Seminar Speakers

Fiona A. Barwick
DIRECTOR OF REGIONAL RESEARCH
Mondrian Investment Partners

Ms. Barwick is a graduate of University College, London. She joined Mondrian in the Spring of 1993 to cover the Pacific Basin markets. Prior to this, she spent 3 years at Touche, Remnant & Co. in London as an assistant portfolio manager and research analyst. Ms. Barwick is a member of the CFA Society of the UK.

John Beck
Co-Director, Global Fixed Income
Franklin Templeton Investments

John Beck is a senior member of the 100-strong Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group, which currently manages £76.3bn. He is Co-Director of Global Fixed Income in London.
John is responsible for managing portfolios for retail and institutional investors, including the two recently launched OEIC funds: Templeton Global Total Return Bond and Templeton Strategic Bond funds.
Prior to joining the firm in 1990 John worked for Saudi International Bank. John has an MA from Exeter College, Oxford University.

Dilek Capanoglu
Portfolio Manager
Allianz Global Investors

Dilek joined the group as a portfolio manager in 2007, specialising in Middle Eastern, GCC and North Africa stocks for the Global Emerging Markets Team. Most recently, Dilek was a Freelancer specialising in Ethical Investment Projects. Dilek’s previous experience also includes Collingham Capital Management, Positive Technology Services Ltd and JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management; she started her career at Robert Fleming in 1996. Dilek has a Diploma in Economics from the University of Reutlingen, Germany, a BA (Hons) International Business Adminstration from the University of Middlesex and a post-graduate diploma in European Finance and Management from Royal Holloway College, University of London.

James Chong
Investment director, China
Martin Currie
A Chinese national, James originally worked as an auditor and tax accountant with Price Waterhouse in Hong Kong. He moved into investment analysis in 1994, initially working with MeesPierson Securities. He subsequently developed his expertise with Nikko Securities and with South Capital Group, where he became head of research. Prior to joining Martin Currie, he was vice president of equities at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, where he managed several greater China mandates. James joined Martin Currie in 2006 to strengthen our multi-cap expertise in the greater China region. Based in Edinburgh, he works with Martin Currie’s China team, with our dedicated research analysts in Shanghai, and with our award-winning Asia team.

Richard Evans
Investment director, Asia
Martin Currie

An equity analyst and fund manager at Gartmore Investment Management from 1996 to 2003, Richard was co-manager of Gartmore’s global equities long/short product from 2001. In 2003 he was appointed by Charlemagne Capital to manage their Asian long-only and long/short funds. He joined Martin Currie’s Asia and global emerging markets (AGEM) team in 2004. Richard is co-manager of Martin Currie Absolute Return Fund – Asia Fund and Martin Currie Asia Pacific Fund.

Charles Firmin-Didot
Portfolio Manager
AXA Investment Managers Ltd

Charles joined AXA Investment Managers in December 2003 as a portfolio manager to develop and manage the Talents range of funds. Prior to joining AXA Investment Managers, Charles had his own asset management firm Sophia Asset Management, which managed Sophia Global Investments from December 2000. He also created Talents, a French fund, in August 2001 which he transferred to AXA Investment Managers upon joining.
Prior to that, he spent 12 years at JP Morgan where he held various positions in M&A and asset management in Paris, London and New York.
He graduated from the French Engineering School Ecole Polytechnique in Paris (1998).

Bradley George
Head of Commodities & Resources
Investec Asset Management

Bradley was appointed Head of Commodities and Resources at Investec Asset Management in 2006.
He joined the Investec, London office after spending 7 years at Goldman Sachs where he worked as an Executive Director in the Commodity Division, involved in selling the GSCI to investors and Commodity Hedging products to Resource Corporates. Before that he worked in the Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking Division, on Natural Resources M&A transactions in both London and South Africa. Before that he worked for 3 years at KPMG in the Financial Services Division, Treasury Advisory Group, consulting to clients on financial derivatives risk management.
Bradley graduated from the University of Cape Town with an Honours degree in Finance, B.Bus.Sci in 1994. He completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting (PGDA) from the University of Cape Town in 1995. In 1998 he was awarded the Chartered Accountant designation CA(SA) from the Public Accountants’ and Auditors’ Board.

Leigh Himsworth
Fund Manager (UK Equities)
Royal London Asset Management (RLAM)

Joining RLAM in April 2006, Leigh is responsible for managing a number of specialist Mid Cap UK equity funds, including the RL UK Strategic Growth Trust. Leigh’s investment approach combines fundamental stock picking with a macroeconomic overlay. In this way, he focuses on identifying under-valued companies with a catalyst to cause a re-rating of the shares, with each holding contributing something different to the overall portfolio.

Michael Jennings
Senior Investment Manager, Global Equities
Premier Asset Management

After graduating with a BA Honours in 1989, Michael Jennings joined Sarasin Investment Management where he became a Director. Whilst there, he pioneered the concept of ‘thematic investment’ with the launch of the successful range of Equistar global equity funds.
In 2001 Michael moved to Morley Fund Management as Head of Global Equities where he built up a successful franchise and accumulated $5 billion of assets under management over his six year tenure.

François Mouté
Chairman
Neuflize Private Assets

François Mouté has a total of more than 35 years of experience in the financial markets. He began his career as a financial analyst at Crédit National and pursued it as fund manager at Banque de Suez, before opening the Paris and Zurich offices of the American broker, Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette. He was a director of Bear Stearns in Geneva and New York and later Schroders in Paris and Geneva. He founded Swiss investment management company Chester White & Co, of which he was Chairman for more than 15 years. He has been in charge of the American investments of the Neuflize group since 2000, and was appointed Chairman of Neuflize Private Assets in December 2002. He is a director of Lynx in Washington DC.

Alex Tarver
Product Specialist, Global Emerging Markets Equities
Halbis UK Ltd

Alex Tarver is the product specialist for Global Emerging Markets equities managed in London, and has been working in the industry since 1988. Previously he worked as product specialist and fund analyst at Fidelity International. Prior to joining the firm in 2001 Alex held similar roles at Morley Fund Management and Gartmore.

Paul Wales
Investment Manager – Fund of Hedge Funds
RAB Capital

Paul Wales: joined the Company in June 2001 and is investment manager for the RAB External Managers Fund and associated managed accounts. Paul was previously an investment consultant at William M Mercer, advising company pension funds on investment manager selection, manager monitoring and investment strategy. He was also responsible for researching hedge funds. Prior to joining Mercer in January 2000, Paul worked for Bacon & Woodrow’s Investment Consulting and Pension Fund Consulting Practice from 1994 to 1999. Paul graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Physics and Theoretical Physics and qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries. He also holds the Institute of Actuaries Certificate in Derivatives. Paul is FSA registered.

Richard Watts
Fund Manager
Old Mutual Asset Managers (UK)

Richard Watts is the deputy fund manager of the Old Mutual UK Select Mid Cap Fun and works in OMAM’s very successful, award winning UK Mid & Small Cap team. Prior to joining OMAM he was an equity analyst at Orbis Investment Advisory.

Mark Westwood
Fund Manager
Threadneedle

Mark Westwood joined Threadneedle in September 2006 as a fund manager in the UK equities team. He manages the Threadneedle UK Select Fund and is also a transport analyst. He started his fund management career in 1998 with Legg Mason before moving to Morley in 2005. Mark graduated with a BSc (hons) in materials science from Manchester University. He also holds a PhD in materials science and is an associate member of the Institute of Investment Management and Research.

Tom Wills
Global Convertibles
Aviva Investors

Tom joined Norwich Union Investment Management in 1999 to develop options and derivatives strategies. He co-founded the global convertibles funds in April, 2002.
Previously, he spent four years at Citibank (New York and London) in derivatives research, working with corporate treasurers and investment clients.He also spent six years at Ernst & Young (Toronto, Geneva and New York), first as a Financial Services Audit Manager and later as a consultant working with the hedge fund industry.
Tom is a Canadian Chartered Accountant, and a Chartered Financial Analyst. He holds an MBA degree from Oxford and a Bachelor of Commerce & Finance from the University of Toronto, Canada.

Avinash Vazirani
Head of South Asia Equities Team
Jupiter Asset Management

Avinash Vazirani joined Jupiter in 2007 as head of the South Asia Equities Team responsible for managing the Peninsular South Asia Access Fund (India long only) and Peninsular Alpha Fund (India long/short). Prior to joining Jupiter, Avinash was CIO (South Asia and Africa) of BNP Paribas Asset Management before moving to Peninsula Capital Partners LLP as Managing Partner. Avinash is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA 1986).