Room151’s LGPS & Equities Roundtable & Dinner

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.  

Piers Hillier is Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at Jupiter Asset Management, with overall
responsibility for investment strategy and the leadership and development of the firm’s
investment teams. He is a member of the Jupiter Asset Management Board and its Strategy and
Management Committee.

Piers has over 30 years of experience in the industry and previously served as CIO at Royal
London Asset Management and LV= Asset Management, and held senior leadership roles in
equities at Kames Capital, WestLB Mellon Asset Management, Deutsche Asset Management
and Schroders.

He has also held board positions across Europe and Asia. Piers is a Chartered Accountant
(ACA), a CFA Charterholder, a Chartered Director (IoD), and an alumnus of Oxford University
and Bristol University

Michael is a Portfolio Manager on the Global Growth Equity investment team and co-manages numerous international and global growth strategies at

ClearBridge Investments.

He joined the firm in 2018 and the investment industry in 2008.

Michael joined the firm as a Portfolio Analyst for the Global Growth Equity Team and was named Portfolio Manager in 2025. Prior to joining

ClearBridge, he worked as an Equity Research Analyst covering enterprise software at Nomura Instinet; Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America

Merrill Lynch, Investment Banking; and a Portfolio Implementation Associate at Franklin Templeton Private Portfolio Group.

Michael has a B.S. in finance from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. He is a CFA® charterholder.