WPP Liquid Manager Day

Head of EMEA
Russell Investments

Jim Leggate is the Managing Director, Head of EMEA at Russell Investments. Based in London, Jim leads Russell Investments’ business across the EMEA region, including six office locations. He is a member of the Global Management Committee and Chair of the EMEA Executive Committee.​

Jim has more than 30 years of experience in financial markets, serving a range of institutions including government and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, endowments, family offices, and private banks. He joined Russell Investments in 2011 and has been instrumental in driving business growth—beginning in the Middle East, where he founded the Dubai office that same year. Jim relocated to London in July 2016.​

Senior Director, EMEA Clients Team
Russell Investments

Aidan is a Senior Director in the EMEA Clients team at Russell Investments, based in London. He advises on several client relationships with mandates spanning multi-asset, multi-strategy, private markets and implementation services. Aidan serves as a GP Director in relation to two of Russell Investment’s Private Credit Funds. Aidan is also a member of the CFA’s Horizon Council.

Before joining Russell Investments in 2018, Aidan worked as an investment consultant within Aon’s UK advisory team, advising predominantly defined benefit pension schemes.

Senior Manager, EMEA Clients Team
Russell Investments

Alice is a Senior Manager in the EMEA Clients team at Russell Investments, based in London. She works with fiduciary management and large institutional investors in the UK, focusing on building strong, long-term relationships and supporting clients in achieving their investment objectives.​

Alice joined Russell Investments in September 2023 from Van Lanschot Kempen, where she partnered with fiduciary clients managing assets ranging from £50 million to £400 million. Prior to that, she was at Invesco, where she focused on LGPS and other large institutional investors.

Senior Portfolio Manager
Russell Investments

Peter Dohnal is a Senior Portfolio Manager on Russell Investments’ Fixed Income team, based in London. In his role, Peter manages a range of fixed income strategies, including Canadian fixed income portfolios and funds for EMEA-based clients. He also leads the firm’s Return-Seeking Fixed Income group of funds, which encompasses high-yield and opportunistic credit strategies.

Peter joined Russell Investments in 2014 and spent nearly a decade in the firm’s Toronto office, where he held lead portfolio management responsibilities across the Canadian fund lineup, spanning fixed income, equity, and multi-asset portfolios.

Senior Director, Co-Head of Equity Portfolio Management
Russell Investments

Will Pearce is Senior Director and Co-Head of Equity Portfolio Management, responsible for EMEA-based funds and several segregated mandates for sovereign wealth and national pension funds. Over the past decade, he has helped develop and integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into the firm’s investment process and serves on the Active Engagement Committee.

From 2005 to 2011, Will was a Senior Research Analyst on the Global and European equity teams, supporting both Russell Investments funds and advisory clients.

Prior to joining Russell Investments in 2005, Will worked at Tilney Investment Management as an institutional fund manager, where he primarily managed balanced portfolios for UK pension funds and charities.

Chief Executive Officer
Waystone

Karl Midl is an FCA approved professional with over 25 years of operational and client facing experience in the financial services sector. Karl possesses a strong understanding of the UK regulatory environment and effective corporate governance, ensuring regulated business operates in a robust and regulatory compliant manner.

Karl joined Waystone in 2023 as part of its acquisition of Link Fund Solutions where he had held the role of CEO. Karl joined Link Fund Solutions in 1995 and, in 2002, became a Board member. During his tenure at Link Fund Solutions, Karl held a number of executive roles including Operations Director, Programme Director and Director of Relationship Management and Product and Change Management.

Karl was instrumental in the operational design of the business and in the selection of major outsourcing arrangements, such as the supply of custody and depositary services in the UK and the transfer of fund administration roles to its operational centre in Mumbai.

Throughout his career, Karl has gained significant expertise in the administration and management of Collective Investment Schemes, both onshore and offshore and in all areas of operations, including fund accounting, pricing, transfer agency and projects.

Treasury & Pension Investments Manager
Carmarthenshire County Council

Anthony has been the Treasury and Pension Investments Manager for Carmarthenshire County Council (host authority of the Wales Pension Partnership (WPP) since February 2007. He is a qualified ACCA accountant and manages the Treasury Management, Banking and Technical Accountancy services of the Council and the Fund Investments, Accounting and Governance of the

£3.6bn Dyfed Pension Fund. He attends Cross Pool Collaboration Group meetings on behalf of the WPP.

He has worked in financial services his entire career including Redbridge Health Authority, Inner London Probation Service, Dyfed County Council and Pembrokeshire County Council. He is a qualified workplace coach and a keen cyclist, raising thousands of pounds for charitable organisations over the years.

Chief Executive Officer
Wales Pension Partnership (WPP)

Rob Lamb is Chief Executive Officer of WPP IM Co, leading the establishment of the new investment management company for the eight Welsh LGPS funds. A Welsh speaker with over 20 years’ international investment experience across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and North America, he previously co-founded and led Hedgehog, an FCA-authorised digital platform sold to a US acquirer in 2024. He has also served as a Non-Executive Director of the Development Bank of Wales and continues to hold non-executive roles in international impact-focused organisations.

Head of European High Yield
Barings

Chris Sawyer is Head of Barings’ European High Yield Investment Group as well as Chair of the firm’s European High Yield Investment Committee and member of the Global High Yield Allocation Committee. Chris is responsible for the portfolio management of several loan, high yield bond and multi-credit strategies. Chris has worked in the industry since 2005. Prior to joining the trading team in 2008, he was a member of the portfolio monitoring team where he was responsible for the ongoing credit analysis of individual portfolio assets. Chris holds a B.Sc. in Economics and Business Finance from Brunel University.

Senior Director
Barings

Ritchie Oriol is a member of Barings’ Global High Yield Client Portfolio Management team in London and is responsible for fundraising, product development and external communication of the firm’s high yield strategies across the UK and EMEA. Prior to joining Barings in 2023, he spent five years at Lord Abbett as an Investment Strategist, covering various Corporate Credit portfolios. Before this, he spent five years on the corporate credit team at alternative multi-strategy asset manager, CQS, where he was responsible for developing customized portfolio solutions, investor relations and communicating investment strategy to institutional clients. Earlier in his career, he was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where he held various roles in distribution and product strategy and served as a member-nominated trustee for its defined benefit pension scheme. He began his career in the investment management industry in 1996 with Neuberger Berman in their U.S. mutual fund business. Ritchie holds a B.A. in economics and philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

Senior Portfolio Manager, Head of US & European Trading
Coolabah Capital Investments

Fionn joined Coolabah in 2023 as a Senior Portfolio Manager based in London. Fionn previously spent over a decade in various senior interest rate trading roles at Deutsche Bank in London, where he originally started his career in 2002. In 2013, Fionn was promoted to Head of Financials, Sovereigns & Credit Index Trading, managing a team of 18 traders. 

Following his time in Deutsche Bank, Fionn worked at Brevan Howard Asset Management between 2015 and 2016 where he was mandated to set up a credit trading business. Most recently Fionn has worked at a large inter-dealer broker on strategic transformation projects, including optimising the commercial operating model in light of the changing regulatory landscape (MiFID II & Brexit). 

Fionn holds an MSc in Financial Mathematics (with Distinction) and a BSc in Mathematics & Applied Mathematics.

Global Product Manager
DNCA Finance

Daniel has 15 years of experience in financial services. He joined DNCA Finance in Paris in 2014 and has held a variety of roles in financial engineering, product development and management, as well as client portfolio management. In 2019, Daniel was appointed as Global Product Manager, with primary responsibilities as acting a conduit between sales teams, clients and investment teams. 

Daniel began his career in 2007 at BNP Exane NY before moving to Bloomberg London in 2010 as a Forex and Interest Rate Derivatives Specialist. He holds a master’s degree in International Finance from the Skema Business School.

Fixed Income Portfolio Manager and Deputy CIO
DNCA Finance

François holds a postgraduate degree from Paris Dauphine University. François Collet began his career in 2003 at Natixis Asset Management as a bond fund manager. He managed Natexis Oblivariable and set up Natexis Euro Inflation. In 2006, François joined La Française as Deputy Head of bond portfolio management, he was more particularly in charge of the inflation theme. He managed five bond strategies with total assets under management of €2.6bn, including the Euro Inflation Fund which was rated 5 stars by Morningstar and received a Lipper Fund award in 2013.

In September 2017, François joined DNCA Finance. In addition, he has been appointed Deputy CIO in January 2023, and CIO in H2 2025.

Director of Research
Morgan Stanley

Anil Agarwal is the Director of Research and an investor for Global Opportunity. He joined Morgan Stanley in 2001 and has 24 years of experience. Anil joined Global Opportunity in 2020 as an investor. Prior to his current role, he served as the Head of Asian Financial Research at Morgan Stanley, Research Division. Anil oversaw coverage of banks in Asia Pacific ex Japan. As a primary analyst, he covered Indian and Hong Kong banks. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Commerce from Calcutta University and completed his MBA at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Anil holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Portfolio Specialist, Global Opportunity Team
Morgan Stanley

Reto Ammann is a portfolio specialist for the Global Opportunity team. He joined Morgan Stanley in 2020. Prior to joining the firm, Reto was responsible for financial and operational reporting as a Business Controller at the Schindler Group in Sweden. Reto earned a M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden and a B.Sc. in Business Administration at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Portfolio Manager
Ninety One

Alessandro joined the industry in 2004 and is now a portfolio manager within the Value team at Ninety One. He manages the UK Value Equity and Global Value Equity strategies. 
 
Alessandro joined the firm in 2011 initially as an analyst in the Value team. Previously he worked at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co as a fixed income derivatives salesperson in London.

He graduated from University College London in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Economics and holds a Masters degree in Finance from the London Business School. He has passed Level III of the CFA® Programme.

Managing Director and Portfolio Manager
Oaktree Capital Management

Mr. Carroll is a Managing Director and has served as Co-Portfolio Manager of Oaktree’s Emerging Markets Equity strategy since its inception in 2011. Previously, he was Co-Portfolio Manager of Oaktree’s Long/Short Emerging Markets Absolute Return strategy from 2005 to 2018 and, prior to that, served as Head Trader for the strategy since joining Oaktree in 1999.

Before joining Oaktree, Mr. Carroll was Head of Trading for Columbus Advisors and earlier served as Head Trader for Latin American Fixed Income at Banco Santander and Bankers Trust. He began his career as an Emerging Markets Trader at Salomon Brothers in 1989.

Mr. Carroll holds a B.A. in History from Fairfield University. He is a past Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Fairfield University and currently serves as a Trustee at Brunswick School in Greenwich, Connecticut. Mr. Carroll is based in Hong Kong.

Institutional Portfolio Manager
RBC Bluebay Asset Management

CA (2009); CFA UK Certificate in ESG Investing (2019); BComm (Financial Accounting) (2003), University of Cape Town, South Africa; Diploma in Financial Accounting (2005; Hons.), University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Peter is an institutional portfolio manager on the BlueBay Fixed Income team, focusing on Investment Grade. Since starting his current role in 2013, he has primarily focused on the alternative funds within the Investment Grade platform. As an IPM, Peter is a client-facing representative of the investment team and responsible for presenting the investment grade portfolios to prospective and invested clients, as well as assisting the business development function in the servicing of client assets. Peter joined the firm in 2011, and prior to this worked at the Royal Bank of Scotland in London as a financial controller. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloitte in South Africa with experience in Johannesburg and Chicago. Peter started his career in the investment industry in 2010. 

Senior Portfolio Manager
Sparinvest

David Orr joined Sparinvest in October 2007 as an analyst, becoming a Portfolio Manager in 2009 and Senior Portfolio Manager in February 2012. Orr has been heavily involved in developing and implementing sustainable investment and stewardship practices within Sparinvest. Prior to joining Sparinvest, Orr had spent four years at Daiwa Securities in London, working in Japanese equity sales. He had previously spent three years working in Japan, primarily for local government. Orr holds a BA in English Law & French law from the University of Oxford, and an MA (Distinction) in Advanced Japan Studies from the University of Sheffield.

CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager
Sparinvest

Mark Feasey joined Sparinvest in 2016 as a Senior Analyst in the Value Equities team, becoming a Senior Portfolio Manager in 2020. Before joining Sparinvest, Feasey worked as an analyst and portfolio manager at Clearbridge Investments from 2005 to 2015. He has also worked at Hotchkis and Wiley Capital Management and BARRA Inc. Feasey holds a B.Sc. in Statistics from the University of Bath, where he graduated with a First Class (Honours) Degree as well as a M.B.A. in Finance from The Anderson School UCLA, Los Angeles.