All Strategically Speaking articles
-
Interviews
SEI Investments seeks new partnership approach
SEI Investments, the Pennsylvania-based technology and investment firm, was a vocal advocate for independent fiduciary management in the UK pension industry.
-
Interviews
HSBC Asset Management puts team culture at the fore in growth strategy
It’s often said that timing is everything. Nicholas Moreau sees an element of luck in the timing of his appointment to the helm of HSBC Asset Management in September 2019. This gave him a six-month head start in his role as CEO by the time the COVID pandemic arrived in early 2020.
-
Interviews
Australia’s Challenger takes credit and affiliates global
Some 2.5 million Australians are set to retire over the next decade, according to the country’s Treasury. This ageing population has challenged Australia’s A$3.6trn (€2.3trn) superannuation fund sector, and the industry as a whole is pivoting more heavily towards the decumulation phase.
-
Interviews
PGIM looks to grow private credit
Like other managers, PGIM has grown its private assets and alternative credit franchise as clients – both within the group and external – have broadened their allocations across the real assets and alternative credit universes.
-
Interviews
Thematics Asset Management’s CIO on themes and investment challenges
Out of the 19 boutiques businesses belonging to the Natixis Investment Management franchise, Thematics Asset Management is by no means the smallest, but it is not exactly a juggernaut, managing €3.3bn of assets at the end of last year. Yet, it is actively contributing to what could be a crucial evolutionary step for global investors.
-
Interviews
Mercer’s Rich Nuzum: soft skills are the hardest in investment governance
Mercer’s recent acquisition of Vanguard’s outsourced chief investment officer (CIO) business and its sale of two administration units points to changes in asset management as firms continue to focus on core activities.
-
Interviews
Muzinich’s Tatjana Greil Castro on credit fundamentals
In one of the meeting rooms of the London office of Muzinich & Co are displayed a series of bond certificates from the past.
-
Interviews
Systematic trading for long-term investors
Man Group, the investment management company listed on the London Stock Exchange since 1994, was founded in the City of London in 1783 by James Man as a sugar brokerage firm.
-
Interviews
Barings: A bond investor for changing times
Martin Horne is the new global head of public assets at Barings bond investor, but he is a bond guy through and through.
-
Interviews
Fiera Capital: Montreal’s succession story
If Fiera Capital were a retail store it might need a big shop window. It is perhaps better known in the institutional world outside Canada for strategies like real assets but Fiera is a full-service asset manager that is also a big deal in its home town of Montreal.
-
Interviews
Opening private markets to smaller investors
“One of the biggest differentiators for us in comparison to other private markets businesses is our focus on the use of technology within the business,” says Hartley Rogers, chair of Hamilton Lane.
-
Interviews
Stan Moss, Polen Capital CEO: High conviction is the lifeblood of investing
The shift in macroeconomic conditions throughout 2022 must have been a relief for active managers from one perspective at least. For over a decade of low interest rates and low volatility they have had fewer chances to showcase their skills.
-
Interviews
Paul Lorentz, Manulife Asset & Wealth Management: Canada to Europe, via Asia
Values are changing rapidly in the world of asset management. Leaders come and go, but perhaps less so than in the past, and loyalty to a company is increasingly appreciated by clients, as a sign of commitment and stability.
-
Interviews
Franklin Templeton’s Jenny Johnson: Finding the way through the noise
When Jenny Johnson arrives, the atmosphere changes. She is composed, smiling and friendly and her boundless energy fills the room.
-
Interviews
Vontobel: Builders in a changing landscape
Christel Rendu de Lint, a veteran of Swiss asset and wealth management, sees herself as a builder. This claim has justification given her track record at UBP, where she built a fixed-income capability from scratch to CHF20bn (€20.5bn) over 12 years.
-
Interviews
LCH: The other side of the mirror
Isabelle Girolami undoubtedly has a strong background in financial services, having worked for a range of very different institutions in very different roles. She was COO at the fixed income division of BNP Paribas, before going on to a similar role at Bear Stearns, the bank that failed early in 2008 and which was subsumed into JP Morgan. Prior to her current role at LCH she was global head of markets at Crédit Agricole.
-
Interviews
Nikko Asset Management: Complex, creative thinking
Stefanie Drews is at home with complexity. She speaks several languages fluently, including Japanese, and tells us she still does her maths in Italian.
-
Interviews
Bain Capital: Vintage private equity
“In our world, it is quite easy to describe what we do, but it is very hard to do it,” says Robin Marshall, partner at Bain Capital. That statement encapsulates the concept of private equity and is also an effective introduction to his firm. Private equity may be a straightforward idea, but in reality it is an incredibly complex undertaking, which is why the asset class remains a non-core allocation within institutional portfolios.
-
Interviews
Impax rides the sustainability wave
One investment analyst sums up Impax Asset Management as a “pure sustainability play”. And certainly, according to founder and CEO Ian Simm, the core thesis of Impax is to “make the most of the investment opportunities offered by the transition to a more sustainable economy”. These are “on the scale of the Industrial Revolution”, Simm believes.
-
Interviews
Newton’s Euan Munro: Seeking the best of both worlds
Euan Munro has built a formidable reputation in asset management, developing a major multi-asset absolute return strategy at Standard Life Asset Management in the 2000s. But the fortunes of his once mighty Global Absolute Return Strategy (GARS), now managed by Abrdn, have wavered as multi-asset strategies have fallen out of favour.