Our strength
belies our size

THE BOARD

Capital Gearing Trust has a small and highly engaged board focused on ensuring the Company is run in a manner consistent with it’s investment policy and in the interests of its shareholders.

Jean Matterson
Independent Non-Executive Director, Chairman of the Board and the Nominations Committee

Appointed a Director in May 2015 and assumed the position of Chairman on 3 July 2020. Jean, until 2020, was a partner of Rossie House Investment Management in Edinburgh which specialises in private client portfolio management with particular emphasis on investment trusts. She was previously with Stewart Ivory & Co Ltd for 20 years, as an Investment Manager and director. She is a director of Herald Investment Management Limited and HIML Holdings Limited.

Paul Yates
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Management Engagement Committee

Appointed a director in December 2019. Paul is chairman of the advisory board of 33 St James’s Limited and is a non-executive director of Fidelity European Trust PLC, where is he also the senior independent director. His extensive career in investment management began at Samuel Montagu & Co in 1980. He joined Phillips and Drew in 1985, being the year that it was acquired by UBS. During his time at UBS he held a number of positions covering management, portfolio management, pensions, strategy and client service. He was CEO of UBS Global Asset Management (UK) Limited between 2001 and 2005 and, after undertaking a number of global roles at UBS, he retired in 2007.

Wendy Colquhoun
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee

Appointed a Director in January 2021. Until May 2020, Wendy was a senior corporate partner at international law firm CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP where she specialised in financial services. She has over 25 years of experience in providing advice to investment trusts. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1987, Wendy held roles with Dickson Minto WS and Linklaters before heading up the UK corporate group at Dundas & Wilson (a leading Scottish law firm) prior to its merger with CMS Cameron McKenna in 2014. She is Chairman of Henderson Opportunities Trust plc and a non-executive director of Schroder UK Mid Cap Fund plc and Murray International Trust plc.

Ravi Anand
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee

Appointed a Director in August 2023. Ravi is a highly experienced corporate financier and commercial business director. He is currently Managing Director at Thincats Group Limited, a leading alternative lender focused on the funding needs of mid-sized UK SMEs. Ravi has a wide-ranging role at Thincats from setting strategic direction to heading up the day-to-day funding activities for the group, as well as overseeing its analytics function, and as a member of its investment committee. Ravi has more than 33 years of financial services experience. He has created businesses and led numerous corporate transactions, including many in the investment companies sector. Prior to ThinCats, Ravi and was head of corporate finance at boutique investment bank Dexion Capital, head of corporate finance and alternatives at New Star Asset Management and a director of equity capital markets at HSBC Investment Bank and qualified as a chartered accountant at KPMG.

Karl Sternberg
Independent Non-Executive Director

Appointed a director in September 2024. Karl is Chairman of The Monks Investment Trust plc, Clipstone Industrial REIT plc, and Apax Global Alpha Limited, and a Non-Executive Director of Jupiter Fund Management plc and The Howard de Walden Estate. Prior to his non-executive career, he held a number of positions at Morgan Grenfell/Deutsche Asset Management between 1992 and 2004 including Chief Investment Officer for London, Australia, Europe and the Asia Pacific. He left this firm to establish institutional asset manager Oxford Investment Partners, which was acquired by Towers Watson in 2013.

Dr Theodora (Theo) Zemek
Independent Non-Executive Director

Appointed a director in November 2024. Theo is a non-executive director at BlackRock Fund Managers and EFG Asset Management (UK) Limited. Theo has over 30 years’ of experience within fixed income investment. She commenced her city career in bonds sales, moving into fund management in 1988. She spent nine years with M&G, rising to be chief investment officer of M&G International, before joining New Star Asset Management in November 2002. In March 2008, she joined AXA Investment Managers, where she was global head of fixed income and a member of AXA Investment Manager’s management board.

Investment Manager

At CG Asset Management, our investment approach is value driven, long term, and emphasises asset allocation as a powerful tool for both capital preservation and superior long run investment performance. Asset allocation decisions are driven by our view of the risks inherent in the macro-economic and capital markets environments. The Trust is managed without reference to indices or benchmarks. This allows us to focus on areas that we believe offer value, rather than being forced into pro-cyclical investment decisions by a requirement to shadow a benchmark.

Peter Spiller
Founder, CIO, Co-manager

Prior to founding CGAM in 2000, Peter was a partner and strategy director at Cazenove & Co Capital Management and a US equity investor at Capel Cure & Myers. Peter has managed Capital Gearing Trust plc since 1982.

Chris Clothier
CO-CIO, Co-manager

Chris joined CGAM in 2015 and has co-managed the funds since that date. Prior to that he was a director at IPGL Limited, a private investment vehicle with a range of public and private interests predominantly in the financial services industry, where he worked for six years. Before that he worked at MMC Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. Chris studied Chemistry at New College, Oxford.

Alastair Laing
CEO, Co-manager

Alastair joined CGAM in 2011, and has co-managed the funds since that date. Alastair joined CGAM from Hg Capital LLP (a pan-European private equity fund) and previously worked with the mergers and acquisitions team at Deloitte LLP. Alastair was educated at Edinburgh University and was an MBA Scholar at London Business School. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Accountants of Scotland.

Board Committees

The Company has a separate Management Engagement Committee comprising all independent non-executive Directors and is chaired by Jean Matterson. The Committee reviews the performance of and contractual arrangements with CG Asset Management Limited as investment manager. The terms of reference can be found here

The Company has a separate Audit Committee comprising all independent non-executive Directors. The terms of reference can be found here

The Company has a separate Nomination Committee comprising all independent non-executive Directors and is Chaired by Jean Matterson. The terms of reference can be found here

The Company has a separate Remuneration Committee comprising all independent non-executive Directors and is chaired by Wendy Colquhoun. The Committee meets at least once a year to consider the Directors’ Remuneration Policy and the remuneration of the Directors. The terms of reference can be found here

Wendy Collqhoun is The Senior Independent Director and is available to speak with shareholders if they have concerns which contact through the normal channels has failed to resolve or for which such contact is inappropriate.

Any shareholders wishing to communicate with the Board should do so via Frostrow Capital LLP on 020 3008 4910 or by email on company.secretary@capitalgearingtrust.com.

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