Meet the Speakers from the QG 2023

Thursday 21st September 2023
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster

Christopher Rossbach

J. Stern & Co.
"Sustainability - The Key to Quality Investing"

Christopher Rossbach is a Co-Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of J. Stern & Co., a private investment partnership based in London and Zurich. Chris is also the portfolio manager of the Firm’s World Stars Global Equity Fund. 

 

Stern invests with a long-term, fundamental, value-based approach and manages money for families, trusts, charities, endowments, institutions, and other long-term investors.  

Chris holds a BA from Yale University, where he was a Humanities major and awarded the Scott prize (1873) for modern languages, and a MBA from Harvard Business School.  

He is Chair of the Warburg Charitable Trust of the Warburg Institute, a Trustee of the University of London and Chair of its Investments Committee, both in London, and a member of the Atlantik-Brücke, an association of German business and political leaders, in Berlin. 

Together with Jerome Stern, Chris co-founded Stern in 2012.  Before that, Chris founded Merian Capital where he was Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager.  Before that, worked at firms including, Magnetar Capital’s, Lansdowne Partners and Perry Capital.  Before, moving to London, Chris started his career in investment banking at Lazard Frères in New York. 

Michael Mauboussin

Head of Consilient Research on Counterpoint Global at Morgan Stanley Investment Management
Virtual Fireside Chat and Audience Q&A with Simon Brewer: Are Bigger Corporations Surviving Longer, Winning More, and Should We Let Our Winners Run?

Michael J. Mauboussin is Head of Consilient Research at Counterpoint Global, Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Previously, he was Director of Research at BlueMountain Capital, Head of Global Financial Strategies at Credit Suisse, and Chief Investment Strategist at Legg Mason Capital Management.

He is also the author of three books, including More Than You Know: Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places, named in the The 100 Best Business Books of All Time by 800-CEO-Read. Michael has been an adjunct professor of finance at Columbia Business School since 1993, and received the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2009 and 2016. He is also chairman emeritus of the board of trustees of the Santa Fe Institute, a leading center for multi-disciplinary research in complex systems theory.

Scott Nisbet

Baillie Gifford
"Outrageous Growth at an Unreasonable Price"

Scott Nisbet is a Partner of Baillie Gifford, a private investment partnership based in Edinburgh. Scott leads the Global Equity strategy teams, with a particular focus on the Firm’s Long Term Global Growth investment approach. He brings several decades of experience involved with concentrated portfolios for our long standing clients.

He joined Baillie Gifford in 1996 and worked in the North American and UK investment teams until 2003, when he moved to the Clients Department as a Director with responsibility for overseas clients. Scott became a Partner in 2007 and is a member of our CDMG (Clients Department Management Group). He is also a member of the Strategic Leadership Group. Scott graduated MA in English Literature and French from the University of Edinburgh and gained a Post Graduate Diploma in Translation from University of Paris. 

Fabio Cecutto

WTW
Moderator

Fabio heads the Focused Equity manager research team at Willis Towers Watson, leading the research efforts on concentrated, unconstrained active equity portfolios. 

Fabio has also been involved in long-short, quantitative and Smart Beta equity research. Fabio works with large institutional investors globally to construct and manage equity portfolios, and is part of the Investment Committee responsible for managing Towers Watson Investment Management’s Global Equity Focus Fund. Fabio is the equity research specialists to the Portfolio Management Group, involved in managing discretionary portfolios for Willis Towers Watson fiduciary clients. Prior to joining Willis Towers Watson in 2006, Fabio worked with JPMorgan Asset Management in its multi-manager division. He previously worked as a sell-side analyst at Banca IMI, part of Intesa San Paolo. Fabio has a MSc in Economics and Finance from the Bocconi University in Milan and is a CFA charterholder.

 

David Souccar

Vontobel Asset Management
"Measured Growth Wins Races"

David Souccar has been a Portfolio Manager for Vontobel’s Quality Growth Boutique since 2016. He joined Vontobel Asset Management in April 2007 as Senior Research Analyst and was promoted to Portfolio Manager of the firm’s International Equity strategy in June 2016. 

In addition to his portfolio management responsibilities, he continues to conduct research analysis on individual stocks which may be included in the firm’s other strategies, primarily focusing on the Energy, Industrials, Real Estate, and Utilities sectors.

Prior to joining Vontobel Asset Management, from 2005 to 2007, he was a Senior Investment Analyst at Federated Investors. From 1998 to 2005, he worked as a Sell-Side Analyst at Morgan Stanley. He began his financial career in 1996 at McKinsey & Co. where he worked as a consultant until 1998.

David received a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Escola de Engenharia Maua in Brazil.  

Mark Yockey

Artisan Partners
"Resilient Growth: A Differentiated Approach to Investing Globally"

Mark L. Yockey, CFA, is a managing director of Artisan Partners and a portfolio manager on the Global Equity team. In this role, he is a portfolio manager for the Artisan Non-U.S. Growth and Global Equity Strategies, including Artisan International and Global Equity Funds.

Prior to joining Artisan Partners in December 1995, Mr. Yockey was the portfolio manager of the United International Growth Fund and vice president of Waddell & Reed from January 1990 through December 1995. Before assuming responsibility for the United International Growth Fund, Mr. Yockey was an analyst for Waddell & Reed from 1986 through 1989, specializing in the worldwide health care industry and international special situations. Earlier in his career, he was a health care analyst for the State of Michigan Retirement Fund for five years. Mr. Yockey holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in finance from Michigan State University. He completed one year of undergraduate work at the Université d’Aix-en-Provence in France. He also worked for the French bank, La Société Générale. He is fluent in French.

Simon Brewer

The Money Maze Podcast
Moderator

Simon is the founder of The Money Maze Podcast. He graduated from the London School of Economics with a degree in Economic History, and later took the advanced management programme at INSEAD, France.

He started his career at Citibank in 1985, where he trained as a portfolio manager, before joining Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in 1989. Over the 17 years there, he managed their global balanced portfolio, was Chairman of their European Asset Allocation Committee and Chief Investment Officer. For the subsequent 14 years he was CEO and an owner of Vantage Investment Advisory Ltd. He is a senior advisor to Rothschild and Co, in London, a Governor of Clifton College and Chairman of their Development Trust, and served as a Trustee of Great Ormond Street Hospital. In 2019 he co-founded the Money Maze Podcast, which he hosts, an investment and business podcast that is listened to in over 80 Countries, and which is in the top 1% of global podcasts.

Mark Baribeau

Jennison Associates
"The Case for Global Growth Investing"

Mark Baribeau is the head of global equity and a global equity portfolio manager. He is responsible for overseeing the investment process, strategy implementation, and risk management for Jennison’s global equity strategies. 

He is a member of the Jennison Management Team. Prior to joining Jennison in 2011, Mark was a global equity and large cap growth portfolio manager at Loomis Sayles. Before that, he was an economist at John Hancock Financial Services. Mark received a BA in economics from the University of Vermont and an MA in economics from the University of Maryland. He is a CFA charterholder. 

Kishore Rao

Sustainable Growth Advisers
"Recurring Revenues and Trojan Horses"

Kishore is a Principal, Analyst and Portfolio Manager on the SGA Investment Committee.  Kishore has been with the firm since 2004 and sits on SGA’s Executive Committee.

He has been co-manager of SGA’s Emerging Markets Growth Portfolio and SGA’s Global Mid-Cap Growth Portfolio since their respective inception in 2014 and 2018. In 2020, he joined the portfolio management team of SGA’s U.S. Large Cap Growth Portfolio. In 2022, he joined the portfolio management teams for SGA’s Global Growth and International Growth portfolios. Historically, Kishore oversaw SGA’s analysts’ internship program where we mentor promising analyst candidates who are completing their Master’s degrees at leading universities. Prior to SGA, Kishore was a member of the investment team at Trident Capital and a Founder and General Manager of the Street Events division of CCBN.  Kishore has a B.S. in Industrial Management from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Michael Baron

Baron Capital
"Finding Quality-Growth in an Unexpected Sector"

Michael joined Baron in 2004 as a research analyst and was named co-portfolio manager of Baron WealthBuilder Fund in 2020 and Baron Partners Fund in 2018. He has 20 years of research experience. 

From 2003 to 2004, he worked at Glenhill Capital as a research analyst. Michael graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in Economics in 2003 and from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with an M.B.A. in 2010.

Mark Beaumont

Buildher
"Around the World in 80 Days: A Life-long Pursuit of Record Breaking"

Mark Beaumont has become a household name through his documentaries about ultra endurance and adventure. Having smashed the circumnavigation cycling World Record twice in his career, he now holds this 18,000 mile title in a time of 78 days and 14 hours, averaging 240 miles a day. 

His epic documentaries have taken viewers to over 100 countries, into the Arctic, the high mountains and around the Commonwealth, also surviving capsize in the mid-Atlantic. A career like this is not possible without building dedicated teams and a business to support. Mark has taken this experience and works with a portfolio of corporates as an ambassador and mentor. Outside of sports, media and business, Mark’s interests include supporting BuildX, which is an organisation that this conference is supporting through their Buildher project.

Jay Creel

Bares Capital Management
"A Survey of Successful Serial Acquirers"

Jay Creel is President, Portfolio Manager, and Research Analyst at Bares Capital Management, a provider of concentrated, qualitatively oriented public equity strategies to institutional and individual clients. 

Prior to joining BCM in 2012, Jay was a general partner and investment analyst at Treaty Oak Capital Management, a long/short equity hedge fund. He has also served as an investment banker at Molecular Securities (a spinoff of Morgan Stanley) and Deutsche Bank Securities, where he focused on merger and acquisition advisory. Jay graduated from Princeton University in 2002 with a B.A. in History.

Fleur Wright

Northcape Capital
"A Quality Investor’s Best Friend"

Fleur has over 20 years investment experience and is portfolio manager and analyst for the Global Equity strategy. Fleur joined Northcape in 2018 and is in our Sydney office.

Before joining Northcape, Fleur was a Managing Director at UBS in Sydney. Having joined UBS in London in 2004 as a European Special Situations Analyst she progressed to Pan European Equity Sales and Account Manager for a range of fundamental hedge funds and long only institutions before returning to Australia with UBS in 2011. Initially Fleur established the business of European and US Equity Sales to investors based in Asia, then took over Global Sales to Australian based investors before eventually running the wider APAC Global Equity sales team. Before moving to the UK Fleur spent five years as a Generalist Equity Research Analyst at Capital Partners (now CP2), a boutique independent research advisory firm with expertise in the infrastructure sector.

Fleur holds a Bachelor of Commerce (First Class Honours in Finance) from the University of Sydney and is a CFA® Charterholder. In 2017 she completed not-for-profit directorship training with the Australian Institute of Company Directors under The Observership Program®.

Lisa Lim

Prusik Investment Management
"Sustainable Growth Investing in Asia"

Lisa is a Partner and a Portfolio Manager at Prusik Investment Management. Lisa served on the Board of Axiata Group as an Independent Non-Executive Director from 2018 to 2020. 

Prior to that she was a Portfolio Manager at ColumbiaThreadneedle where she managed a number of Asia Pacific ex Japan Equities portfolios.  Lisa was also the Head of Global Telecoms Research. At ColumbiaThreadneedle, Lisa pioneered and championed ESG investing and she played a leading role in integrating ESG philosophy into the firm’s investment processes.  She was also instrumental in setting up ColumbiaThreadneedle’s investment operations in Singapore from 2013 -2015. Before joining the Investment Management industry, Lisa was an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore.  She started her career in 2000 as an Analyst in Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and later on as an Associate in The Boston Consulting Group. She is a CFA Charter Holder and is also a member of CFA UK Investment Committee.  She is currently an INED on the Board of Sime Darby Properties (a major investor and developer of Battersea Power Station in London) and also serves on the Investment Committee of Foundation Scotland. 

Richard Kaye

Comgest
"Dawn Breaks in the East"

Richard Kaye joined Comgest in 2009 and is a Tokyo-based Analyst and Portfolio Manager specialising in Japanese equities. He is also a member of the Comgest Group’s Investment Committee.

With a wealth of experience in Japanese equities, Richard became co-lead of Comgest’s Japan equity strategy upon joining the Group. He started his career in 1994 as an Analyst with the Industrial Bank of Japan and then joined Merrill Lynch in the same role in 1996. In 2005 he moved to the Wellington Management Company in Boston as a Portfolio Manager of Japanese TMT stocks. Richard graduated from Oxford University where he majored in Oriental Studies.

 

Scott Crawshaw

Harding Loevner
"Quality-Growth Investing: Persistence & Structure"

Scott Crawshaw is a co-lead portfolio manager of the Emerging Markets Equity strategy and an analyst of emerging markets companies.  He is also a portfolio manager on the Emerging Markets ex-China Equity, Global Equity, Global Developed Markets Equity, and Global Paris-Aligned Equity strategies.

He is a partner of the firm and has more than 25 years of industry experience. Before joining Harding Loevner in 2014, Crawshaw worked for 10 years at Russell Investments in London as a senior portfolio manager and research analyst of emerging markets and frontier equities. He also worked at ISIS Asset Management as a fund manager for global emerging market equities, and at Bacon and Woodrow in its London Investment Division. Crawshaw graduated from the University of Bristol with a BSc in mathematics. 

 

Alan Christensen

Fayez Sarofim & Co.
"Consistent Companies in an Inconsistent World”

Alan R. Christensen is the President and Head of Investment Risk and ESG at Fayez Sarofim & Co. Mr. Christensen is a member of the Fayez Sarofim & Co.’s Executive and Investment Committees. 

In addition to overseeing the Firm’s marketing, client service, operations and technology initiatives, Mr. Christensen is a co-manager of the mutual funds that Fayez Sarofim & Co. manages for BNY Mellon, the Sarofim Equity Fund and the Sarofim Global Equity Fund. He is also a portfolio manager for a variety of institutional and high net worth clients. Mr. Christensen joined the Firm in 2005 as an Associate. Over the years, areas of research and responsibility have included companies in the technology and industrials sectors. 

Mr. Christensen received a M.B.A. with Distinction from Cornell University in 2005, where he was a Park Fellow and a B.A. in Economics and History from Washington & Lee University in 1995, where he graduated cum laude. Prior to joining Fayez Sarofim & Co., he was employed with Alvarez & Marsal as a Director and Accenture as a Senior Manager in Capital Markets. He currently serves as a Director of Sarofim ICAV and Sarofim Trust Company. Mr. Christensen is a graduate of the Center for Houston’s Future Leadership Forum and is a member of YPO (Young President’s Organization.) He previously served on the boards of Annunciation Orthodox School, Palmer Memorial Endowment Fund and the Tompkins County Community Foundation. 

Simon Steele

Fiera Capital
"Leveraging Primary Research for Long Term Investing"

Simon Steele is Head of the Fiera Atlas Global Companies. Simon joined Fiera Capital in March of 2021 as part of Fiera’s acquisition of AMP Capital’s Global Equities capability.

Simon has more than 28 years of industry experience with much of it dedicated to the management of UK and Global equity portfolios across a wide range of mandates for institutional, charity and retail investors. 

Simon started with AMP Capital in 2016 to oversee and develop AMP Capital’s Global Equities capability. Previously Simon was the lead Fund Manager at Sarasin & Partners for the Global Equity High Yield, Global Dividend and International Income funds managing total assets of £1.4bn. Prior to that he spent 6 years with CCLA as Investment Director, Equities, where he was the Fund Manager in charge of global equity selection for the firm’s global equity income funds, flagship Common Investment Funds and segregated institutional mandates, with a combined £2bn allocation to equities. Prior to joining CCLA, Simon worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland where for 6 years he was head of stock selection for Adam & Co, and latterly the Pan European Head of Equities for RBS wealth, incorporating both Adam & Company and Coutts & Co.

Simon is a Chartered Member of the Institute for Securities and Investments (CISI).

Eric Schoenstein

Jensen Investment Management
"Hope is Not a Long-term Strategy"

Eric currently serves as the chief investment officer, with primary responsibility for portfolio management and strategy across all of Jensen’s products. Eric spent nearly fourteen years with Arthur Andersen LLP as a senior audit manager, providing a wide variety of services to clients of all sizes in both the public and private sectors.

He earned a BS in business administration with a focus in accounting from Oregon State University. Eric serves as a trustee for the Oregon State University Foundation Board of Trustees and is currently the immediate past board chair. He is also a past president of the Oregon State University Alumni Association. He serves as a director for the Western Golf Association, which administers and oversees the Evans Scholars Foundation. He serves on the Executive Committee for the Oregon Golf Association, currently as treasurer and previously as president.

Barbara-Ann Bernard

Wincrest Capital
Presentation title TBC

Barbara Ann Bernard, founder & CIO of Wincrest Capital, was named a Young Global Leader in 2018 by the World Economic Forum, and one of the 50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds in 2019 by Ernst & Young and the Hedge Fund Journal. Barbara Ann has a passion for investing that goes back to her days of growing up in The Bahamas. 

It was there that a 15-year-old Barbara Ann persuaded legendary value investor Sir John Templeton, a fellow Bahamian resident, to take her on board for the first of what would become a series of summer jobs at Templeton Global Advisors, instilling a fundamental value-oriented investment approach to the public markets. Later, working in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, followed by alternative asset management at Deutsche Bank, and as an investment analyst at Holowesko Partners, she acquired a robust grasp of private market valuation and the hedge fund industry. Today, she is the portfolio manager of the Wincrest Contraria Fund and the Energy Transition Fund.

She is a graduate of the London School of Economics, where she Chaired the LSE Business Society, Li Po Chun United World Colleges in Hong Kong and Lakefield College School in Canada.

Barbara Ann currently serves as a Director of Lyford Cay Foundation and is on the Finance Committee, Chairs the United World Colleges Bahamian National Committee, and is a Co-founder of the Variant Perspectives – Women in Investing Conference.

Check out the agenda for QG 2023