The Wealth Forum Southwest: The Royal Crescent, Bath

earch Analyst & Portfolio Manager

Akash Bhanot

Seilern Funds

Portfolio Manager

Charlie Watford

Pimco

Mr. Watford is an executive vice president and portfolio manager in the London office, focusing on high yield and multi-sector credit opportunities. He is a member of the diversified income, high yield, and credit research teams. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2007, Mr. Watford was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley. He has 21 years of investment experience and holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Oxford.

Investment Director

Gabriel Sacks

Aberdeen

Gabriel is an Investment Director on the Global Emerging Markets equities team at Aberdeen. Gabriel joined the company in 2008 and is based in London but previously spent 5 years in Singapore from 2018 to 2023, where he was (and continues to be) focused primarily on Asian smaller companies. Gabriel is currently lead manager of the ‘abrdn Asia Focus’ investment trust and a pod member of the Global Emerging Markets (GEM) Income strategy and the GEM Smaller Companies strategy. During his time in Singapore, Gabriel was the lead manager of the Asian Smaller Companies fund (until December 2022 just prior to his return to London) and was a pod member of a number of other dedicated Asian and GEM strategies. Gabriel graduated with an MA (Hons) in Land Economy from Selwyn College, Cambridge University and is a CFA charterholder.

Chairman, China Affairs

Sir Sebastian Wood

Schroders

Sir Sebastian Wood served as Britain’s Ambassador to Germany from September 2015 to September 2020. Before his posting to Berlin, he served as British Ambassador to China from 2010 to 2015. Sebastian joined the Diplomatic Service in 1983. After a posting to the British Embassy in Bangkok, he learned Mandarin at the beginning of the 90s before serving as a First Secretary in the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group in Hong Kong from 1992 to 1996 in the run-up to the handover of Hong Kong. He was Political Counsellor in Washington from 2001 to 2005 following US foreign policy in Asia. From 2005 to 2008 he was Asia-Pacific Director at the FCO (now Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) before undertaking a one year secondment to Rolls-Royce from 2008 to 2009. Before joining the Diplomatic Service Sebastian studied Mathematics and Philosophy at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Co-Portfolio Manager of the Nedgroup Investments Global Strategic Bond fund

David Roberts

NedGroup Investments

Investment Director

Paul Skinner

Wellington Management

As an investment director in Investment Product and Fund Strategies, Paul works closely with fixed income investors to help ensure the integrity of their investment approaches. This includes meeting regularly with investment teams and overseeing portfolio positioning, performance, and risk exposures as well as developing new products and client solutions and managing business issues such as capacity, fees, and guidelines. He also meets with clients, prospects, and consultants to communicate our investment philosophy, strategy, positioning, and performance.

Partner and Fund Manager in the Value & Income team

Ian Lance

Redwheel

Ian joined Redwheel in August 2010 as a Partner and Fund Manager in the Value & Income team with fellow colleague Nick Purves from Schroders. He was attracted to Redwheel for its small boutique set up which gives him and his team the autonomy, allowing them to focus on investing free from the distractions associated with larger asset managers. He strives for a pre-eminent Value team by delivering the best possible outcome for their investors.

Director – Credit, Discretionary, Man Group

Jon Lahraoui

Man Group

His role is to develop Man Group’s Credit Platform globally and act as a client-facing spokesperson for the investment team. Prior to joining Man Group, Jon held a similar role at M&G Investments for 9 years where he focused on public credit markets and structured credit. Before this, Jon was a market risk analyst at M&G for 4 years. Jon studied Mathematics with Financial Mathematics at the University of Manchester. He is also a CFA charterholder and has completed the CFA Certificate in ESG investing as well as the Professional Risk Manager Designation (PRM).

Head of Income Team

Stuart Rhodes

M&G Investments

Stuart joined M&G in 2004 as a global equity analyst, with a particular focus on US equities. He has managed the M&G Global Dividend Strategy since its launch and currently leads the income team, which oversees approximately $10 billion in global and regional strategies.

Editor

Julian Marr

Wealthwise