The Senior Investment Team

Within our manager research and monitoring team of over 45 investment professionals, there are a number who have specific responsibility for managing our funds and the underlying managers.

James Millard – Chief Investment Officer, Skandia Investment Group

James is a member of SIG's executive team and is responsible for overall strategy, direction, control and management of the investments function. As CIO he leads one of the largest and most internationally diverse investment teams of its kind. He is a key participant in and chairman of the investment committee that scrutinises all decisions across all asset classes.

James joined Skandia in 2004 initially leading Asia Pacific, Japan and UK manager selection. He then became Head of Equity Research, before becoming CIO of Skandia Investment Group in April 2007.

Prior to Skandia, James was at Orbis Investment Advisory Limited in London, working as part of the team managing Orbis' award-winning Japan and global funds. Hitherto, he worked for KPMG in its Financial Business Unit, servicing Asset Managers, Investment Banks and Pension Funds.

James is a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. He was educated at Durham University.

Ryan Hughes – Senior Fund Manager

Ryan joined Skandia in January 2006 from Chartwell Asset Management where he was Head of Discretionary Management, running MultiManager portfolios for private clients. Ryan has a BA (Hons) in Business Studies and is a holder of both the Financial Planning Certificate and the Investment Management Certificate. Ryan has over 10 years’ investment research and fund management experience.

Ryan has joint responsibility for portfolio management and asset allocation decisions on our MultiManager funds.

François Zagamé – Portfolio Manager

François joined Skandia in October 2007 from Insight Investment, where he was Director of Fund Manager Selection, and brings with him 13 years of research experience from a number of investment roles. Prior to joining Insight, François worked at UBS for two and a half years ending as Head of the UK fund and manager research. Previously, he was an analyst and fund manager at AIG Global Investments. François holds an MA in Finance from the Université de Paris II and an MBA from the London Business School. He also holds the Investment Management Certificate.

François has joint responsibility for portfolio management and asset allocation decisions on our MultiManager funds.

John Ventre – Portfolio Manager

John has more than 11 years of industry experience, having previously worked as an exchange-traded derivatives broker with ADM Investor Services International, trading commodities and equity volatility, and latterly as a partner in a start-up private client investment management and brokerage firm on the Isle of Man. John was previously associated with Alternative Investment Strategies Limited, the first closed-ended fund of hedge funds listed in London, as well as teaching the Derivatives module on the Isle of Man for Liverpool Business School. He holds a BA (Hons) in Law from Peterhouse, Cambridge and an MA (Cantab).

John has joint responsibility for portfolio management and asset allocation decisions on our MultiManager funds.

Adam Smears – Head of Investment Research & Portfolio Manager

Adam started in the industry in 1997, having been a mutual funds associate with RBC Dominion Securities in Toronto before joining Fidelity in London where he was a senior fund analyst. He joined the Skandia Investment Research Team in 2003 and has overall responsibility for investment research and fixed interest portfolio management. Adam graduated from McGill University, Montreal, with a BA in Ancient History and Classics, and also holds the CFA.

Anthony Gillham – Portfolio Manager and Manager Analyst

Anthony graduated from the University of Southampton with a BSc in Geography in August 2000. He joined Skandia that year on the Graduate Development Programme and transferred to the Skandia Investment Research Team in 2002. Anthony has joint responsibility for portfolio management and asset allocation decisions on our Fixed Income MultiManager funds and for Fixed Income manager research. Anthony is a CFA Charterholder and holds the Investment Management Certificate.

Lee Freeman-Shor – Portfolio Manager

Lee joined Skandia in October 2005 and has more than 10 years' industry experience having previously worked in Private Client Investment Management as an Investment Development Manager with Winterthur Life and, more recently with Schroder Investment Management. Lee graduated from Nottingham Law School with an LLB (Hons) degree. He holds the Investment Management Certificate.

Our Asset Allocation Team

Rupert Watson – Head of Asset Allocation

Rupert joined Skandia in May 2009 and was previously Managing Director at Black River Asset Management where he managed their Global Macro Fund. Prior to that he worked for Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Investec Asset Management, BlackRock Investment Management and the Bank of England. Rupert holds an MA (Hons) in Economics from Edinburgh University and also holds the Investment Management Certificate.

Abbas Owainati – Economist

Prior to joining Skandia Abbas worked with Bloomberg LP as an Economic Analyst/Researcher where his main focus was on the UK economy and Gulf Cooperation Council region, being responsible for all macroeconomic and money market data. He graduated from the University of Essex with an MSc (with Merit) in Economics following an Undergraduate Degree (Hons) in Financial Economics. The main focus of his academic work was International Money and Finance, International Trade and Macroeconomics.