Edinburgh-based fund manager Standard Life Investments said it has strengthened its environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment team with the appointment of Deborah Gilshan as governance & stewardship director.

Gilshan will join Standard Life Investments in May, 2017, from railways pension manager RPMI Railpen where she is head of sustainable ownership.

Standard Life Investments manages global assets of around £270 billion.

In October 2011, Gilshan founded The 100% Club, a network for professional women, which Standard Life Investments supports.

SLI said Gilshan will report to Euan Stirling, SLI’s head of stewardship & ESG investment, and play an important role “in the implementation of governance and stewardship considerations into the wider mainstream investment process.”

Gilshan will also engage with companies, their boards and regulators on governance issues.

Stirling said: “The consideration of environmental, social and governance issues is now formally integrated as part of our investment research process.

“As active investment managers, engagement continues to be at the heart of our approach to ESG matters and it is important for us to influence the standards of governance that apply.

“With her depth of knowledge and experience, Deborah will be a terrific addition to the team and invaluable in helping us to hold boards to account.

Gilshan said: “I am thrilled to be joining Standard Life Investments, whose approach to governance and stewardship I have long admired.

“It is really exciting to be joining at a time when ESG considerations continue to increase in significance for investors, companies, regulators and wider society.

“I look forward to working on behalf of Standard Life Investments’ clients as a steward of their capital in the delivery of long term sustainable value creation.”

Gilshan is a member of the steering committee of the 30% Club, a global initiative to promote diversity, and co-chairs the 30% Club’s institutional investor group in the UK.

Gilshan serves on the business ethics committee of the International Corporate Governance Network.

She is a member of the steering group of the UK Financial Reporting Council’s project on corporate culture and serves on the FRC’s stakeholder advisory panel.

Gilshan started her governance career in December 2000 at the UK’s Co-operative Insurance Society.

She read Mathematics and English at the University of Manchester and previously worked in corporate tax at Ernst & Young.