Active Ownership, Corporate Governance

The Active Ownership team makes use of the voting rights associated to our investments in our portfolio companies to drive change. The team also engages companies in our investment portfolios to encourage them to improve their performance on environmental, social and governance (ESG) related issues.

Between March and June, the ‘proxy season’ takes place, as most company’s hold their annual shareholder meetings. The active ownership team is responsible for screening, analysing and voting the most relevant shareholder meetings of the companies that are held in our clients’ portfolios. Our systematic implementation of investor expectations for companies through this process has achieved top-scores in several stewardship rankings, and supports our position as a leading sustainability-focused asset manager.

Interns support by helping to provide governance analysis of companies, and review shareholder meetings based on Robeco’s voting policy. Additionally interns are expected to assist with several operational processes that help us to practically implement our stewardship policy.

The voting season requires teamwork, coordination and the ability to meet deadlines, while applying an analytical mind set. You will assist the team in all parts of the proxy voting process, from screening relevant meetings, applying voting analysis and helping out with several operational processes related to proxy voting. You will also participate in the feedback calls with the companies we invest in to discuss their corporate governance and other ESG issues. By the end of the internship period, you will have gained in-depth knowledge of corporate governance principles, company ESG practices, and valuable transferrable soft and hard skills.

Expected tasks are:

• Analysing and voting shareholder meetings.

• Helping to coordinate written governance feedback to companies in relation to their shareholder meeting.

• Joining feedback calls with portfolio companies.

• Support on operational processes that underpin the team’s ability to vote meetings on a large scale effectively.

• In additional to supporting the proxy voting process, which will constitute the majority of the work week, interns are expected to help with ESG research projects, and governance research.
  

• We are interested to work with final stage MSc students from a broad range of studies from business administration, law and finance to sociology, international affairs and philosophy.

• An interest in corporate governance and ESG is expected. Completed courses in corporate governance are of added value, but not a hard requirement.

• Relevant skills include: ability to work with deadlines, coordination within a group, willingness to learn hard/operational skills.

• Availability to work ca. 32h/w for a period of 4-6 months.

• All the internship vacancies at Robeco in Rotterdam are open to students enrolled at a university during the entire duration of their internship. Our interns must also be eligible for a residence permit to do an internship in the Netherlands. This means we can recruit EU citizens studying at a global university or non-EU citizens studying at a Dutch university.
  

You can apply by sending your application to SI_Internships@robeco.nl
Make sure to include the following information in your application:

• 2 minutes motivation video and/or a one-page motivation letter;

• Your CV mentioning date until you are enrolled at university;

• Writing sample that helps us assess your writing and research skills on a sustainability-related topic.

All applications will be treated with the utmost confidentiality. An assessment and integrity test may be used in the selection procedure.