Goodhart Partners
The firm has appointed Bold co-founders, Marcus Bolitho and Will Gold as Individual Members of Goodhart.
Bolitho becomes head of marketing and Gold becomes head of investment marketing at Goodhart.
The firm said both have extensive experience of helping to position and grow both established and boutique asset management businesses into market leaders.
Gary Tuffield, partner at Goodhart, said: “Having worked previously with Marcus and Will, over many years, not only do I have a huge amount of admiration for both of them, but I know the quality and talent that they bring to our organisation. We are very fortunate to be able to attract them to Goodhart as we bring our proposition to market over the coming months.”
Downing
Rosemary Banyard has stepped down as a fund manager at Downing five years after joining the firm to launch her own product, the VT Downing Unique Opportunities fund.
She joined from Sanford DeLand Asset Management in 2020 to start the £27m fund which has delivered a bottom quartile return of 40% throughout its lifetime. The IA UK All Companies peer group, by comparison, is up 66% over the period.
Banyard will remain at Downing as a consultant where she will advise the new management team led by Josh McCathie.
AXA Investment Managers
The firm has named Gordon Happell as a portfolio manager on the firm’s global equity team.
Happell joins after a decade at Columbia Threadneedle, where he co-managed the US portfolio of the Global Smaller Companies Trust.
At AXA IM, he will co-manage both the AXA Framlington American Growth fund and the AXA WF US Growth fund alongside senior portfolio manager David Shaw.
BlackRock
Two BlackRock investment trusts have announced changes to their manager lineups, following a wider restructure of the firm’s global emerging markets team.
The changes see Sudaif Niaz, who has co-managed the £276m BlackRock Frontiers Investment Trust since February 2023, step down from his role.
Co-managers Sam Vecht and Emily Fletcher will continue to run the portfolio. The pair have managed the trust since launch in 2010.
