In MONEY magazine

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

DO YOU think all fund managers went to public school and Oxbridge and used their social connections to get where they are? If you said yes, you would be wrong.

As well as Oxbridge types, the ranks of leading fund managers include a former clerk, a science teacher and a supermarket shelf stacker.

In money management, background is no longer important.

At 37, Ann Hall is head of US equities at Henderson Global Investors, responsible for managing assets in excess of £2 billion. She also controls the American portfolios of Henderson's two big international investment trusts - the £1.7 billion Witan trust and the £333 million Henderson Electric & General trust. Yet Hall started out as a humble administrative clerk in insurance before finding her forte.

When it comes to determining what makes a good fund manager, Hall believes there are no longer any hard and fast rules. 'There are plenty of ways of doing this job wrong, but no defined way of doing it correctly,' she says. 'A lot boils down to good old common sense, seeing the bigger picture and being hugely cynical.'

Hall relaxes by playing golf near her home in Wimbledon, south-west London, but says work is never far from her mind. 'This job never leaves you,' she says. 'But you are evaluated on performance, not on the hours you put in. Perform and survive. 'And given that fund management is the only job I can do well, I have no choice but to keep on performing.'

Dedication and a passion for fund management are qualities that Hall shares with most of her peers.

Peter Webb, whose main fund is the £109 million Eaglet investment trust, left school at 16 to stack shelves at Tesco before becoming a bank clerk. 'I am a good fund manager,' he says. 'Ever since I got the bit between my teeth, I've wanted to be the best.'

And he says that when it comes to fund management, his experience counts for far more than a university degree. 'You never stop learning in this business and if you do, it is time to give up,' he says. 'Total dedication is the hallmark of a quality fund manager.'

His record among UK smaller company investment trusts is unrivalled. Over the past three and five years its price has increased by 149% and 246% respectively - far more than any other comparable investment trust.

Of course, there are fund managers who entered their chosen field by a more conventional route than Webb or Hall. Tim Russell graduated from Keble College, Oxford, with an MA in politics, philosophy and economics.

At 39, he is head of UK equities at HSBC Asset Management and manages four investment funds worth a total of £1.8 billion.

Though he admits he is academically gifted, he says it has little to do with making him a good fund manager. He says it is about having a belief in your judgment.

'There is no right or wrong way to run an investment fund,' he says. 'There are lots of ways to get the same results, but what a good fund manager does is find a way that works for them and then sticks to it.'

Bond babe who made a killing
FEW people undergo career transitions quite as stunning as that made by Fiona Fullerton.

The former actress, who appeared in the Bond film A View To A Kill, has reinvented herself as a property magnate.

Fiona paid £10,250 for her first flat in Ealing, west London, when she was just 19. Though she was pursuing an acting career at the time, she quickly realised that investing in property could be lucrative. 'It was full of chipboard, but I made it look charming,' she says of her first flat.

'It was the first time I realised that I could take something shabby and turn it into something marketable that people would like. I sold it two years later and made a killing. That first property was probably the best investment I ever made.'

She later bought a flat in Knightsbridge for £87,000 and sold it for £240,000 in 1987, just before the property crash - a move that she attributes more to luck than judgment.

But since then her judgment has become increasingly astute. She bought and sold more property in central London and eventually decided to buy flats to let, and to start building a property portfolio.

She set up a property business in 1994 and has written How To Make Money From Your Property. A second book is on the way.

So how did she realise she could make the transition from Bond girl to property magnate? 'I have a good business brain,' she says. 'I am good at deals and I love a bargain. I'm tough and I get top dollar for everything I sell, but I'll only pay a bargain price.'

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