Paul Robinson

Founder & Executive Chairman

Role

Paul founded Alquity in 2010 and is responsible for developing Alquity’s future strategy and driving growth through uncovering new opportunities and raising awareness across all stakeholders.

Biography

Paul has an HND in Business and Finance from Brighton University as well as attending executive leadership programmes at Harvard, INSEAD and London Business School.

Paul has spent the last 20 years building businesses, mainly within the financial services and fund management sector. A keen social entrepreneur, Paul funded and helped build Global Ethics, an ethical goods company operating businesses under the “One” Brand which have generated over £15m in donations to date.

These experiences led Paul to found Alquity, a business that uses social responsibility as a competitive financial advantage.

Brad Crombie

CEO

Role

Chief Executive Officer

Biography

Previously Mr. Crombie was Global Head of Fixed Income at Aberdeen Asset Management, now a part of Standard Life Aberdeen PLC, a FTSE 100-listed asset manager, where he served on the company’s executive committee as well as Director of its principal UK operating subsidiaries. Prior to joining Aberdeen, Mr. Crombie was Managing Director and Head of EMEA Non-Financials Credit Research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He started his investing career in European High Yield.

Mr. Crombie also serves on the Business Strategy Committee of the Global Risk Institute in Financial Services and the Advisory Group on McGill University in the UK and Europe. From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Crombie served as a founding member of the Advisory Council of the FICC Market Standards Board (FMSB), the body created following the UK’s Fair and Effective Markets Review (FEMR), initially serving on its Conduct & Ethics Sub-Committee.

He graduated from McGill University with a BA Degree in History and Political Science and an MA Degree in History and went on to read History in the PhD. programme at the University of Cambridge.

Suresh Mistry

Co-Founder

Role

Suresh is responsible for the company’s key client relationships in Asia and works alongside the investment team on Alquity’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) development and Impact Reporting. Suresh writes and speaks regularly on Alquity’s unique virtuous circle business model and leading ESG investment process at industry conferences and events. Suresh was instrumental in establishing the Alquity business at its outset in 2010.

Biography

Suresh holds an MBA from London Business School and a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Nottingham.

Suresh has over 25 years’ of management experience in senior commercial roles and leading major consulting assignments. Trained in corporate finance at Lloyds Bank, he has worked with the likes of Barclays and 3i on developing and implementing business strategy, specialising in sales and marketing.

Mike Sell

Head of Global Emerging Market Equities

Role

Mike joined Alquity in 2014 and is responsible for all equity investments across Global Emerging Markets.

Biography

Mike holds a First Class BA in Economics from Southampton University and was awarded the Pearce Rowan prize.

Mike has over 20 years’ experience investing in Asian equities. He joined Baring Asset Management as a graduate trainee in 1994, where he became a member of the Emerging Market Asset Allocation Committee. Mike then joined Thames River / Nevsky Capital where he was subsequently appointed a partner and was part of the team that grew the Emerging market equity assets from approximately US$150m to US$3.5bn, before moving to F&C with the long only Emerging Market business in 2011.

Benoit Ribaud

Sales Director

Role

Benoit joined Alquity in 2013 to lead the development of the firm in Europe and Latin America. He is in charge of the relationship management with institutional clients and our distributor network in these regions.

Biography

Benoit holds a MSc in Management from Grenoble Ecole de Management and a MBA from Cardiff University. He speaks French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Prior to joining the firm, he worked for several years as a Senior Analyst for the Mactavish Group, a leading expert in insurance governance and risk management, and a variety of roles in Consulting and International Business Development.

Liam Kelly

Head of Operations

Role

Liam joined Alquity in 2016, and since November 2018 has been responsible for managing operational processes including relationship management with external parties, which includes the fund administrator and management company based in Luxembourg. He also provides data and analytical support for the sales and investment teams.

Biography

Liam holds a BA in History and Politics from the University of Hull, and in 2015 he spent a year in New York interning at Citi Private Bank as a Business Analyst in the Chief Operating Office of the Global Managed Investments department.

Katie Harmer

Senior Operations Analyst

Role

Katie covers a number of operational tasks, procedures and projects to support the operations, sales and investment management teams. This includes daily updates and reconciliation of data for the portfolio management system, day to day management of cash flow, releasing daily prices, reconciliation of internal systems back to third party providers, dealing with invoices, maintaining investor sales data and preparation of sales reports.

Biography

Katie joined Alquity directly from Kent University where she completed an MA in International Relations.

Cynthia Cano

Deputy Portfolio Manager

Head of ESG Data Science Engineering

Role

Cyn is responsible for identifying and visualising data drivers of ESG and financial returns, conducting back testing and other quantitative analysis of indicators that are most impactful on performance of investments.

Biography

Cyn graduated with a BS in Economics from Universidad del Pacifico and has a MSc in Psychology of Economic Life from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), focused in particular on economic decision-making, behaviour change and sustainable consumption.

Cyn has wide experience in development consulting, focusing on business analytics, quantitative research and commercial and investment management.

Gergely Ürmössy

Global Macro and Portfolio Strategist

Role

Gergely supports the investment team with macro analysis across emerging markets.

Biography

Gergely is a seasoned macroeconomic analyst and strategist with a decade experience in macro research, economic forecasting, political risk assessment, sovereign balance sheet modelling and investment strategy formulation. Gergely joined Alquity in 2018 from Erste Bank Hungary, where he spent four years as Chief Economist. He started his career as a macroeconomic analyst trainee at ING Bank. Gergely holds a masters’ degree in Economic Policy in Global Markets (graduated with distinction) from the Central European University and obtained a masters’ degree in Economics (graduated with distinction) from the Corvinus University of Budapest.

Dan Billis

Senior Investment Analyst

Role

Dan joined Alquity in 2018 and supports Mike Sell with the Asian and Indian Subcontinent funds by providing fundamental research across the regions, on both a macro and micro (stock) level

Biography

He passed the CFA® Level 1 examination on his first attempt and has a 1st Class degree in Economics from the University of Exeter. Dan joined Alquity from Invesco, where he worked as an Account Onboarding Manager.

Kieron Kader

Associate Portfolio Manager

Role

Kieron joined Alquity from BP where he performed a variety of roles at one of the largest pension funds in the UK. Most recently, he spent two years as a Global Emerging Markets equity analyst, and also covered Developed Market equities, UK property and multi-asset risk in the prior two years.

Biography

He is a CFA® charterholder with first time passes in the three Chartered Financial Analyst exams. He has a BSc Economics (1st Class) from the University of Southampton, and an MSc Economics (Distinction) from University College London (UCL).

Francisco Almada

Chief Operating Officer / Chief Financial Officer

Role

Francisco brings 20 years of operations, management, legal, control and fund structuring experience in regulated institutions such as Ibex Capital (CFO/COO), Permira Advisers (Head of Structuring), Portland Hill Capital (COO/CFO) and Ernst & Young (Director).

Biography

He has a Juris Doctor from Universidade Catolica Portuguesa (5 years, one of which at the Universita degli Studi di Torino in Italy) and is a qualified Portuguese lawyer

Renee Arnold

Director of Sales (North America)

Role

Renee joined Alquity in 2019 to lead the development of the North American market.  She is in charge of the relationship management with institutional clients and our distributor network in the United States & Canada.

Biography

Renee Arnold brings with her over 30 years experience in the investment industry and was previously Head of Business Development in Canada for Aberdeen Standard Investments.

Renee seeks to align her extensive business experience with her personal passion of providing aid to the underprivileged in the poorest areas around the world.

Marnie Uy

Head of Quantitative Risk

Role

Marnie joined Alquity in 2019 and is a Senior Investment Professional with more than 20 years of experience in investment management, focusing on quantitative research, risk management, portfolio construction, and the risk-return optimization of investment strategies.

Biography

Marnie spent over 15 years at Aberdeen Standard Investments as was formerly Global Head of Quantitative Analytics.

Marnie holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of the Philippines Diliman and a Masters of Engineering from Cornell University.

Alex Boggis

Sales Director

Role

Alex is responsible for helping to grow the Alquity business by engaging with international clients but with a focus on the UK, Australia and Scandinavia. He works closely with senior management and his colleagues to identify the best opportunities available.

Biography

Prior to joining Alquity, Alex worked for Aberdeen Asset Management for 23 years, 19 of those as the Head of the Hong Kong business with activities across North Asia and especially into China. Upon his return to the UK in 2019 he wanted to get involved in a smaller, more energetic business that was focused on Emerging Market equities, an area he knows well.

Alquity is a rarity in the industry to be both wholly engaged with the practise of ESG investing whilst exclusively focusing on Emerging Markets. A match made in heaven.

Alex has been working in the industry since 1990 having been at Crown Financial, Schroders, Prolific and then Aberdeen investment managers before joining Alquity in 2019.