Investment Management’s young emerging stars
Think of asset managers and Investment Management teams and you’ll be forgiven for thinking that they were all male and well over 50, plus they’d have a pretty old-school view on the world’s economy and markets.
However a new list of 40 top young asset managers all under the age of 40 (40 under 40) has highlighted the rising stars and perhaps more interestingly the fact that many have gained their success in the emerging markets arena. These emerging markets include (in the secondary tier) Chile, China, Colombia, Philippines, Thailand and Russia to name a few.
More than 24% of the prodigal investment managers who made the Financial News “40 under 40” either invest on a daily basis directly in the emerging markets sectors such as South Asia or have spent time working or researching in financially developing countries. So emerging Asset managers in emerging markets. The final list was concentrated down from an initial 150 asset managers from firms such as AXA-IM, Credit Suisse, Aberdeen Asset Management, Zurich Financial, Sun Life Financial and more, to reveal the creme de la creme of the sector. As a way of qualifying for the list, all the young asset managers were aged under 40 on 12 September 2011.
The list also highlights the ongoing need and trend of investors diversifying away from the equities markets. This diversification is not just taken them into the obvious areas of investment grade bonds but also the less easy steps to the emerging markets and high yield debt. The products they focus on are differing too, with areas such as the booming markets for commodities and exchange-traded funds.
So who were the young stars involved in the Asset Management list?
The youngest in the 40 Under 40 list was just 27 years old. Edward Stileman who is an assistant fund manager at Jo Hambro Investment Management and based in London the UK was notable not just for his age but the portfolio of funds he was managing. The youngest female Asset Manager to make the 40 under 40 list was Sharonjit Clare, a senior investment strategy manager at Telent Pensions in London.
Another notable inclusion was a young manager Ian McKnight, who at just 33 is heads up investment for the significant Royal Mail Pension Plan, a plan that has members totalling over 450,000.
We wish them all the best of luck for the future. With the new banking regulations announced yesterday by the Vickers report, then young manager will have to adapt not just to the emerging markets around the world but the increasing focus on their actions here in the UK too.