Graeme Davies has been a smaller companies writer on the Investors Chronicle for more than three 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 nine years, having started his career with Citywire.co.uk.
Bryce Elder is the Financial Times's UK stock market reporter. He has been a financial journalist for ten years, writing about European companies and markets for Bloomberg, The Times, AFX News and Hemscott.
Andy joined INVESCO in 1991 to manage UK smaller companies portfolios. He started his career in 1986 as a credit analyst 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. Andy also sits on the London Stock Exchange AIM Advisory Group.
Catherine Stanley has 17 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 runs 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.
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 good returns for clients, he remains convinced that the best returns can be found in the smaller quoted stocks, hence his focus on this universe. The UK & Irish Smaller Companies Oeic fund was set up in 1994 and 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 several Investment Awards since 2005 including, Investment Trust Specialist and Best Global Investment Trust.
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 with Aramco specialising in oil & gas related construction. He graduated from the University of Dundee with an honours degree in Geography in 1979 and a Diploma in Surveying from the University of Glasgow in 1980. 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. For calendar years 2008 & 2009 he was placed No1 on the “Citywire” Fund Manager top 100 list. 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 received the PLC Award for best performing smaller company fund for the years 2006 & 2008. In 2007 Harry became a director of Standard Life Investments (Mutual Funds) Ltd.
James Chapman, Director, 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.
Richard has 13 years experience of smaller company investing. Richard joined Octopus Investments in 2004 where he manages a range of specialist AIM portfolios, AiM VCTs and the CF Octopus Partner Fund (UK Smaller Companies). Prior to this Richard worked at Close Brothers and Duncan Lawrie Ltd.
Marina joined Rathbone Unit Trust Management 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.
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 and manages a number of funds including the Jupiter UK Smaller Companies fund. Richard previously worked at Deutsche Asset Management where he headed the UK and European Small Cap team.
Richard Plackett 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 the UK Small/Mid Cap Team, managed the ML UK Special Situations Fund, the ML UK Small Cap Fund and the ML UK Emerging Companies Hedge Fund. 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. Mr Plackett earned an MA degree in economics from Cambridge University in 1985.
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 inheritance 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.
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