Roland Arnold – BlackRock Smaller Companies
Roland is portfolio manager of BlackRock Smaller Companies Trust plc and a member of the Emerging Companies Team. Roland is responsible for managing UK equity portfolios with a focus on UK Small & Mid Cap equities and has been managing UK Equity Portfolios since 2006. Roland has been with the firm since 2000, including his years with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), which merged with BlackRock in 2006.
John Baron – Columnist & author
John Baron is a regular columnist, speaker at investment seminars, and author of The Financial Times Guide to Investment Trusts. Since 2009, he has reported on two live portfolios in his monthly column in the Investors Chronicle – fees are donated to charity. His website www.johnbaronportfolios.co.uk reports on the progress of 10 live investment trust portfolios which pursue varying remits and possess good track records relative to benchmark. John also chairs the Investment Committee of Baron & Grant, a discretionary fund management company. John has used investment trusts in a private and professional capacity for 40 years.
Joe Bauernfreund – AVI Global Trust
Joe is Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Asset Value Investors. He is the manager of AVI Global Trust and AVI Japan Opportunity Trust and responsible for all investment decisions across AVI’s strategies. Joe has over 24 years’ experience in the finance industry. Before joining AVI in 2002, Joe worked six years for a real estate investment organisation in London.
Julian Bishop – Brunner Investment Trust
Julian joined Allianz Global Investors in November 2022 and has more than 25 years fund management experience. He joined from Tesco Pension Investment Ltd where he was an Equity Fund Manager managing a multi-billion pounds global equities portfolio. Prior to Tesco he was an Analyst and Portfolio Manager at Sarasin and Partners LLP where he co-managed their Global Dividend Fund and had analytical responsibility for the global consumer sector across all mandates.
Nick Britton - The Association of Investment Companies
Nick is Research and Content Director and has worked at The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) since 2015, aiming to broaden investment professionals’ knowledge and understanding of investment trusts, VCTs and other closed-ended investment companies.
Annabel Brodie-Smith - The Association of Investment Companies
Annabel is the Communications Director and has worked at the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) since 1997, explaining the many benefits and uses of investment trusts, VCTs and other closed-ended investment companies to investors and the media. She has encouraged member companies to communicate to investors in a clear and engaging way. Annabel is currently an ambassador for Women on Boards and The Diversity Project.
Ian Brown - Tritax Big Box REIT
Ian is the Head of Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations for Tritax Big Box REIT. Before joining Tritax in 2020, he held various positions in corporate finance and investor relations at QinetiQ, British Land, and Kekst CNC. Ian was also a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of an early-stage venture capital fund specialising in e-commerce ventures. His career in corporate finance began at J.P. Morgan.
Lawrence Burns – Scottish Mortgage Trust
Lawrence was appointed Deputy Manager of Scottish Mortgage in 2021. He joined Baillie Gifford in 2009 and became a Partner of the firm in 2020. During his time at the firm, his investment interest has become focused on transformative growth companies. He has been a member of the International Growth Portfolio Construction Group since October 2012 and, in 2020, became a manager of Vanguard’s International Growth Fund. Lawrence is also co-manager of the International Concentrated Growth and Global Outliers strategies. Prior to this, he also worked in both the Emerging Markets and UK Equity teams.
Kyle Caldwell – interactive investor
Kyle is interactive investor’s Collectives Editor, in charge of fund, investment trust and exchange-traded fund (ETF) editorial content. He regularly interviews fund managers on camera, writes analysis articles, and co-hosts the On The Money podcast. Kyle has been a financial journalist for over a decade, and won numerous awards, including twice winning National Investment Journalist of the Year when he worked at The Daily Telegraph. He is often quoted in the mainstream media as a spokesperson for ii.
Francesco Conte – JPMorgan European Discovery
Francesco is managing director and portfolio manager within the J.P. Morgan Asset Management International Equity Group, based in London. An employee since 1998, Francesco was previously the lead analyst within the Italian Equities Team at Schroder Securities.
Steve Cook – Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income
Steve is a founding Director and Head of Portfolio Management at Sequoia Investment Management and the Investment Adviser to the Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund (SEQI). SEQI is a FTSE-250 listed fund that provides private debt to infrastructure projects. Steve has over 25 years of infrastructure lending experience. Prior to Sequoia, he was European Co-Head of Infrastructure Finance at UBS and previously Head of European Corporate Securitization at Morgan Stanley. Steve has been involved in a wide variety of infrastructure projects in the US, UK and across Europe as a lender, bond arranger and adviser.
Alexander Crawford – Calculus VCT
Alexander joined Calculus Capital in 2015. He has over 20 years’ corporate finance experience incorporating M&A, capital raising in both public and private markets, and other strategic advice. He spent 10 years with Robert Fleming & Co, Evercore Partners and JP Morgan in London, New York and Johannesburg, where he advised the South African government on the privatisation of their incumbent telecoms operator. He was more recently a Managing Director at Pall Mall Capital.
Paul Daggett – NB Private Equity Partners
Paul is a Managing Director of Neuberger Berman and a senior member of the Private Investment Portfolios and Co-investments team. He is also a member of the Private Investment Portfolios and Co-investments Investment Committee. Paul joined Neuberger Berman in 2004 focusing on investments in private equity and venture capital funds and direct co-investments in venture capital, growth equity and buyout transactions. Paul sits on the Limited Partner Advisory Boards of a number of venture capital and private equity fund relationships.
Rhys Davis – Invesco Bond Income Plus
Rhys is a fund manager and senior credit analyst for the Henley-based Fixed Interest team. Rhys began his investment career with Invesco in 2002, moving to the Henley Fixed Interest team in 2003. He became a fund manager in 2014. He manages high yield credit portfolios.
Ben Durrant – Pacific Horizon Investment Trust
Ben is an investment manager in the Emerging Markets Equity Team. He has managed the Pacific Fund since 2021 and became deputy manager of the Pacific Horizon Investment Trust in 2023. Ben joined Baillie Gifford in 2017, and prior to rejoining the team in 2021, he has also spent time in our UK, Global Discovery and Private Companies equity teams. Prior to joining Baillie Gifford, he previously worked for RBS in their Group Strategy and Corporate Finance Team
Laura Elkin – AEW UK REIT
Laura joined AEW in 2013 and has 17 years of experience. Laura has worked as part of the AEW UK REIT Plc Portfolio Management team since the Company’s IPO in 2015, firstly as Assistant Portfolio Manager and has been Portfolio Manager since 2020. Prior to 2015, Laura was part of the AEW UK investment team responsible for sourcing and executing direct investments within all property sectors for the AEW UK funds and separate mandates.
Peter Ewins – The Global Smaller Companies Trust
Peter is a Director and Portfolio Manager, lead managing The Global Smaller Companies Trust. He joined Columbia Threadneedle through the acquisition of BMO GAM (EMEA) in 2021, having previously been with BMO (and its predecessor companies) since 1996. Prior to this, he worked for Municipal Mutual Insurance and Commercial Union Insurance (1989-93) and ESN Pension Management (1994-96).
Jon Forster - Impax Environmental Markets
Jon co-manages Impax Asset Management’s Specialists and Climate strategies. Specialising in new energy, water, and waste support services, he researches stocks globally with a focus on the industrials and utilities sectors. He has been part of the Impax team for over twenty years, having first joined in 2000 from Alchemy Partners where he had spent two years providing consultancy work to their portfolio management team. He began his career in 1994 at HSBC Investment Bank working on their acquisitions team.
Simon Gergel - Merchants Trust
Simon is Chief Investment Officer, UK Equities and head of the European Value & Income Investment Style Team. He manages The Merchants Trust plc, co-manages the Allianz UK Listed Equity Income Fund, and is deputy portfolio manager on The Brunner Investment Trust and the Allianz UK Listed Opportunities Fund. Simon joined AllianzGI in April 2006 from HSBC Halbis Partners, where he was Head of Institutional UK Equities, portfolio manager of the HSBC Income Funds and manager of several segregated institutional accounts.
Katya Gorbatiouk - London Stock Exchange
Katya is Head of Investment Funds at the London Stock Exchange. She has over 20 years of experience in international capital markets. As Head of Investment Funds in Primary Capital Markets, Katya is responsible for driving the growth and liquidity of the London listed funds market, a conduit of capital into vital sectors of the economy, such as infrastructure, energy transition and innovation. From February 2022 Katya serves on the Best Practice Committee of the Board of the Investor Relations Society.
David Hall - British Smaller Companies VCT
David joined YFM in 2000 becoming Managing Director in 2003 and then in 2009 all the company’s investment activities were combined under him. Four years later he led the buy-out of the buy-out from the parent and in 2014 the wider investment team joined the newly formed partnership. Since then the business has increased from £100m to over £650m under management. In April 2023 he became Executive Chair.
Ian Hargreaves - Invesco Asia Trust
Ian is Co-Head of our Henley-based Asian & Emerging Markets Equity team. Ian manages a number of pan-Asian portfolios, including the Invesco Asia Trust plc and the Invesco Asian Focus Equity Fund; he also co-manages the Invesco Global Emerging Markets Fund (UK). Ian started his investment career with Invesco Asia Pacific in Hong Kong in 1994 where he was responsible for managing several pan-Asian institutional client portfolios. In January 2005, Ian returned to the UK to join the Henley-based Investment Centre’s Asian Equities team..
Richard Hickman - HarbourVest Global Private Equity
Richard joined HarbourVest in 2014 to focus on the activities of HarbourVest Global Private Eqiuty Limited (HVPE), a closed-end investment company that invests in and alongside HarbourVest-managed funds. Richard is responsible for the day-to-day management of the company, including communications with HVPE stakeholders. Richard joined HarbourVest after seven years with 3i plc in the business planning and analysis group.
Edward Hunt – HICL Infrastructure
Edward is the Head of InfraRed’s core income group of funds and is Fund Manager of HICL Infrastructure PLC, the LSE-listed core infrastructure investment company managed by InfraRed. He joined InfraRed in 2008 and has held positions in InfraRed’s offices in London and Sydney, spanning income and capital gain strategies and across core and energy infrastructure. While in Sydney, Edward assumed responsibility for InfraRed’s regional office, leading the origination and execution of investment opportunities and sitting on the boards of successful investments in the region.
Phil Kent – GCP Infrastructure Investments
Phil is the CEO at Gravis. He joined Gravis in 2015 from Foresight Group where he was responsible for investments in the waste and renewable sectors, including large waste wood combustion projects and a pipeline of AD projects across the UK. Phil has been involved in the energy sector for over ten years, working initially as a consultant within PA Consulting's Energy practice, focussing on energy markets and energy asset valuations. In 2008, he moved to Gazprom Marketing and Trading, working in risk management across a number of commodities before moving into the Clean Energy team.
Richard Kirby - Balanced Commercial Property
Richard joined Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate Partners (formerly BMO Real Estate Partners) in 1990. He has been a fund manager since 1995 and has experience of managing commercial property portfolios across all sectors for open-ended, closed-ended and life fund clients. Richard has been lead manager of the Balanced Commercial Property Trust since launch in 2005 where his responsibilities include advising on and implementing property portfolio strategy, sales, acquisitions, asset enhancement and management.
Patrick Knechtli - abrdn Private Equity Opportunities
Patrick heads up the secondaries team of abrdn and is involved across the private markets activities of the firm. He joined predecessor firm SL Capital in 2009, which then merged with the company’s private markets business in 2017. Prior to joining, Patrick spent eight years at Coller Capital in London, where he worked on numerous secondary portfolio transactions. His early career consisted of seven years in investment banking, first at Baring Brothers and then at ABN Amro Corporate Finance.
Rebecca Maclean - Dunedin Income Growth
Rebecca is co-manager of Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust PLC and an Investment Director in the UK Equities team at abrdn. Rebecca has worked in the responsible investment industry since 2010, joined abrdn in 2013 as a Responsible Investment Analyst and moved to the UK Equities team in 2016.
Chris Morgan - International Public Partnerships
Chris is a Senior Investment Director at Amber Infrastructure where he is responsible for the portfolio management of International Public Partnerships (‘INPP’), the FTSE 250-listed infrastructure investment company managed by Amber. Chris joined Amber in 2012 and sits on a number of INPP’s portfolio companies’ boards. He worked at Deloitte prior to joining Amber and is an Associate Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Tom O'Hara - Henderson European Focus Trust
Tom is a Portfolio Manager on the European Equities Team at Janus Henderson Investors, a position he has held since 2020. Before joining the firm as a research analyst in 2018, Tom was an equity research analyst specialising in metals and mining with Exane BNP Paribas from 2016. He held similar mining and steel sector positions with Redburn (Europe) Limited from 2013 and with Citigroup Global Markets from 2010. Before Citigroup, Tom was a metals analyst with Metal Bulletin Research from 2008. He began his career in 2006 in the treasury of Northern Rock plc.
John Pattullo - Henderson Diversified Income
John is Co-Head of Global Bonds at Janus Henderson Investors. He manages and co-manages a range of global bond strategies and funds meeting different client needs globally. John joined Henderson in 1997 as a trainee manager in corporate bonds and was head of the Strategic Fixed Income Team from 2009 until 2015 when he became Co-Head with Jenna Barnard. Prior to Henderson, he spent four years as a chartered accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Hermina Popa - Schroder BSC Social Impact
Hermina joined Big Society Capital in May 2021 as Investment Director across the Client Investment and the Homes Investment teams. In Client Investment, Hermina's role involves managing and delivering investor communications for the Schroder BSC Social Impact (SBSI) Trust. And in Homes Investment she works with the team to bring forward work from our Ideas for Impact programme and to consolidate and extract insights and data from Big Society Capital's portfolio of housing investments. Before joining Big Society Capital, Hermina worked as Portfolio Director at Social and Sustainable Capital
Marek Poszepczynski - International Biotechnology Trust
Marek has been Joint Lead Investment Manager of International Biotechnology Trust since March 2021, having joined the team at SV Health Investors in 2014. Prior to that, he had 17 years of international experience in the life sciences industry with a focus on licensing and financing. Marek has held management positions at several biotechnology companies and participated in two initial public offerings and several licensing deals. Marek and his colleague Ailsa will be moving, with International Biotechnology Trust, to Schroders in November 2023.
Nick Robinson - The Today Programme, Radio 4
Nick presents the Today programme on Radio 4. He has also made documentaries on subjects from Sir Alex Ferguson to Europe. Previously Nick was BBC Political Editor for 10 years having already done three years in the same role at ITV News. After studying at Oxford, Nick gained production experience on Brass Tacks, Newsround and Crimewatch, and got his first presenting credits on Radio 5Live. A former Deputy Editor of On The Record and Panorama, Nick switched from working behind the camera to appearing on-screen. Nick reported on Prime Minister’s Questions and fronted Westminster Live before becoming the nation’s favourite political correspondent. He cemented his reputation in the 2010 and 2015 General Elections, guiding his audience through every twist and turn of the historic events with a sharp insight and a welcome wit. He brings the same insight to his various books In ten years as Political Editor, he covered the Blair, Brown, and Cameron administrations.
Jean Roche - Schroder UK Mid Cap Fund
Jean joined Schroders in 2016 and became Fund Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Fund plc in February 2021, having been Co-Fund Manager since September 2016. Jean’s investment career started in 1999 after graduating with a BA in Mathematics and French and an MSc in Financial and Industrial Mathematics. Previously, she worked at Morgan Stanley and Panmure Gordon, before moving to Hargreave Hale in 2013 as a fund manager.
Elisabeth Scott - The Association of Investment Companies
Elisabeth is Chair of the AIC having joined the AIC Board in 2018 and then elected Chair in January 2021. She is also Chair of Indian Capital Growth Fund and JPMorgan Global Emerging Markets Income Trust and a director of Allianz Technology Trust. Elisabeth began her career as a trainee investment manager with British Investment Trust and continued to have an involvement with investment companies during her time at Edinburgh Fund Managers. From 1992-2008 Elisabeth had a career in fund management with Schroders in Hong Kong.
Richard Stone - The Association of Investment Companies
Richard is the Chief Executive of the Association of Investment Companies, having joined in September 2021. Prior to that, Richard was Chief Executive of Share plc (The Share Centre platform) from 2014 to 2020 and was Finance Director from 2006 to 2013.
Chris Tanner - JLEN Environmental Assets Group
Chris is a Partner at Foresight Group and has been Investment Manager to JLEN Environmental Assets Group, since IPO in 2014. JLEN is a FTSE-250 listed environmental infrastructure investment fund that invests in a diversified portfolio of assets that support the drive towards decarbonisation, resource efficiency and environmental sustainability. Chris has over 23 years of infrastructure and renewable investment experience. Prior to joining Foresight Group in 2019, Chris held positions at Henderson and John Laing.
Aza Teeuwen – TwentyFour Income Fund
Aza is a partner at TwentyFour Asset Management and portfolio manager in the Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) team. Applying his 16 years of fixed income portfolio management experience, Aza’s primary responsibility is managing the firm’s ABS funds and several institutional mandates. He is also a member of TwentyFour’s Asset Allocation Committee. Prior to joining TwentyFour in 2011, Aza spent 4 years working for IMC Asset Management in Amsterdam, where he focused on the European Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities and Collateralised Loan Obligation sectors
James de Uphaugh – Edinburgh Investment Trust
James is Head of the Liontrust Global Fundamental team. James joined Liontrust in April 2022 as part of the acquisition of Majedie Asset Management, where he was Chairman and Chief Investment Officer. James became portfolio manager of the Edinburgh Investment Trust in March 2020. Before co-founding Majedie in 2002, James had been a Managing Director at Mercury Asset Management (subsequently acquired by Merrill Lynch, now BlackRock) from 1988.
Stuart Veale – ProVen VCT
Stuart Veale is the Managing Partner at Beringea LLP. For more than 20 years, he has played a key role as the firm has grown to become one of the UK’s leading venture capital companies. He sits on the investment committees of all the firm’s UK funds and represents Beringea on the board of Lumar. He was previously a director of Contact Engine, Chess Dynamics, Third Bridge, Firefly Learning, InSkin Media and ResponseTap among others. Stuart has worked in the venture capital industry for over 30 years. Prior to joining Beringea, Stuart was a Senior Director at Lloyds Development Capital, where he headed the Thames Valley office, and started his career in venture capital with 3i plc.
Carlos von Hardenberg - Mobius Investment Trust
Carlos is the co-founder of Mobius Capital Partners and has been Portfolio Manager of the strategy since inception in 2018. Carlos spent 17 years with Franklin Templeton Investments starting as a research analyst based in Singapore, focusing on South East Asia. He then went on to live and work in Poland before moving to Istanbul, Turkey for ten years. Carlos managed country, regional and global emerging and frontier market portfolios and was appointed lead manager of the LSE-listed Templeton Emerging Market Trust PLC in 2015
Nicholas Weindling – JPMorgan Japanese
Nicholas is managing director and a country specialist for Japan equities and a member of the Japan team within the Emerging Markets and Asia Pacific (EMAP) Equities team based in Tokyo. Nicholas joined the Firm in 2006 from Baillie Gifford in Edinburgh, where he worked initially as a U.K. large cap analyst and latterly as a Japanese equities investment manager.
Gervais Williams – The Diverse Income Trust & Miton UK MicroCap
Gervais joined Premier Miton in March 2011. He is Head of Equities and manages a number of funds and trusts. His fund management career extends over 30 years including 17 years at Gartmore Group, where he was head of UK Small Companies investing in UK smaller companies and Irish equities. Gervais is a member of the AIM Advisory Council, and a board member of the Quoted Companies Alliance. He has also published three books.
Charlotte Yonge – Personal Assets Trust
Charlotte is the Assistant Fund Manager of the Trojan Fund and Senior Fund Manager of the Trojan Ethical Fund, with responsibility for multi-asset coverage and the analysis of global companies and their selection for Troy’s portfolios. Charlotte joined Troy in 2013 from Ruffer Investment Management, where she worked as an Investment Associate.
