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World in Motion

World in Motion
Welcome to our global equities blog
Our global equities blog lifts the lid on what we do and shows you how our investment engine works. From describing company visits and snapshots of the work we do, to exploring the major themes and trends shaping markets.
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Meet the team

Alex Beavis is an analyst within the Global Equities team, focusing on global smaller companies. He began this role in 2019. Prior to this, Alex worked as a client portfolio analyst within the Global Equities team, assisting with client servicing, sales and articulation of the team’s investment views and capabilities.
Alex joined the company in 2016 and worked in Finance for six months on a graduate scheme rotation. In March 2017, he joined the Global Equities team, where he has remained since.
Alex holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics and Management Sciences from the University of Southampton.

Alex joined is a portfolio manager in the Global Equities team. Alex joined the company in 2016 as a portfolio manager on the Japan Equities desk and moved to the Global Equities team in 2018. He is now a portfolio manager on the Global Focus strategy and lead manager of a number of segregated Japan equity mandates.
Whilst working on the Japan desk, Alex assisted the Global Equities team with idea generation and analysis of Japanese companies across all sectors.
Before joining the company, Alex was a Senior Fund Manager at Canada Life Investments, where he managed the Japan fund and supported the management of the US and Global funds.
Alex has a BSc in economics from the London School of Economics. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Simon Haines is a portfolio manager in the Global Equities team. He took up this role in November 2013 and is currently lead manager across the desk’s EAFE and Shariah portfolios. He also has research responsibility for the industrials sector and for the Asia-Pacific region.
Simon joined the company in 1999 as a trainee UK Equities portfolio manager, progressing to portfolio manager in January 2005, where he managed the Threadneedle UK Mid 250 Fund and co-managed the Threadneedle UK Extended Alpha Fund.
Simon graduated with a degree in biology from Oxford University in 1999 and also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

David Dudding is a senior portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments. He joined the company as an equity research analyst in 1999 moving on to manage the European Smaller Companies strategy for 10 years until December 2012. He is currently responsible for the European Select and Global Focus strategies.
David previously worked for John Swire and Sons in Hong Kong and for Investors Chronicle as a financial journalist.
He holds a Modern History degree and a European Politics Masters degree from Oxford University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Society of the UK.

Pauline Grange is a portfolio manager within the Global Equities team. She took up this role in 2007 and is currently lead portfolio manager of the Threadneedle Global Sustainable Outcomes and Threadneedle World Equity strategies and deputy portfolio manager of the Columbia Select Global Equity fund. She also heads the telecoms and utilities sector research team and is the deputy head of the technology sector research team.
Before joining the company, Pauline was a global equity portfolio manager for Investec Asset Management.
Pauline has a Bachelor of Business Science (Honours) in Finance from the University of Cape Town. She also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Georgina Hellyer is a portfolio manager within the Global Equities team. Georgina joined the company in 2011 and the Global Equities team in 2017. She is a portfolio manager on the Global Equity Income strategy and the International Dividend Income strategy.
Previously, Georgina worked as an analyst on the Emerging Markets Equity team, covering the materials and energy sectors and becoming a portfolio manager in 2013. Before joining the company, Georgina worked at Aviva Investors as an analyst covering the materials and energy sectors on the company’s Emerging Market and Asian equities team.
Georgina has a degree in Philosophy, Politics & Economics from the University of Oxford and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Market Technician designations.

Bronwyn Curran is a client portfolio analyst in the Global Equities team. In this role, she is responsible for providing detailed information on the company’s global equity views and capabilities to clients, prospects and consultants.
She joined the company in 2018 as part of its graduate programme before joining her current team in 2020.

Jonathan Crown is lead portfolio manager on the Global Equity Income Strategy and manages a number of pooled and institutional mandates including the Threadneedle Global Equity Income Fund. Jonathan joined the company in 2005 as an investment analyst on the credit team. In 2008, he moved from the Fixed Income team to the Global Equities team and has managed global equity portfolios since 2010 and global equity income portfolios since 2011. Jonathan is also deputy head of the financials sector research team.
Before joining the company, he worked at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein as an investment grade credit analyst covering financials.
Jonathan has an MA (Hons) Degree in Economics from the University of St Andrews.

Scott Woods is a portfolio manager within the Global equities team and has been lead manager of the Threadneedle Global Smaller Companies strategy since April 2019. Scott joined the Global equities team in 2015 as an equity analyst with responsibility for researching small cap companies, focusing in particular on US small caps. He was subsequently made deputy portfolio manager on both the Threadneedle Global Smaller Companies strategy and the Threadneedle US Smaller Companies strategy.
Before joining the company, Scott spent three years with Ecclesiastical Investment Management, an SRI-focused asset manager, where he worked as an investment analyst within the global equities team.
Scott holds a Masters degree in Chemistry from the University of Oxford. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and the Investment Management Certificate.

Andrew Harvie is a Client Portfolio Manager within the Global Equities team. His role is to articulate the team’s investment views and capabilities to existing and prospective clients, consultants and intermediaries.
Andrew re-joined the company and the team in 2018 from Schroders where he was a client portfolio manager and head of product in the QEP investment team. He has previously worked as a client portfolio manager at Man AHL, Man Group’s quantitative investment division, having originally joined as an investment analyst in 2007. Andrew was also involved in due diligence and product strategy during Man’s acquisition of GLG Partners in 2010.
Prior to working in asset management, Andrew worked as an equity capital markets analyst at Bloomberg and started his career within wealth management.
Andrew holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics with Statistics from the University of Bristol.

Neil Robson is Head of Global Equities at Columbia Threadneedle Investments. He took up this role in July 2017. He joined the company in 2011 as a portfolio manager within the Global Equities team. He is the deputy manager of the Threadneedle Global Select Fund and manages a number of global equity mandates for institutional clients. He is also the co-manager of the Threadneedle Global Extended Alpha Fund.
Before joining the company, Neil worked as a fund manager at companies including Martin Currie, Barings and Citibank. In addition, he was Head of Global Equity at Pioneer Investments from 2003 to 2009.
Neil has an Economics degree from the University of Bristol.
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