Doing the right job is crucial

Following Jamie MacLeod’s sudden departure in September 2009 from Skandia Investment Group (SIG), many wondered whether this was the last anyone would see of him in the fund management industry.

A year later however, Mr MacLeod resurfaced at the helm of Pall Mall-based wealth manager Berry Asset Management (Bam), buying a 20 per cent share in the business and giving founder Jamie Berry the chance to step back and take on a more client-facing role.

“I left SIG on very good terms and am still a big fan of the firm,” says Mr MacLeod, who founded the firm in 2002. “I joined Bam in 2010 because it’s a fabulous business and I’ve always held Jamie Berry in the highest regard, from when we did some deals together in the 1990s.”

Mr MacLeod, who has an MBA from De Montfort university and attended Harvard Business School’s The General Manager Program, is renowned for growing businesses and building up young brands – having reached managing director at Scottish Widows Investment Management by the age of 29 and then going on to launch SIG with just £700m of seed capital.

Only 16 months into his role at Bam, he has used his own entrepreneurial skills as well as those honed from his time at Scottish Widows, Investec and Skandia to implement big changes at the firm.

“The past year has been about building out the management team, relocating to new premises and defining our client proposition,” he says, adding that the next will be about “taking it all to the introducer market”.

Mr MacLeod’s primary objectives however, are to provide exceptional client service and enhance the firm’s partnership with its major shareholder, 160-year-old Swiss private bank Bordier and Cie, of which he is a board member.

He says that as we enter a “new normal” environment, full of uncertainty and increased regulation, client service will become even more important.

“We’ve got the big tectonic movements of the RDR, a change in regulation and client expectations. Overlaying all of that, we’ve got the eurozone crisis, global economic and political issues….. quite a cauldron of issues for private investors,” he says.

“The drive right now is to navigate these markets on behalf of our clients and do the very best we can do for people who trust us with their money. That’s the most important thing,” he adds.

Mr MacLeod emphasises that in order to achieve this, communication will be key. In August 2010, when the FTSE 100 dropped to 4,900, Bam decided to get in touch with its investors to reassure them in what he describes as “the harshest” times.

“Our message at that time, and remains, a positive one on a relative basis. There was all of this chaos going on, and our positions of almost zero European equities, long-indexed bonds, long gold and fully committed equity positions (albeit in very defensive equities), reassured clients.