Our speakers will cover every major asset class and region, giving you a comprehensive overview of the latest news in the world's major markets.
Our moderator for the day is Dominic O'Connell. Dominic is the business presenter of the Radio 4 Today Programme. He was formerly Business Editor of The Sunday Times, since 2010, and joined the paper in 2001. Before that, he was part of the launch team of Sunday Business. Under his editorship, the paper broke a series of big business stories including the news of BHS's pending administration, and previously the Pfizer bid for Astra Zeneca, the largest ever attempted takeover of a British company. As well as his role on the Today Programme, Dominic also appears regularly on Business Live on BBC World News and the News Channel, on World Service Radio business output, and contributes to the online business pages.
Alex is Lead Investment Manager of the Jupiter UK Dynamic Equity Fund. He joined Jupiter in October 2024 to lead the renamed UK Special Situations Fund. Prior to joining Jupiter Alex spent 21 years at J O Hambro Capital Management where he was Senior Fund Manager of the JOHCM UK Dynamic Fund, a strategy which he developed and launched in 2008. From its launch to the end of Alex’s tenure in January 2024 the Fund had a strong track record, delivering consistent outperformance of its designated benchmark over a long timeframe and growing materially over that period.
Eric Garfunkel is Co-Portfolio Manager for the Digital Transformation Equity strategy, a Global Growth Equity strategy, and a Senior Investment analyst on the US Large and Mid Cap Growth Equity portfolio team covering the information technology sector. Prior to joining UBS Asset Management in 2015, Eric worked for 12 years on the sell-side at Bernstein covering US technology hardware companies. The team was ranked #1 by Institutional Investor in IT Hardware in each year of his tenure at Bernstein. In addition to technology hardware, Eric also covered US semiconductor companies.
George Ensor, Manager of the ES R&M UK Equity Smaller Companies Fund. George graduated from Bristol University with an Upper Second Class degree in Chemistry in 2008 before joining Smith & Williamson Investment Management as a graduate trainee where he worked for five years as an analyst and Private Client Investment Manager. George joined R&M in March 2014 and is Portfolio Manager of the ES R&M UK Equity Smaller Companies Fund and the R&M UK Micro Cap Investment Company. George is a CFA charter holder.
Julie Dickson is an investment director at Capital Group. She has 29 years of investment industry experience and has been with Capital Group for seven years. Prior to joining Capital, Julie worked as the head of client portfolio management at Ashmore Group. Before that, she was the head of client portfolio management at Aviva Investors. She also held various positions at Axa Rosenberg, Mellon Global Investments, Barclays Global Investors and Merrill Lynch. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business management with concentration in finance from Cornell University. She also holds both the Investment Management Certificate and the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation. Julie is based in London.
Junichi Takayama is an Investment Director with the Tokyo-based Nikko Asset Management Japan Equity team. Now based in London he acts as a direct conduit for the team’s investment process, research, and insights to UK-based clients. With over two decades of investment management industry experience in Japan and the US, he has a distinct East to West and West to East view of capital markets. He has regularly written for and been featured in UK publications for wealth managers, such as Investment Week and Money Marketing, providing commentary on Japanese equities and the RSMR-rated Nikko AM Japan Value Fund.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Master of Business Administration with Honours from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) and Chartered Member of the Securities Analysts Association of Japan (CMA).
Nabeel is Deputy CIO and a member of the Fulcrum Investment Team. Prior to joining Fulcrum in 2011 Nabeel worked at Goldman Sachs for four years in the Investment Strategy Group. Nabeel graduated from Warwick University in 2007 with a BSc in Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics. He has been a CFA charterholder since 2011.
Nicolas is a Senior Portfolio Manager within the Active Credit team. He is responsible for managing both global and sterling credit portfolios and provides relative value coverage of various sectors within AXA IM’s credit research organisation. He was named Fund Manager of the Year in the Sterling Corporate Bond category at the Investment Week Awards in 2024 after being finalist in 2023 and was also awarded the FE Fundinfo Alpha Manager rating in 2024. In August 2017, he was amongst 25 European investment professionals named a “Rising Star of Asset Management” by the Financial News. He holds two Masters degrees, one in Diplomacy and International Strategy from the London School of Economics and one in IT Engineering from Telecom Sud Paris. He is also a CFA charterholder.
Patrick Smouha, who joined Atlanticomnium in 2012, is co-managing both GAM credit opportunities strategies and GAM Sustainable Climate bond fund.
Prior to this Patrick was assistant fund manager, where he covered portfolio analysis and also developed a deep understanding of companies and individual bond features. He has been a member of Atlanticomnium’s Investment Committee since 2016. Patrick holds a BSc in management from the University of Lausanne (HEC) and an MSc in finance from the University of Geneva (HEC). Patrick holds the CFA UK Certificate in ESG investing.
Dickie Hodges has managed the Nomura Global Dynamic Bond Fund since 2015. Prior to joining Nomura Asset Management, Dickie held the role of Head of High Alpha Fixed Income at Legal & General Investment Management, managing its “Dynamic Bond Trust” – an unconstrained fixed income fund which he managed from its inception in 2007 until April 2014. He spent 18 years at Gartmore where he was Head of Pan European Portfolio Construction with responsibility for both their SICAV European Corporate Bond Fund and their SICAV European Bond Fund. Dickie began his career in 1986 at Chase Manhattan Bank in Fixed Income operations, before joining Natwest Investment where he was responsible for management of a number of specialist investment funds employing derivatives and cash instruments to implement quantitative strategies.
With overall responsibility for the Quoted Companies team at Octopus, Richard has over 25 years’ experience of smaller company investing. He is lead manager of our FP Octopus UK Micro Cap Growth Fund, also oversees the investment process of the team which include the AIM IHT portfolios, and AIM VCTs. Richard is also a co-manager on the FP Octopus UK Multi Cap Income & FP Octopus UK Future Generation Funds. Richard started his career in 1995 at Duncan Lawrie, where he managed a successful small companies fund. He subsequently joined Close Brothers to manage a smaller companies investment trust before moving to Octopus Investments Limited to head up the Quoted Companies team in 2004.
Robert Milano is a Senior Investment Strategist and Head of EMEA Equity Business Development. He is responsible for partnering with regional sales leadership to set strategic priorities and goals for the EMEA Equities business, develop new products, and engage with clients to represent the market views and investment strategies of the firm. Previously, Milano was a senior investment strategist supporting AB's Select US Equity and US Growth Portfolios. He joined the firm in 2013 as a product analyst on our Fixed Income Business Development team, where he supported the firm's taxable and municipal funds for the US retail market. Milano holds a BS in finance from Manhattan College.
Stephen Yiu is the Lead Manager of the LF Blue Whale Growth Fund. Having started his career in the Hargreaves Lansdown investment team, he left the company in 2007 to pursue his interest in asset management. Having worked with Tim Steer at New Star (now Janus Henderson), Artemis, and under Martin Taylor at Nevsky Capital, Stephen has gained broad and varied experience within the investment industry. Previous funds he has directly managed or co-managed are – Citywire’s AA-rated Artemis UK Growth Fund (now Artemis UK Select Fund), Artemis Pan-European Hedge Fund (nominated for EuroHedge Awards 2010) and New Star UK Gemini Hedge Fund (nominated for EuroHedge Awards 2007). Stephen set up his own fund management business in 2017 with a £25m backing from Peter Hargreaves, the co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown. The assets under management in the Blue Whale Growth strategy are circa $1bn.
Will is a Fund Manager at Gravis having joined the company in 2017. He is the adviser to the VT Gravis UK Infrastructure Income Fund and VT Gravis Clean Energy Income Fund. Will has 18 years’ experience working as a buyside analyst and portfolio manager, focusing on investments in equities and closed-ended companies. He has been investing in the listed infrastructure sector since 2006. Will graduated from the University of Exeter with a degree in mathematics and is a CFA charterholder.