Who We Are

Dani Hristova became Chief Executive Officer of IIMI in May 2023. Dani started her career in financial services in 2015 at Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM) within the defined benefit pension scheme client team. Dani then moved on to Schroders Investment Management where she was responsible for some of the firm’s largest pension scheme clients including the in-house scheme before moving into the insurance business development team. Most recently, Dani has worked for Nordea Asset Management where she was responsible for building the firm’s presence in the UK insurance market. Dani graduated from the University of Exeter with a BSc in Psychology and holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) and the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.

Sebastian became Chairman of the IIMI in 2022 having been Deputy Chair since 2017. He is a Partner and Head of US Institutional Business Development at Pacific Asset Management. Prior to this Sebastian was a Partner at the Emerging Market Equity boutique, Somerset Capital Management LLP, which he helped grow from $1.8bn to over $10bn in AUM. Sebastian graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a First Class degree in Mathematics and Business Studies, is a CFA charterholder and holds an Executive MBA from Bayes Business School

Rose Vangerven joined Findlay Park in 2019 as Responsible Investment Lead. Prior to joining Findlay Park, Rose was an ESG Analyst in the Responsible Investment team at Columbia Threadneedle. Rose started her career at BlackRock in 2014.

Vanessa has over 25 years financial services experience, specialising in compliance and regulatory matters for investment management across public and private markets. Vanessa is currently Head of Compliance for Phoenix Asset Management Partners and previously held senior compliance roles at Octopus Investments, Newton Investment Management, M&G, as well as time spent at the UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority.

She also has experience of representing smaller firms on policy matters, as she was previously Policy Adviser for the Association of Independent Financial Advisers and the Association of Mortgage Brokers.

Dan is UK Head at Orbis Investments. Prior to this role, Dan spent 15 years as part of Orbis’ investment team covering autos, industrial stocks and the energy sector as well as building out the global sector research team. Dan is a CFA Charterholder, Chartered Accountant and graduate of Brasenose College, Oxford where he studied PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics).

Nicole joined Evenlode in 2016 and is Evenlode’s Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Evenlode she was Head of Investment Management Operations with private bankers Arbuthnot Latham. Previously she was the Asset Services Manager at Legal and General Investment Management, and the Reconciliations Manager at Gartmore Fund Managers.

Nicole brings over thirty years of experience in both retail banking and investment management to Evenlode.

Edward is Chief Executive of Guinness Global Investors and a fund manager in the Guinness EIS Team. Edward joined Guinness in 2006. Prior to Guinness, Edward worked from 2002 as a merger arbitrage analyst for the Arbitrage Associates Fund at the Tiedemann Investment Group in New York. In 1998 he joined HSBC Investment Bank, where he worked in the Corporate Finance Department in the Energy & Utilities Team and in the Telecoms & Technology Team. Edward graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Master’s degree in Engineering and Management Studies.

Philip is General Counsel of Independent Franchise Partners LLP, an independent institutional-only asset manager based in London. Franchise Partners offers a specialist, differentiated equities strategy, focused on delivering sustainable long-term investment returns through segregated mandates and a range of pooled vehicles. 

Previously Philip has experience as General Counsel of Threadneedle, a major UK-based, US-owned, retail and institutional asset manager with global responsibility for the firm’s legal affairs and regulatory relationships through the credit crisis and its aftermath. Philip was also a Partner in the Dispute Resolution Department at Norton Rose with a practice concentrating on hedge funds, banking, asset finance and financial services disputes. Philip studied jurisprudence at the University of Oxford. 

Helme joined Tellworth Investments in November 2020. Prior to this, she spent 2 years at BennBridge, where she was responsible for building and maintaining client relationships across the UK and Europe. Helme has 10 years’ experience in financial services, including roles at JO Hambro Capital Management, BNY Mellon Investment Management and Blackrock (iShares).

Helme graduated from the University of Bristol with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, and holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Sondre is Head of ESG in SKAGEN Funds and is part of SKAGENs Portfolio Department. Sondre holds an MA (Honors) in International Relations from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Political Economy of Europe from the London School of Economics and Political Science. 

James joined Latitude Investment Management in 2021 as Chief Operating Officer. James has 18 years of experience in the Asset Management industry, with a primary focus on fund operations.

Prior to joining Latitude James was Head of Operations at Albert Bridge Capital. Prior to that James was responsible for the operations of multiple vehicles at Valiance Asset Management

Algernon Percy graduated from Christ Church, Oxford, in 1990 with a degree in History.   He has since written a book about the Crimean War.  He worked in the Private Client department of Mercury Asset Management (later Merrill Lynch Investment Managers) for nine years, before joining Waverton (then J O Hambro Investment Management) in 2003. He became Head of Private Clients, and then in 2013 was appointed Managing Director.  He manages the Waverton Portfolio Fund.

Simon has been CEO of Findlay Park since 2016. He is a member of the American Fund Investment Committee. Previously, Simon spent nineteen years at Newton Investment Management, initially as a global banks analyst, then as Head of Global Research, Head of Private Clients and Charities and, finally, as Chief Investment Officer.

Susannah was Deputy Chairman of IIMI between 2016 and 2021. She has over eleven years of industry experience and is now an independent consultant. Prior to this, she was COO and later CEO of S. W. Mitchell Capital, a European equities boutique. Susannah started her career in 2008 at Citywire Financial Publishers where she was responsible for the commercial aspects of their UK fund manager ratings business and external research. Susannah has a degree in Politics from the University of Edinburgh.