Welcome to the Polar Capital Investor Conference 2025

25 February 2025 | The May Fair Hotel, London

We are delighted to confirm details for the Polar Capital Investor Conference 2025.

The persistent macroeconomic, geopolitical and monetary/fiscal policy challenges over the past year have created both uncertainty and opportunity.

While we may be seeing signs of stabilisation, the investment backdrop continues to evolve, with sector rotation and market dynamics creating fresh opportunities, particularly for fundamental, active investors. During the Conference we will explore the key themes driving markets today and the strategies we believe can support you and your client portfolios over the long term.

We trust the lineup of speakers will provide an interesting view of the opportunities, and challenges, that lie ahead. The emphasis of our Conference, as always, will be on debate and discussion, combining plenary sessions with more inclusive, smaller discussion groups. The topics will include research-driven strategies across asset classes, geographies and themes in a timetable tailored to suit you.

Once again, the venue will be The May Fair Hotel in London and the date for your diary is Tuesday 25 February 2025. We hope you can join us and we look forward to an engaging and informative day.

Iain Evans | Global Head of Distribution

Agenda

12:00 - 12:55	Registration and Networking Lunch
13:00 - 13:05	Welcome Remarks
13:05 - 13:30	Elevator Pitches Financials: Tom Dorner Energy Transition: Junwei Hafner-Cai Artificial Intelligence: Fred Holt & Nick Dumas-Williams
13:35 - 15:15	Breakout Sessions
15:15 - 15:35	Coffee Break
15:40 - 16:45	Breakout Sessions
16:50 - 17:35	Keynote Speaker Sir Ben Wallace
17:35 - 17:40	Closing Remarks
17:40 - 19:00	Drinks Reception

Keynote Speaker

We are pleased to confirm our Keynote speaker as Sir Ben Wallace, a former British Army Officer and Secretary of State for Defence from 2019-23.

He is one of the most experienced politicians in the fields of defence, security and foreign affairs, having been the longest-serving Defence Secretary in over 20 years, with the second-longest tenure in the history of the role. His time at the Ministry of Defence coincided with key events in Ukraine, Britain’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and he saw the rapid changes in the nature and source of threats.

With extensive knowledge of many aspects of security and geopolitics, he will talk about the relationships, personalities, risks and priorities that shape the world. He will also explore the big picture issues that affect everything from investment to supply chains and consider what the future holds for investors and politicians alike.

Sir Ben Wallace | Former British Army Officer and Secretary of State for Defence

Breakout Sessions & Speakers

Artificial Intelligence

Unlocking the AI investment opportunity: a discontinuous technology breakthrough that will reshape all sectors

China

China's big pivot: rekindling animal spirits through policy stimulus

Emerging Markets

Emerging markets are poised to inflect. Investors must harness future growth under a new Multipolar World.

Energy Transition

Powering the AI revolution

European Income

European ex-UK dividends – the best form of defence and attack

European Opportunities

Looking for superior companies at compelling valuations across Europe and the UK

Financial Equity

Financials: The biggest beneficiary of a rotation out of growth into value

Financial Credit

Financials: The only free lunch in credit?

Global Absolute Return (long/short)

Generating low risk, uncorrelated returns from a strategy that has never had a loss-making year¹

Global Convertible Bonds (long only)

A strategy that offers good income and upside participation with downside protection, to help solve asset allocation difficulties

Healthcare

Key drivers for a growth acceleration story

Insurance

A low-correlated sector ideally suited for today's volatile market conditions

Japan

Unlocking value in Japanese equities

North America

Compounding and value in the world's broadest stock market

Technology

Capturing the growth potential of the technology sector, reinvigorated and reimagined by Generative AI

Headwinds are turning into tailwinds for UK investors

1. Polar Capital Global Absolute Return Fund, USD I Acc Share Class, 30 August 2024. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance.

Register

We are now implementing a waitlist for the Polar Capital Investor Conference 2025 as registrations are full.
Please email investorconference@polarcapital.co.uk to register your interest in joining the waitlist, and we will get back in touch with you ASAP.

Contact us

Investorconference@polarcapital.co.uk

+(0) 44 20 7227 2700

Venue

The conference will take place at:

The May Fair Hotel
Stratton Street
London
W1J 8LT

View on Google Maps

Xuesong Zhao

Partner

Xuesong joined Polar Capital in May 2012. He is a lead manager of the Polar Capital Artificial Intelligence Fund and is a Fund Manager on the Polar Capital Technology Trust and Polar Capital Global Technology Fund.

Prior to joining Polar Capital, he spent four years working as an investment analyst within the emerging markets & Asia team at Aviva Investors, where he was responsible for the technology, media and telecom sectors.

Prior to that, he worked as a quantitative analyst and risk manager for the emerging market debt team at Pictet Asset Management. He started his career as a financial engineer at Algorithmics, now owned by IBM, in 2005.

Nick Dumas-Williams

Investment Analyst

Nick joined Polar Capital in June 2019 as an analyst on the Polar Capital Technology team. Prior to joining Polar Capital, Nick worked at Neptune Investment Management as the Assistant Fund Manager on the US Opportunities growth fund. Prior to that he worked in academia at the University of Oxford.

Thiemo Lang

Senior Portfolio Manager

Thiemo is Head of the Sustainable Thematic Equity Team and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Polar Capital Smart Energy and Smart Mobility strategies. Before joining Polar Capital in September 2021, Thiemo was the Head of Thematic Investing Energy/Mobility/Materials of Robeco Switzerland Ltd, Zurich, being the lead manager of the RobecoSAM Smart Energy and the Smart Mobility strategies. Prior to joining Robeco in 2007, Thiemo was Senior Portfolio Manager at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie of the Infology Fund, where he was in charge of the sub-sectors semiconductors and “new technologies”. Thiemo began his investment career at his previous job at Activest/HypoVereinsbank, Munich in 1999. Being promoted to Portfolio Manager in 2002, he held the performance responsibility for the “Activest Lux NanoTech” fund. Before moving to the financial industry, Thiemo worked at Siemens as a development engineer. Thiemo holds a PhD from the Grenoble Institute of Technology in Optics/Photonics, and an engineering degree (Diploma of Electronics) from the University of Stuttgart.

Nick Davis

Fund Manager

Nick joined Polar Capital in September 2014 to set up the European Income team.

Prior to this, he was with Threadneedle where he managed the Threadneedle European Fund and Pan European Equity Dividend Fund, both of which were top quartile performers since inception. Nick was also deputy fund manager of the Threadneedle European Select Fund. Previously, he was a sell-side analyst at Sanford Bernstein and a chartered accountant with Deloitte.

Daniel Tse

Fund Manager

Daniel joined Polar Capital in June 2013. He works as a Deputy Fund Manager on the European Income team. His primary responsibilities are stock analysis and supporting the Lead Fund Manager.

Nick Brind

Fund Manager

Nick joined Polar Capital following the acquisition of HIM Capital in September 2010, and is co-manager of Polar Capital Global Financial Trust and lead manager of the Polar Capital Financial Credit Fund. He has investment experience across a wide range of asset classes but since 2003 has focused on global financials.

Before joining HIM Capital, Nick worked at New Star Asset Management. While there, he managed the New Star Financial Opportunities Fund, a high-income financials fund investing in the equity and fixed-income securities of European financials companies. Previous to that, he worked at Exeter Asset Management and Capel-Cure Myers.

George Barrow

Fund Manager

George joined Polar Capital in September 2010 as an analyst on the Financials Team. He is a co-manager on the Polar Capital Financial Opportunities Fund, and the Polar Capital Global Financials Trust, with Nick Brind and Tom Dorner.

He has over 10 years' experience analysing Europe, Asia and emerging markets. Prior to joining Polar Capital, he was an analyst at HIM Capital from 2008 where he completed his IMC.

Tom Dorner

Fund Manager

Tom joined Polar Capital as a Fund Manager in the Financials team in December 2023. He is a co-manager on the Polar Capital Global Financials Trust, with Nick Brind and George Barrow.

He joined from abrdn where he was a Senior Investment Director in the Developed Markets team and managed the abrdn Europe ex UK Income Equity Fund. He was responsible for analytical coverage of European financials and managed a number of other European investment funds during his nine years there. Prior to this, he was an analyst specialising in the European Insurance sector at Citi and Lehman Brothers in London.

Jack Deegan

Fund Manager

Jack joined as an analyst in October 2017 working closely with Nick Brind on the Income Opportunities Fund. He is a Fund Manager on the Financial Credit Fund. Prior to this, he worked at DBRS Ratings, covering the Swiss market as a lead analyst, as well as UK, Dutch, Japanese and Australian banks. Before DBRS, Jack worked in the Markets Division of the Bank of England for four years, assessing financial institutions with a view to determining access to the Bank's Sterling Monetary Framework (SMF) facilities, and internal counterparty trading limits.

Nick Brind

Fund Manager

George Barrow

Fund Manager

He has over 10 years' experience analysing Europe, Asia and emerging markets. Prior to joining Polar Capital, he was an analyst at HIM Capital from 2008 where he completed his IMC.

Tom Dorner

Fund Manager

Tom joined Polar Capital as a Fund Manager in the Financials team in December 2023. He is a co-manager on the Polar Capital Global Financials Trust, with Nick Brind and George Barrow.

Jack Deegan

Fund Manager

David Keetley

Fund Manager

David joined Polar Capital in October 2010 to establish the global convertibles team and is co-manager of the Global Convertible Fund and the Global Absolute Return Fund.

David is an experienced convertible bond specialist, having spent 36 years in the asset class in both investment banking and investment management. Before joining Polar Capital in October 2010 to establish the Convertible team, he was joint CEO of Vicis Capital (UK) Ltd which he joined in 2006 to set up and manage the international convertible portfolio of the New York-based hedge fund. David started his career at Salomon Brothers International and moved to Baii (a subsidiary of BNP Paribas) in 1987, where he first started managing convertibles. He joined Schroders in 1996 and Citigroup in 2000 following the Citi takeover of Schroder Investment Bank.

Stephen McCormick

Fund Manager

Stephen joined Polar Capital in October 2010 and is co-manager of the Global Convertible Fund and the Global Absolute Return Fund.

Prior to moving into convertible trading, Stephen was a research analyst at Tucker Anthony. In 1993 he became a partner in Forum Capital Markets, eventually joining Paine Webber in 1994 where he went on to manage their convertible department until 1998. He was a senior member of the convertible sales team at Morgan Stanley before establishing and managing Valmiki Capital Management in 2005. The following year, he moved to Moore Capital where he, as a member of a three-person team, managed a $1bn global long/short equity portfolio before joining Vicis Capital to manage the US convertible bond portfolio in 2008.

1. Polar Capital Global Absolute Return Fund, USD I Acc Share Class, 30 August 2024. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance.

David Keetley

Fund Manager

David joined Polar Capital in October 2010 to establish the global convertibles team and is co-manager of the Global Convertible Fund and the Global Absolute Return Fund.

Stephen McCormick

Fund Manager

Stephen joined Polar Capital in October 2010 and is co-manager of the Global Convertible Fund and the Global Absolute Return Fund.

Gareth Powell

Head of Healthcare

Gareth joined Polar Capital in 2007 to set up the Healthcare team. Prior to Polar Capital, Gareth worked at Framlington, where he began his career in investment management in 1999. Soon afterwards, he joined the Healthcare Team in 2001 and helped launch the Framlington Biotech Fund, which he managed from 2004 until his departure.

Gareth studied biochemistry at Oxford, during which time he worked at Yamanouchi, a leading Japanese pharmaceutical company (later to become Astellas). As well as this, Gareth worked for the Oxford Business School and various academic laboratories including the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology and the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research.

David Pinniger

Fund Manager

David joined Polar Capital in August 2013 as a portfolio manager within the Healthcare team, to launch the Polar Capital Biotechnology Fund. Prior to joining Polar Capital, David was portfolio manager of the International Biotechnology Trust at SV Life Sciences.

Previously, David spent three years working at venture capital firm Abingworth as an analyst managing biotechnology investments held across the firm's venture and specialist funds, and four years at Morgan Stanley as an analyst covering the European pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sector.

James Douglas

Fund Manager

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.

Nick Martin

Lead Fund Manager

Nick joined Polar Capital in September 2010 and is fund manager of the Polar Capital Global Insurance Fund (previously the Hiscox Insurance Portfolio Fund).

Nick has worked on the Fund since 2001 when he joined Hiscox plc. He participated in the management buyout of Hiscox Investment Management in 2007 when the business was renamed HIM Capital Ltd. He has developed a broad knowledge of the insurance sector during this time and from working for the chartered accountants, Mazars Neville Russell, where he specialised in audit and consultancy work for insurance companies and brokers.

Dominic Evans

Fund Manager

Dominic joined Polar Capital as an investment analyst in October 2012 from KPMG and, since March 2022, is a fund manager on the Global Insurance Fund.

Dominic previously worked as part of KPMG's insurance segment which he joined as a graduate trainee. At KPMG, he obtained broad experience working on a range of global insurance companies through roles within M&A and IPO due diligence, audit and markets. Prior to KPMG he worked for a year in corporate finance focusing on natural resource companies.

Gerard Cawley

Fund Manager

Gerard joined Polar Capital in January 2005 and is Head of the Polar Capital Japan Team.

He has been manager of the Polar Capital Japan Value Fund, formerly Japan Alpha Fund, since its launch in 2012.

Prior to joining Polar Capital, Gerard worked in the Japanese equity team at Schroder Investment Management.

Chis Smith

Co-manager

Chris Smith is co-manager of the Japan Value Fund. He joined Polar Capital in January 2012 as a Japanese equity analyst, prior to which he gained five years' experience working in accountancy.

He holds a BSc (1st Class Hons) in applied accounting and is a chartered accountant and a CFA charter holder.

Andrew Holliman

Lead Fund Manager

Andrew started his career in 1997 at Baillie Gifford, before spending seven years at Threadneedle where he managed the Threadneedle American Fund. He left to set up Polar Capital's North American team in 2011.

Richard Wilson

Co-Fund Manager

Richard started his career in 1999 at Mercury Asset Management, before working at Threadneedle for nine years managing institutional mandates on the North American equities team. He left to set up Polar Capital's North American team in 2011.

Colm Friel

Fund Manager

Colm joined Polar Capital in June 2014 working on the North American Equities team.

Prior to joining Polar Capital, Colm spent over 3 years as a global equity analyst at Seven Pillars Capital Management. Before that, he worked as an Economist for the Bank of England where he was responsible for analysis of banks and banking systems.

Nick Evans

Partner

Nick joined Polar Capital in September 2007. He was appointed lead fund manager of the Global Technology Fund on 1 January 2008, and is also a fund manager on the Polar Capital Technology Trust and the Polar Capital Artificial Intelligence Fund.

Nick was previously head of technology at AXA Framlington where he was lead fund manager of the AXA Framlington Global Technology Fund and the AWF Framlington Global Technology Fund between August 2001 and July 2007. Both funds were rated five stars by S&P and received several S&P and Lipper performance awards. Nick graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Economics from University of Hull.

Ben Rogoff

Partner

Ben joined Polar Capital in May 2003. He is lead manager of Polar Capital Technology Trust plc and is a Fund Manager of the Polar Capital Global Technology Fund and Polar Capital Artificial Intelligence Fund.

Prior to joining Polar Capital, Ben began his career in fund management at CMI, as a global technology analyst. He moved to Aberdeen Asset Managers in 1998 where he spent four years as a senior technology manager.

Fatima Iu

Fund Manager

Fatima joined Polar Capital in April 2006. She is a fund manager on the Polar Capital Technology Fund, Polar Capital Technology Trust and Polar Capital Artificial Intelligence Fund. She is responsible for the coverage of European Technology, Global Security, Networking, Clean Energy and Medical Technology.

Prior to joining Polar, Fatima spent 18 months working at Citigroup Asset Management with a focus on consumer products and pharmaceuticals.

Alastair Unwin

Fund Manager

Alastair joined Polar Capital in June 2019 as a Fund Manager. Prior to joining Polar Capital, Alastair co-managed the Arbrook American Equities Fund. Between 2014 and 2018 he launched and then managed the Neptune Global Technology Fund and managed the Neptune US Opportunities Fund. Prior to Neptune, Alastair was a technology analyst at Herald Investment Management.

George Godber

Fund Manager

George joined Polar Capital in April 2017 to manage the Polar Capital UK Value Opportunities Fund with Georgina Hamilton. Prior to this, George managed the CF Miton UK Value Opportunities Fund and the Miton Undervalued Assets Fund at Miton Group.

Previously, George co-founded Matterley Asset Management in 2008 and was co-manager of the group’s Undervalued Assets Fund. Before founding Matterley, George was a Director of Equity Sales at Credit Suisse.

Georgina Hamilton

Fund Manager

Georgina joined Polar Capital in October 2016 to set up the UK Value Team. Prior to this, she was with Miton Group where she managed the CF Miton UK Value Opportunities Fund and the Miton Undervalued Assets Fund.

Previously, Georgina was a lead analyst for the Undervalued Assets Fund at Matterley Asset Management. Georgina holds a double first in Biological Anthropology and Natural Sciences from Jesus College, Cambridge and is a CFA charterholder.

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