Room151’s Equities and the LGPS Roundtable

Will leads Border to Coast’s equity investment team. He joined the LGPS pool in 2022 and has 23 years’ investment experience, having previously worked for Aviva Investors where he was Head of Emerging Market Equities. Prior to joining Aviva in 2009, Will worked at the Royal Bank of Canada and Henderson Global Investors. He is a CFA Charter holder and a Cambridge University graduate.

I began my 34-year finance career in 1990 when I joined Tameside MBC as a trainee accountant.  Tameside is the administering authority for the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) and after qualifying in 1993, I moved across to the pension fund to work as their Investment Accountant.  In 2000, just before the Dot.com bubble burst, I moved to a front office role at the West Yorkshire Pension Fund (WYPF, and Administered by Bradford MDC) where I worked as an Assistant Investment Manager within the 5 strong UK equity team.  In 2007, just before the banking crisis, I began managing the funds North American Equity portfolio, which has grown in value from c£500m to £2,899m today.  Until recently I managed this alone.

In 2014 I was promoted to be the Head of Overseas Equities where I remain to this day, albeit after one or two changes to my job title.  My initial responsibilities were very broad and in addition to managing the team of Overseas Investment Managers, I managed the Alternatives Team and Treasury Manager.  This is a broad remit and thankfully my role has now become more focused on managing the overseas equity team alongside my own North American portfolio.  

Andrew is Assistant Director – Investment Strategy for the South Yorkshire Pensions Authority and is responsible for overseeing SYPA’s £11bn of assets.  As a resident of Sheffield, Andrew was delighted to join SYPA in October 2024 following his second stint with Legal & General Investment Management.  He has also previously worked at Border to Coast (Head of Customer Relationships) and in investment consulting roles at Towers Watson and KPMG.  Andrew is a qualified actuary, music nerd and barely adequate junior football coach.

Thomas is European head of the Portfolio Solutions Group, where he focuses on conducting investment research and using AQR’s capabilities to enhance client portfolios. He contributes to white papers and engages clients on topics such as strategic asset allocation and capturing alternative sources of return. He is author and co-author of many published articles, including “Market Timing: Sin a Little” (JoIM), “Value and Interest Rates” (JoPM) and “Honey, the Fed Shrunk the Equity Premium” (JoPM). Prior to AQR, he was a senior quantitative analyst and portfolio manager at Brevan Howard Asset Management, specializing in quantitative macro strategies and portfolio construction. Thomas earned an M.Phys. in physics with first class honors from the University of Oxford.

Ms. Husvaeg joined Barrow Hanley in 2024 from Russell Investments, where she served as senior portfolio manager for the firm’s emerging markets multi-manager strategies over the past decade and co-head of equity portfolio management team globally. Prior to her 20 years at Russell Investments, she worked at Standard & Poor’s. Ms. Husvaeg holds an MSc in Investments and a BA (Hons) in Business from University of Stirling.

Iain leads Hymans Robertson’s investment consulting advice to LGPS funds. In this role, Iain covers the vast array of challenges clients face, including investment strategy, pooling and responsible investment. Iain’s experience spans over a decade, including time spent working within the LGPS as an inhouse investment manager at Greater Manchester Pension Fund.

Iain loves building strong relationships with his clients and prides himself on his ability to communicate clearly, taking the endless complexity and jargon within the investment world and distilling it into easily understandable language for his clients.