Retirement Money Show - Growth - 09 December 2024

Roland is Head of Corporate Development at AJ Bell his role includes responsibility for sponsorship and advertising across their portfolio of investor engagement webinars and events, awards, websites and Shares magazine having joined the publication in 2008. Roland started his career in financial media in 2000 and has experience in the hedge fund, institutional investment and pensions and retirement sectors.

Charlene Young is AJ Bell’s Pensions and Savings Expert. She has over 15 years’ experience in financial services, holding Chartered Financial Planner status and Chartered membership of the Personal Finance Society (PFS). Charlene creates articles, podcasts and webinars to help you invest – from mapping out your financial goals and which accounts might help you, to making sense of tax and pension rules. You’ll also see Charlene providing regular comments for national press, including her weekly 'Pensions Doctor' column in The Telegraph.

Alex Crooke is Fund Manager of The Bankers Investment Trust. He served as Head of Equities – EMEA and Asia Pacific from 2018 to 2023. Previously, he was head of Global Equity Income and Specialist Equities Teams from 2013 to 2018. Alex was recruited by Henderson to co-manage the UK assets of an investment trust in 1994 as an associate director. He later became a fund manager responsible for a number of UK and global income-oriented equity products. Alex began his investment career with Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1990 as a US investment analyst. Alex holds a BSc degree (Hons) in physics and astrophysics from Manchester University. He is an associate member of the Society of Investment Professionals (ASIP) and has 34 years of financial industry experience.

Hamish is an investment specialist in the Scottish Mortgage Team. In his role, he works closely with the managers, meets with portfolio companies and conducts in-depth portfolio discussions with shareholders. Alongside this, he creates engaging content which makes the Scottish Mortgage portfolio accessible to all its shareholders. Prior to joining the team in 2024, Hamish worked on Baillie Gifford's international equities strategies alongside Lawrence Burns. Before joining the firm in 2017, he served in the Royal Navy as a Commissioned Officer, including time as a leader in aircraft carriers, mine-hunters, and nuclear submarines. During training, he was awarded top-of-class by HRH Prince Edward. Hamish is a CFA Charterholder, and he achieved an MBA from City, University of London where he received the EU Award.

Amanda is an Investment Director at abrdn and Co-Manager of abrdn UK Smaller Companies Growth Trust plc. Amanda is responsible for providing research support predominantly for our UK Smaller Companies strategy but also to the wider Smaller Companies team. Amanda Joined the company in June 2019 from Investec Securities where she was a small and mid-cap equity sales specialist.

Dan Coatsworth is a Stock Market Analyst at AJ Bell and co-host of the Money & Markets podcast. He has written about investing for the past 18 years and his work has appeared in many of the UKs leading newspapers, websites and magazines.

Abbas joined Schroders as a graduate in 2007, working as a highly-successful member of the Emerging Markets team for 13 years, initially as an EM strategist and, most recently, a Frontier Markets Specialist with a focus on Asian markets. He joined the Asian Specialist team in July 2020.

James joined Polar Capital in September 2015 and is a Fund Manager for the Healthcare team. He was appointed co manager for the Polar Capital Global Healthcare Trust in August 2019. Prior to joining Polar Capital, James worked in equity sales specialising in global healthcare at Morgan Stanley, RBS and HSBC. James also has equity research experience garnered from his time at UBS, where he worked as an analyst in the European pharmaceutical and biotechnology team. Before moving across to the financial sector, he worked as a consultant for EvaluatePharma.

Richard Hickman joined HarbourVest in 2014 to focus on the activities of HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited (HVPE), a closed-end investment company that invests in and alongside HarbourVest-managed funds. Richard is responsible for the day-to-day management of the company. He joined HarbourVest after seven years with 3i plc, where he progressed through a number of roles, latterly serving as a manager in the business planning and analysis group.