors to the board of iron ore miner Vale, Latin America’s largest company, and negotiating substantial board changes at protein producer BRF. 

Peter began his career at the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Washington DC, where he specialized in capital markets development and corporate governance. He supported Bovespa (the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange) in the creation of the Novo Mercado listing segment for companies with higher standards of governance and disclosure. In 2004 Peter moved to Hong Kong to develop corporate governance improvement programs for banks in Asia, including Bank of Beijing, Industrial Bank of Fujian and Asia Commercial Bank in Vietnam. 

In 2010 he was nominated by the Governor of the Monetary Authority of Singapore to join the Singapore Corporate Governance Council, which issued the 2012 Corporate Governance Code.

From 2016 to 2021, Peter was a non-executive director of the Brazilian Capital Markets Association (AMEC), where, as a member of the Succession Committee, he oversaw the successful transition to a new CEO. 

Peter graduated with a BA (Hons.) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from Oxford University. He received his Master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he graduated with Distinction, concentrating in International Economics and International Law. He is a CFA Charterholder.