Under du Plassis, the Rio Tinto board has failed to live up to the diversity objectives set by the Hermes Equity Ownership Services team.
Only two out of the 12 Rio Tinto board directors are women currently, which fails Hermes’ target that 25% of the FTSE 100 companies it invests in have female directors by 2015.
Of the appointments the commodities company has made so far this year – three non-executive directors – all the positions have been awarded to men.
Hermes also expressed doubts that Rio Tinto had a “credible plan” in place to achieve a 33% to 67% female to male board ratio by 2020.
“Diversity is an issue of great importance, and it will be a key area of focus in our voting activity throughout the AGM season,” Bruce Duguid, stewardship director within the Hermes EOS team stated.
“Due to the lack of diversity and a credible plan to address this imperative issue, and consistent with our voting policy, Hermes EOS recommends voting against the re-election of Jan du Plessis in his capacity as chair of the nominations committee.”
The asset manager was also displeased by Rio Tinto’s shortcomings on the climate risk front.
The 2017 AGM season is the first year new climate change risk reporting requirements come into play, impacting miners like Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Glencore.
