UK Pensions Seminar

As Global Head of Consultant Relations, Debbie has responsibility for the consultant strategy at Aberdeen Standard Investments which is implemented globally. In particular, she seeks to ensure that relationships are strong with consultants across all key markets, with a coordinated and consistent approach to working with these important stakeholders.

Debbie has more than 30 years’ experience in the asset management industry with a particular focus on consultant and client relationship roles.

Sir Douglas assumed the role of Chairman with effect from 1 January 2019. Douglas is also Chairman of IP Group plc, Non-Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Studies and Member of the Global Advisory Council of Motive Partners.

Additionally, he is Chairman of the Just Finance Foundation, the Corporate Board of Cancer Research UK and Trustee of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. In December 2017 he was appointed by the Chancellor as Special Envoy to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Previously, Sir Douglas served as Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc from 2010 to 2017. For fifteen years prior to this he was HSBC’s Group Finance Director, joining from KPMG where he was a Partner. Between 2005 and 2011 he also served as a Non-Executive Director of BP plc.

Craig Mackenzie leads the Strategic Asset Allocation team, part of the Global Strategy group, at Aberdeen Standard Investments. The team is responsible for the firm’s long-term investment views and strategy. Craig has had a long career in the investment industry: he established successful governance and sustainability functions at Friends, Ivory & Sime and at Insight Investment; he created BMOs innovative reo® corporate governance service; and helped set up the Principles for Responsible Investment and the FTSE4Good index family. Craig has a PhD in behavioural finance, and is a senior lecturer at Edinburgh University Business School. He has published widely on long-term and sustainable investment topics.

Paul Diggle is a Senior Research Economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments. Paul is responsible for our European economic analysis and forecasting, as well as our research into long term growth drivers, structural economic trends, and the output gap. Paul joined Aberdeen Asset Management in 2015 from Capital Economics, where he covered the US and UK economies. Previously, Paul worked for Volterra Partners, where he developed Basel II capital adequacy models for retail banks.

Paul’s undergraduate studies were at the University of Oxford, where he graduated with an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. His postgraduate studies were at Birkbeck, University of London, where he graduated with an MSc in Economics. He holds the Investment Management Certificate.

David is a senior member of the Global Investment Specialist Team specialising in absolute return and multi-asset investing. He works closely with the fund management, product development and business teams on ensuring that our investment strategies are accurately communicated and promoting the ongoing development of our investment propositions in the multi-asset marketplace.

David started his investment career as an equity market strategist with Credit Lyonnais Securities in 1987 before joining and subsequently leading JP Morgan’s European Quant Team. In 2003, David joined Henderson Global Investors, initially as Director of Global Sector and Theme Research, and from 2005 was the Fund Manager of the European Style Rotational Long/Short Fund. In 2011, David became Head of Quantitative Research at Monument Securities.

Amanda leads the global ESG Investment research function at Aberdeen Standard Investments, where the focus is on integrating ESG issues into the mainstream investment process. Amanda was previously the Head of Responsible Investment at Standard Life Investments and held positions in responsible investment and economic research at Newton Investment Management, CCLA Investment Management and Rabobank International. Amanda graduated from Lancaster University with a BSc in Psychology and has completed the University of Edinburgh Business School’s Executive Women’s Leadership Programme. Amanda leads a workstream for the UK Government’s Taskforce on social impact investment, is a board director for Social Investment Scotland’s SIS Ventures fund and currently Chairs the FTSE Russell ESG Advisory Committee. She served on the board of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) for six years. In 2017 and 2018, Amanda was included in the Financial News list of the top 100 most influential women in Finance.

Douglas joined Aberdeen Standard Investments in 2014, initially as a Client Director looking after a range of institutional clients across the UK, before joining the Outcome-based Product Strategies and Solutions team in April 2018. Douglas is a qualified actuary and previously worked as an actuary at the Punter Southall Group. Across his career Douglas has provided advice to both trustees and sponsoring employers of pension schemes on a wide range of issues from actuarial valuations to investment strategy reviews and designing de-risking solutions for his clients. Douglas has 16 years’ experience in the industry and 3 years’ experience at Aberdeen Standard Investments.

Lesley Duncan is Deputy Head of UK equities at Aberdeen Standard Investments. She is responsible for the management of the UK Ethical Fund, the UK Equity Impact – Employment Opportunities Fund and a number of UK equity segregated mandates. Lesley is also the UK analyst for the Household Goods and Support Services (ex Business Support Services) sectors.

Lesley worked at Bothwell Asset Management as a Trainee Analyst before joining Standard Life in 1995 as a Trainee Investment Analyst on the UK Equity desk. Lesley has a BA (Hons), Post Grad IIMR, MPhil.

Marianne Zangerl is an Investment Director in the Fixed Income team at Aberdeen Standard Investments. She is a portfolio manager of various multi-sector private funds and has responsibility for originating and underwriting infrastructure debt transactions. Prior to joining Aberdeen Standard Investments in February 2015 she worked at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in Sydney and London with a focus on infrastructure debt. Marianne holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney.

Mark leads the Outcome-based Product Strategy & Solutions team where he is globally responsible for driving innovation and product strategy across LDI, CDI and looking to identify opportunities across regions and client types. Mark joined Aberdeen Standard Investments in early 2011 and is leading the continued development of our Liability Aware investment capability. He began his career at Aegon and was involved in advising pension schemes on a range of investment and actuarial issues. Mark then moved to Mercer’s Edinburgh office where he was a senior investment consultant. He was also part of their UK Strategy team, Financial Strategy Group and was leader of the Edinburgh team for his last two years. Mark has 19 years’ experience in the industry and 8 years’ experience at Aberdeen Standard Investments.

Nalaka De Silva is responsible for developing and implementing strategies across the Private Markets spectrum. This includes investments across Private Equity, Infrastructure, Real Estate, Natural Resources and Private Credit on a global basis. Solutions based strategies are designed around client outcomes including growth, income and inflation. Nalaka is the Portfolio Manager for the ASI’s Global Private Markets Fund.

Nalaka joined Aberdeen Standard Investments in 2012. Prior to this, Nalaka held senior roles at Australian and European Investment management firms. He has lead M&A activity, off-market acquisitions and divestments of assets, offshore and onshore capital rising in debt and equity markets. Nalaka is a Qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a postgraduate degree in Commercial Law and Accounting.

Misha Glenny is an author, journalist and specialist on Eastern and Southeastern Europe, organised crime and cybersecurity. He has served as Central Europe correspondent for the Guardian and the BBC.

During the late 1980s and 1990s Glenny reported extensively on the Balkan wars of Independence that followed the collapse of Yugoslavia. Since then he has acted as consultant to several European governments and the EU on the Balkans. Glenny has also advised the US departments of State and of Justice on US-European relationships and on organised crime. He speaks regularly at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Misha is the author of several books on Central and Eastern Europe. Away from European politics, he has written the acclaimed book McMafia (which was adapted into a hit BBC drama of the same title), about the problem of international organised crime which, he believes, may now account for more than 20% of global GDP. Alongside this he has been appointed a visiting professor at Columbia University specialising in ‘crime in transition’ looking at the new world of cyber-crime. He also co-wrote DarkMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia looking at examples of the new global criminality and the world of cyberattacks.