Ayush Abhijeet - Ashoka India Equity
Ayush is responsible for covering the technology, consumer discretionary and metals sectors. He has over 10 years of experience in investment management, equity and macro research.
Ayush joined White Oak in 2017, prior to this, he worked as an investment analyst at Avendus Capital in Indian public equities covering the technology, consumer and financials sectors. Before starting a career in Investment Management, Ayush worked at Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse in macro structuring and trading in Mumbai.
Sree Agarwal - Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies
Sree is a co-manager of The Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust and a portfolio manager at FSSA Investment Managers.
Sree joined FSSA Investment Managers in 2014, where he is the lead manager of the FSSA Asia Pacific All-Cap strategy and the co-manager of the Indian Subcontinent strategy, as well as Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust. He has 10 years of investment experience.
Faizan Baig – Henderson International Income Trust
Faizan is a Portfolio Manager on the Global Equity Income Team at Janus Henderson Investors, a position he has held since 2020. Before that, he was a research analyst at the firm.
Prior to joining Henderson in 2015, Faizan was a senior global long/short equity analyst at RWC Partners working on the firm’s global hedge fund. Before that, he worked for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, where he began his career as a global equity analyst and later became a junior portfolio manager performing fundamental bottom-up analysis of companies across all sectors
Joe Bauernfreund – AVI Japan Opportunity Trust
Joe is CEO 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 these 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
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.
Roger Coyle - Fair Oaks Income
Roger is a co-founder and partner of Fair Oaks Capital, a specialist corporate credit investment manager with AuM of over $3 billion. Fair Oaks launched the UK-listed Fair Oaks Income Fund (FAIR.L) in 2014 and also manages UCITS funds, an ETF and separately managed accounts for institutional investors. Roger has over 25 years’ experience working in corporate credit. Prior to Fair Oaks, he worked as a portfolio manager at Blackstone and in the leveraged finance departments of J.P. Morgan and Fitch Ratings.
Ross Driver - Foresight Solar
Ross oversees the delivery of Foresight Solar’s investment mandate. A managing director at Foresight Group, Ross has almost 20 years’ infrastructure and renewable energy investment experience covering deal structuring and execution, debt financing, and asset management across multiple asset classes.
Prior to Foresight, Ross spent eight years at InfraRed Capital Partners, where he focused on greenfield infrastructure and renewables investments. He has also worked at John Laing and KPMG.
Laura Foll - Law Debenture Corporation
Laura is a fund manager for Henderson Opportunities Trust and Lowland Investment Company and a portfolio manager on the Global Equity Income Team at Janus Henderson Investors, a position she has held since 2014. She also co-manages the UK equity income portfolio of the Law Debenture Corporation.
Laura joined Henderson in 2009 as part of the graduate scheme. She was subsequently named a global analyst and later an assistant fund manager for the Global Equity Income Team. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and has 15 years of financial industry experience.
Kirsty Gibson – Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust
Kirsty joined Baillie Gifford in 2012 and is an investment manager in the US Equity Growth Team. In 2021 she was appointed co-manager of the Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust and became involved in running the North American portfolio of the Managed Fund and Global Core Fund.Prior to joining the US Equity Growth Team, Kirsty spent several years in the small and large-cap global equities departments.
Andrew Hampson – Tufton Oceanic Assets Trust
Andrew is CEO at Tufton and over the last 22 years has been the mainstay behind Tufton’s development as one of the pre-eminent investment managers in the maritime space. Andrew has overseen the raising and deployment of 10 different shipping funds involving over $3bn of capital and the acquisition of over 175 vessels. Tufton manages a specialist maritime investment fund on the LSE (SHIP.L) with an NAV of $436m, a specialist chemical tanker company on the Oslo Bourse (STST.NO) as well as other private institutional capital accounts for UK pension funds and other overseas financial institutions encompassing ~ $1.5bn of mandated capital and controlling 46 vessels.
Dan Higgins – Majedie
Dan sets Marylebone’s portfolio strategy, oversees the selection of external managers, and works closely with the analysts on individual ideas. Before founding Marylebone Partners in 2013, he was CIO of Fauchier Partners LLP, an alternative investment firm with US$ 8 billion of assets under management. He began his career at Mercury Asset Management.
Peter Higgins – Conkers3
Peter is a successful long-term private investor, moderator, presenter, podcaster and interviewer who places a high degree of importance on deep research, followed by patient long-term investing.
Peter is the founder and Managing Director of Conkers3 Ltd an educational investing portal, that enables the investing/corporate world an audience to showcase their insights via bespoke interviews, podcasts and events. Peter is also the brainchild of and producer of the popular podcasts and video interviews called Conkers’ Corner.
Chris Hollowood – Syncona
Chris is the CEO of Syncona Investment Management. He is Chair of Spur and Purespring and a board member of Beacon and Yellowstone.
Chris was previously Chair of retinal gene therapies Nightstar, which was sold to Biogen in 2019 for $877 million, and Gyroscope, which was sold to Novartis for $800 million in 2022.
Previously, Chris was a partner of Apposite Capital LLP, a venture and growth capital healthcare investment company. Before this, Chris had roles with Bioscience Managers Ltd, Neptune Investment Management Ltd and in the pharmaceutical industry.
Ian Lance – Temple Bar Investment Trust
Ian is co-head of the UK Value & Income Team at Redwheel and co-fund manager of Temple Bar Investment Trust with Nick Purves. Ian joined Redwheel in August 2010, prior to which he started working at Schroders in 2007, where he was a senior portfolio manager, managing the Institutional Specialist Value Funds, the Schroder Income Fund and Income Maximiser Fund with Nick.
Ian started his career in 1988 and held various roles in asset management including as Head of European Equities and Director of Research at Citigroup.
Tim Levene – Augmentum Fintech
Tim is CEO of the UK’s only publicly listed, fintech-focused investment company Augmentum Fintech. After launching the first iteration of the fund in 2010, Tim and co-founder Richard Matthews launched Augmentum Fintech on the main market of the London Stock Exchange in 2018.
Tim is on multiple fintech boards and is highly active in cross-industry initiatives working to boost the UK fintech sector. An experienced entrepreneur, Tim co-founded juice bar business Crussh and was a founding employee of Flutter.com, which became one of the highest profile digital businesses in the UK after it merged with Betfair.com.
Amit Mehta – JPMorgan Indian
Amit is managing director and a portfolio manager within the Emerging Markets and Asia Pacific equities team based in London. An employee since 2011, Amit previously worked at Prusik Investment Management and Atlantis Investment Management where he was an Asian equities analyst and portfolio manager.
Prior to this, he was a global emerging markets analyst at Aviva Investors and an investment consultant at Mercer Investment Consulting.
Thomas Moore – abrdn Equity Income Trust
Thomas is an investment director within the UK equities team at abrdn. He joined abrdn in 2002 as an investment analyst and then managed EMEA portfolios before moving to the UK equities team in 2006. As well as managing income strategies, Thomas specialises in analysing Financial Services companies. Thomas began managing the abrdn Equity Income Trust in November 2011.
He began his career in 1998, joining Schroder Investment Management as assistant fund manager for UK Equities.
David Moss - CT UK High Income Trust
David has worked for 25 years as the Company's Investment Manager, which became part of Columbia Threadneedle Investments in 2021 and is currently Head of European Equities Research Strategy.
David has 27 years' industry experience, the majority of them in managing assets on behalf of a wide variety of clients, including Investment Trusts. Prior to his current role at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, David held the role of co-head of Global Equities at BMO Global Asset Management and is currently the lead manager on the CT Select UK Equity Income Fund and the CT European Growth & Income Fund.
Gaurav Narain - India Capital Growth Fund
Gaurav joined Ocean Dial in November 2011, having been immersed in the Indian equity market for the previous 18 years. He has held senior positions as both a fund manager and a senior equities analyst in New Horizon Investments, ING Investment Management India and SG (Asia) Securities India
Moira O'Neill - Freelance Journalist
Moira is an independent freelance investment and money writer, editor and presenter. She is a columnist for the Financial Times. Previously, she was head of content at Interactive Investor, editor at Moneywise, personal finance editor at Investors Chronicle and deputy editor at Money Observer.
Jamie Ross - Bankers Investment Trust
Jamie is a portfolio manager on the European Equities Team at Janus Henderson Investors, a position he has held since 2016. He was appointed as a joint portfolio manager for a European investment trust in 2018 and became sole manager in 2019.
Prior to this, he was a portfolio manager on the UK Equities Team, where he co-managed a UK equities pooled fund. Before that, he was an assistant portfolio manager on the Pan European Equities Team. He started his career with Henderson in 2007. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and has 17 years of financial industry experience.
Purvi Sapre - SDCL Energy Efficiency Income
Purvi is Chief Investment Officer for SDCL, fund manager for the SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust plc (SEEIT) and is a member of the Investment Committee for SEEIT and the unlisted SDCL Green Energy Solutions Fund. Purvi has over c.20 years’ experience in Europe, North America and emerging markets investing on behalf of debt, equity and impact investment funds. Purvi has transacted and managed assets across a number of renewable energy technologies including solar, wind, energy efficiency and waste to energy.
Mike Seidenberg - Allianz Technology Trust
Mike is a senior portfolio manager for the global technology strategies and an equity analyst on the fundamental thematic team at Voya Investment Management.
Mike joined the firm following Voya’s integration of certain assets and teams comprising the substantial majority of Allianz Global Investors U.S. business, where he was a portfolio manager, analyst and director on the U.S. global technology team.
Prior to that, he worked at a number of hedge funds, including Pequot Capital, Andor Capital and Citadel Investment Group. He also worked in the software industry and at Oracle Corporation.
Minesh Shah - The Renewables Infrastructure Group
Minesh leads the day-to-day management of TRIG, the LSE-listed renewables investment company co-managed by InfraRed.
Minesh’s experience at InfraRed includes investing across the renewable energy and core infrastructure equity markets, in greenfield and brownfield sectors.
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.
Richard Shepherd-Cross - Custodian Property Income REIT
Richard joined Mattioli Woods in 2009 to establish Custodian Capital as the property fund management subsidiary and in 2014 he was instrumental in the establishment of Custodian Property Income REIT. Following the successful initial public offering, Richard has overseen the growth of the company to its current market capitalisation.
Richard was also central to the establishment of a new business line for Custodian Capital, which offers real estate private equity investments to the high-net-worth clients of Mattioli Woods.
Lucy Walker – Aurora Investment Trust
Lucy is founder, chair, board director and advisor in investment management, technology and not-for-profit. In 2020 she founded AM Insights, a fast and intuitive tool for the fund industry. She is Chair of the Aurora Investment Trust, and senior independent director of Henderson International Income Trust.
Lucy is a former head of fund research and fund manager at Sarasin & Partners, advising on over £1.2 billion of assets for charities and high net worth individuals, and before that was at HSBC Global Asset Management.
Justin Webb – The Today programme, Radio 4
After his tenure as the BBC North America Editor, Justin joined the team of presenters on Radio 4's Today programme.
During his time in the US, Justin covered the 2008 Presidential election and the rise of Barack Obama, and he continues to analyse the American political, social, and economic landscape, reporting on the dramatic events on Capitol Hill, Wall Street, and Main Street.
Before his Washington assignment, Justin served as the BBC’s European Correspondent in Brussels. He has reported on elections in Australia, a coup in the Maldives, the final days of the Soviet Union, and Mafia trials in Italy. In addition to his international roles, he has anchored Breakfast News and The World Tonight. Justin also co-hosts the popular Americast podcast and radio show, offering both serious and irreverent perspectives on US events.
Dan Whitestone – BlackRock Throgmorton Trust
Dan is Managing Director and Head of the Emerging Companies team within the Fundamental Equity Division of BlackRock's Portfolio Management Group. He is the lead Portfolio Manager for BlackRock Throgmorton Trust, BlackRock Emerging Companies Hedge Fund, BlackRock Emerging Companies Absolute Return Fund and BlackRock UK Absolute Return strategies.
Dan's service with the firm dates back to 2013. Prior to joining BlackRock, Dan worked for UBS, where he was the head of the UK small and mid-cap sales desk and ranked the number one salesperson in the Extel Small/Mid-Cap sales ratings in 2011 and 2012. Prior to working at UBS, Dan joined Noble and Co in 2006 as a UK small and mid-cap salesman. He began his career at Accenture, in 2003 as a strategy consultant.
Stuart Widdowson – Odyssean Investment Trust
Stuart is the Managing Partner of Odyssean Capital, which he founded in 2017. He has spent 23 years investing in public and private UK small and mid-size companies and a further 2 years providing investment advice. Odyssean follows a highly concentrated, engaged investment strategy investing in smaller quoted companies, which Stuart has executed for 15 years. In 2018 he led the IPO of Odyssean Investment Trust plc, a closed ended fund managed by Odyssean. Prior to founding Odyssean, Stuart was lead fund manager of Strategic Equity Capital plc in 2009 and was instrumental in driving a turnaround in the performance and fortunes of this closed ended fund.
Tom Williams – Downing Renewables & Infrastructure
Tom joined Downing as Partner in the Energy & Infrastructure team in July 2018. He heads up the team and has 25 years' of experience as principal and adviser across the private equity and private debt infrastructure sectors.
Tom trained as a solicitor before moving into private equity, where he has carried out successful transactions totalling in excess of £14 billion in the energy, utilities, transportation, accommodation and defence sectors.
Jasmine Yeo – Ruffer Investment Trust
Jasmine co-manages Ruffer Investment Company having joined Ruffer in 2017. Prior to becoming a fund manager, she managed private client portfolios and worked with Ruffer’s UK Wholesale team as an Investment Specialist. She is a member of the CISI following completion of the CISI Masters in Wealth Management and holds the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.
