The People’s Trust, the multi-manager investment trust launched by former Investment Association (IA) chief executive Daniel Godfrey, has announced the membership of its shareholder committee.
The People’s Trust is presently aiming to raise £125m with the offer period ending on 10 October.
Mr Godfrey said the role of the shareholder’s committee is to oversee the activity of himself, as chief executive of the trust, and of the rest of the board of the actual investment trust.
The shareholder committee will be chaired by Catherine Howarth, who is presently chief executive of shareholder rights group Share Action.
James Sullivan, a director and fund manager at Coram Asset Management, is on the shareholder committee, as is former Financial Adviser reporter Iona Bain.
The other committee members are Lydia Kan, a former private banker, and Pooma Kimis, deputy managing director of OMFIF, which is a think tank for central banking, economic policy and public investment, Peter Parry, policy director of the UK Shareholders' Association, and Julius Pursaill, an investment governance specialist.
The People’s Trust is a multi-manager fund that has awarded the chosen fund managers seven-year contracts.
Mr Godfrey is chief executive and has outsourced the asset allocation and fund manager selection to Willis Towers Watson.
Mark Dampier, head of fund research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The manager of managers approach is not new, however the seven-year contracts offered will allow these managers to take a longer term view and not be distracted by shorter term performance considerations.
"Good multi-manager offerings can already be found elsewhere so the People’s investment trust will be competing with the likes of Witan and the multi-asset approach at RIT Capital Partners, both of whom have proven track records.”
david.thorpe@ft.com
