Global Equity Forum

Hugh graduated from the London School of Economics with a degree in Economics. He joined Gartmore in 1987 as a UK equities graduate trainee and moved to Phillips & Drew in 1990, managing UK equities throughout his twelve years there. He became Head of Smaller Companies in 1997, establishing a new team and launching the UBS Smaller Companies Fund. In March 2000 Hugh was promoted to Head of UK Equities at UBS Global Asset Management and Chairman of the UK Equities Committee. He joined Société Générale Asset Management in 2002 where he was Head of UK Equities, manager of the Growth strategy and co-manager of the Special Opportunities Fund.

Hugh was one of the founding members of River and Mercantile, joining in August 2006. Hugh is Head of Value and Recovery strategies and manages the UK Equity High Alpha, UK Recovery, Global Recovery and Global High Alpha strategies.

Ben Peters is the co-founder of Evenlode and is a fund manager on the Evenlode Global Income Fund, launched in 2017. He has worked on the Evenlode Income fund since launch in 2009.

Prior to launching Evenlode Ben was a physicist, holding a doctorate from the University of Oxford and a first-class degree from University College London. He holds the Investment Management Certificate and level 1 of the Chartered Financial Analyst qualification.

George Cooke, CFA joined Montanaro in 2010 as a Healthcare Analyst. He became a Fund Manager in 2012 and Head of Fund Management in 2022. He currently manages the LF Montanaro Global Select Fund, a Global Small Cap segregated mandate and a range of European products, including the Montanaro European Smaller Companies Trust.

Mick is a portfolio manager within the global equity team and is based in Brown Advisory’s London office. He joined Brown Advisory in 2014 from HSBC Global Asset Management in Hong Kong where he was the co-head of Asian equities. While at HSBC, he was responsible for managing a range of strategies: quality/dividend, large-cap and small-cap focused pan-Asian equity, as well as a number of country-specific strategies. Previously, he managed a global equity long/short fund for HSBC in London and was a global technology equity analyst at Arete Research early in his career.

Natasha Kaplinsky is one of television's best-known broadcasters. She has previously worked as one of the anchors for ITN network and was the Face of Five, anchoring the channel's main evening news programme. She has also been the co-host of 6 O'Clock News and BBC Breakfast as well as being a news presenter with Meridian and Carlton. Whilst working as a leading member of the presenting team at Sky News the channel won a BAFTA for Best News Channel.

Her TV credits include Children In Need, The VE Day Celebrations, The Royal Variety Show, That Sunday Night Show, and Have I Got News For You. She has also hosted many one-off documentaries including The People's Medal, Missing: Without Trace and On the Run. She recently presented Images of Diana for BBC Radio 5 Live, a documentary series examining pictures of the Princess of Wales.

If you have any questions regarding this event, please email events@globalequityforum.com