Graeme Davies has been a smaller companies writer on the Investors Chronicle for more than two years, meeting the management teams of hundreds of Aim companies in that time, with a particular interest in the alternative energy sector and overseas companies. He has been a financial journalist for eight years, having begun his career with Citywire.co.uk
Financial Times
Neil Hume is the FT‘s Senior Stock Market Correspondent and a regular contributor to FT Alphaville. Before joining the FT 18 months ago, Neil was The Guardian`s stockmarket reporter for six years. He started his career in financial journalism at AFX News.
Marina Bond joined Rathbone Unit Trust Management (RUTM) in February 2000 after graduating from Durham University with a 1st Class BSc Honours in Natural Sciences (Philosophy and Archaeology). Marina co–managed the Rathbone Smaller Companies Fund with Carl Stick between September 2003 and June 2005. In July 2005, she became the sole manager of the fund. She holds the Investment Management Certificate and the Securities Institute Diploma, and is a member of the Securities Institute.
Managing Director, CA
is head of the UK Small/Mid Cap Team at BlackRock. Mr. Plackett joined BlackRock following the merger with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) in 2006. At MLIM, Mr. Plackett headed up the UK Small/Mid Cap Team, managed the ML UK Special Situations Fund, the ML UK Small Cap Fund, the ML UK Emerging Companies Hedge Fund, and a range of other small and mid cap portfolios for retail and institutional clients. Prior to joining MLIM in 2002, Mr. Plackett worked for M&G, where he managed the smaller companies and income fund teams, as well as heading up the entire UK investment process. Prior to that, he was in quoted fund management. He began his career at 3i private equity. Mr. Plackett earned an MA degree in economics from Cambridge University in 1985.
Catherine Stanley has 16 years of experience running small company money and has been Head of the UK Small Companies team at F&C Asset Management since 2005 having joined in 2000. The team run a full range of small company portfolios including, OEICs, an investment trust and institutional funds. Prior to this she spent nine years at Framlington where she managed both retail and institutional small company portfolios. Catherine has an MA(Hons.) from Oxford University in Geography.
Sean O’Flanagan started his investment management career at BWD Rensburg in 1998. In 2002, he joined Unicorn Asset Management and was responsible for creating one of the largest and most successful Aim–based Venture Capital Trust (VCT) divisions in the UK. Mr O’Flanagan joined Collins Stewart in 2006 to launch an Aim Portfolio Service designed to reduce inheritence tax while providing equity–related returns. In May 2007, he launched the Collins Stewart UK Catalyst Fund, an open–ended fund of high–conviction stocks with considerable upside through the action of an identified catalyst.
Octopus Investments
Richard Power is a fund manager at Octopus Investments. Richard joined Octopus in June 2004 where he has been managing a range of Aim–focused funds. Prior to this Richard spent three years at Close Brothers where he managed the Finsbury Smaller Quoted Companies trust. Richard also spent five years managing SmallCap portfolios at Duncan Lawrie. Whilst Richard was managing the Duncan Lawrie Smaller Companies Fund, it won a number of awards and was the best performing UK smaller companies fund over one, three and five years to February 2000.
Mark began his investment career with Legal & General in 1985, before joining Greig Middleton & Co Limited where he was a private client fund manager. In 1992, he joined Perpetual Plc in the role of small cap fund manager covering the UK part of their Global Smaller Companies Fund; the UK Smaller Companies Core Fund & the Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies Investment Trust. Mark joined Standard Life Investments in 2002, as a small/mid cap fund manager, running their UK Opportunity Fund from its launch in November 2002; and in–house small cap pension funds. Mark joined Artemis in October 2007 and is part of the small cap team and co–fund manager of the Artemis UK Smaller Companies Fund.
As Investment Director and Head of the Smaller Companies Equities for Standard Life Investments, Harry manages the Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Fund (OEIC), which he launched in 1997. He spent the early years of his career as a Land Surveyor working both in the UK and in Saudi Arabia. In 1984 Harry graduated with an MBA and joined Standard Life the following year. He has held various investment analyst and manager roles covering US equity funds, larger UK quoted company funds and was appointed to his current role in 1993. In July 2001 Harry was awarded the Investment Week UK Smaller Companies Fund Manager of the Year. In September 2003, Harry took over the management of the Standard Life Companies Trust plc (formerly the Edinburgh Small Companies Trust plc) . He was named in 2006 as the What Investment Magazine ‘Unit Trust Manager of the Year’. In March 2007 he was received the PLC Award for best performing smaller company fund for the year 2006.
Vice President
UK equity portfolio manager focusing on smaller companies. He is lead manager of the Credit Suisse UK Smaller Companies Fund. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, James worked at the research boutique Hardman & Co as a UK Equity small company analyst. Previous roles include a financial journalist at Investors Chronicle (part of the FT Business Group) and Energy markets analyst and reporter at Heren Energy. He has a BA (Hons) in History from the University of East Anglia and a Post Graduate Diploma in Law from the University of West of England. He is a CFA charterholder.
Gervais Williams joined Gartmore in 1993 and heads the award–winning smaller companies team. Gervais has been investing in the UK Small Caps sector since 1985.
In the pursuit of making good returns for clients, he remains convinced that the best returns can be found in the smaller quoted stocks hence his focus on the universe. The UK & Irish Smaller Companies OEIC fund was set up in 1994 is a top performer in its sector since that time.
A separate fund dedicated to the Gartmore Irish Growth trend was set up in 1995, to capture the benefits of the Irish Growth story.
The Alphagen Volantis market neutral hedge fund, set up in 2002, has generated over 140% for investors.
Gervais has sat on various DTI committees and is also a member of the LSE‘s AIM Advisory Panel. He has won seven Investment Awards since 2005 including Investment Trust Specialist Category and Best Global Investment Trust.
Jupiter Asset Management
Richard Curling is manager of the Jupiter UK Smaller Companies Fund. He studied at Edinburgh University where he gained a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He joined Jupiter Asset Management in March 2006 as manager of the Jupiter UK Smaller Companies fund. Richard previously worked at Deutsche Asset Management where he managed the UK and European Small Cap team and ran small cap equity mandates.
Fund Manager
Daniel Nickols is the manager of the UK Select Smaller Companies Fund. Prior to joining OMAM in 2001 following the integration of Gerrard Investment Funds, he worked at Gerrard for two years, becoming joint manager
of the Gerrard UK Smaller Companies Fund. His involvement with smaller companies began in September 1995, when he joined Albert E Sharp as a specialist salesman. He switched from the sell side to the buy side in May
1997, working on the Albert E Sharp Smaller Companies Fund. After graduating from Cambridge University in 1992 with a degree in modern and medieval languages, he joined Deloitte & Touche, before moving to the European equities division of Morgan Stanley in June 1994. He is IIMR qualified.
Fund Manager
UK Equities joined INVESCO in 1991 to manage UK smaller companies portfolios. He started his career in 1986 as a credit analysis for Midland Bank and subsequently the United Bank of Kuwait, where he progressed into fund management, managing a UK smaller companies portfolio on behalf of high net worth Kuwaiti clients. In 1989, Andy joined Guinness Mahon Asset Management as a UK smaller companies portfolio manager. He holds a BSc in Banking & Finance from Loughborough University.
Andy manages the Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies Growth Fund, the INVESCO English & International Investment Trust, and the Invesco Perpetual AIM VCT.