Director, Fund Products
COUTTS & CO
Total years of experience :23 years, 8 Months
Identify attractive investment opportunities from third party fund managers and provide a focused advisory service to clients of the various global business units, both onshore and offshore.
• Provide leadership and direction by developing and evolving the fund research and communication proposition.
• Operate as the primary relationship contact for the UK and European investment office and front office. Also operate within a secondary capacity for Middle East and Asia.
• Consideration on the tax status of the client is paramount and involves liaison with other various teams.
• Conduct fund research and monitoring and present views to internal clients, including discretionary portfolio managers, investment consultants, wealth managers and private bankers within a client-directed format.
• Research covers all asset classes from traditional (equity/fixed income) and alternatives (commodity, property and hedge funds), to passive investments (ETF's)
• Member at board meetings to discuss asset allocation and to strengthen the portfolio proposition.
• Oversee the work of a small team within fund research, selection and communication.
Involved in all aspects of the investment process, including managing multi-manager (both long-only and hedge) UCITS portfolios and separate mandates with AUM close to $2bn.
• Instrumental in defining the investment framework and building a team of investment professionals.
• Member of the Investment Committee (IC) - aim was to maximise performance within agreed risk parameters.
• Member of the International Strategy Committee (StratCom) - aim was to set asset allocation parameters, construct risk-profiled portfolios, set the overall macro strategy and make tactical investment decisions.
• Managed multi-asset, multi-manager portfolios and conducted research on long only & hedge fund managers.
• Managed the overall relationship between the Asset Management team and the group-owned Private Banks.
• Chaired and presented at monthly investment meetings with Private Bankers across the business globally to discuss portfolio positioning, manager views, performance, product development and overall macro strategy.
• Involved in managing a liquidity-premium portfolio, investing across asset based lending and other strategies.
• Had managed a volatility arbitrage strategy investing directly in structured options trades, used to manage overall risk and beta exposure and to add uncorrelated alpha to portfolios.
• Wrote monthly and periodical commentaries, market updates and other performance reporting material.
• Oversaw the work of two Investment Analysts who conducted macro and quantitative analysis.
• Undertook my responsibilities with the use of Excel, PerTrac, Style Research, MorningStar and Bloomberg.
• Created an Excel based risk management database and a client risk factor analysis report.
• Created new fact sheets and quantitative performance reporting documentation for distribution to clients.
• Created the contribution and attribution analysis of portfolio returns and the reporting of the analysis.
• Had been the sole contact for the sales team and for clients on quantitative queries on our portfolios.
• Conducted quantitative and competitor analysis on underlying fund managers and various hedge strategies.
• Conducted analytical planning and product development for all index products.
• Was instrumental in defining new products - including the FTSE Industrial Classification Benchmark (ICB)
• Played a key role in preparing business plans, including medium- and short-term financial planning, product strategies, life cycles and feasibility studies.
• Conducted regular analysis on clients use to determine penetration of index products.
• Carried out regular competitor analysis focusing on market developments and competitor initiatives.
• Wrote and presented management reports covering Global ETF and European Derivatives markets.
Analyst within the Finance division of WCS (Wholesale Client Segment) CRM leading the Revenue Coding Project
• The project was to outline service conditions for internal clients, their revenues and cost-sharing initiatives.
• Worked with the Senior Executive VP and Head of the International Desk in leading the project to completion.
• Devised and implemented solid SLA's to resolve issues regarding future revenue sharing.
• Initiated and maintained strong working relationships between the three internal business units.
• Regularly travelled to the head office in Amsterdam to liaise with senior members of staff and internal clients for presentations on progress updates and to facilitate work planning.
• Succeeded in completing the project 3 months ahead of schedule.
FOR Securities were a financial services firm specialising in research and brokerage services for institutional investors complimented by a corporate finance function for pre-IPO companies. Produced regular periodical research reports, sector reports and market commentary using Bloomberg.
• Created, maintained and monitored 'virtual' portfolios to help establish asset management arm.
• Assisted the brokers with taking orders, booking trades, position keeping and commission calculations.
• Communicated directly with clients on queries and assisted with the presentation of equity research.
• Assisted in sector research & analysis and compiling of statistical metrics & data for the valuation of companies
Obtained the CFA charter and hold current membership of the CFA Institute. First time pass for each of the three levels. In 2014 was invited to be a member of the CFA Global Examination Review, setting Level 3 case study questions.
Graduated with honours.