PLAIN ENGLISH FINANCE LIMITED - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- SENIOR NON - EXEC DIRECTOR
Job Titles:
- Director
- Editor
- Founder
- Investment Manager
- Member of the Board
Andrew studied Economics and International Politics at the University of Birmingham, graduating in 1997. His first job took him to Washington DC to work as an intern for a US Congressman on Capitol Hill. Here he was lucky enough to research various topical policy issues and write a number of speeches for the Congressman.
On returning to the UK, he began his career in finance on the Eurobond desk of SBC Warburg (now UBS) but moved to equities two years later to join the UBS smaller companies team. Andrew subsequently headed smaller company sales and sales trading at UK stockbroker, Williams de Broë, and then held senior equity sales positions with Credit Agricole Cheuvreux and SEB in London and New York. From January 2015 to June 2021 Andrew was a partner at specialist life sciences investment bank, WG Partners LLP.
During his career in finance, he has met with the senior management teams of well over one thousand companies and with several hundred professional investors. Andrew has regularly been involved in high profile stock market transactions.
Andrew Craig is a director of Plain English Finance. In addition, we draw on the extensive knowledge and experience of the following individuals who constitute the rest of our Executive board.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- NON - EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN
Dimitri has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a MA and BA in Electrical and Information Sciences from Cambridge University. He currently runs The Cycladic Group, an investor in, and creator of businesses. Founded in 2002, the Group has invested in over 40 businesses and founded 5 in the U.S., Europe, India, Africa and Latin America.
Dimitri's interests also hold significant stakes in a number of small public companies including Volex PLC and Journey Group PLC and he sits on a number of public and private boards.
Previously Dimitri set up and ran the European operations of the private equity firm, Whitney & Company, and spent eight years at Morgan Stanley in its private equity group, structuring derivative products and executing mergers and acquisitions both in New York and in London.
Andrew is the Professor of Asset Management at Bayes Business School and the Associate Dean for Corporate Engagement, where he is responsible for Cass Exec.
He was a Senior Research Manager in the Monetary Analysis wing of the Bank of England which supported the work of the Monetary Policy Committee. Andrew also spent three years working as the Financial Economist for Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM), where he was responsible for the group's investment process and where he began the development of LGIM's initial Liability Driven Investment offering.
Andrew is co-author of "The Trustee Guide to Investment", and has published extensively in both academic and practitioner journals on a wide range of economic and financial market issues.
In a survey published in 2007, Andrew was ranked as the world's ninth most prolific finance author of the past fifty years. Andrew serves on the investment committee of the GEC Marconi pension plan, which oversees the investments and investment strategy of this £4.0bn scheme; he is a trustee and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the £2.5bn Magnox Electric Group Pension scheme; and he has recently been appointed as trustee of the £500m Amey Pension Scheme.
Steve Thomas joined Bayes Business School in February 2007, after being Professor of Financial Markets at Southampton University since 1996, and prior to that at the University of Wales, Swansea, from 1992.
He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting and in a recent review was ranked 11th in Europe for finance research. Steve has had director experience at a leading global macro hedge fund and since 1988 has been consulting editor of a range of credit publications for FT Interactive Data.
He is an examiner for the Investment Management Certificate of the Society of Investment Professionals, and author of the accompanying Official Training Manual.
Roderick has a long and distinguished career in financial services and wealth management. He held senior management positions with NM Rothschild and James Capel and was the Chief Executive of the private banking activities of Matheson and Co from 1985 to 2000.
He has particular expertise in absolute return strategies. In addition to his role with Plain English Finance, Roderick has undertaken various non-executive directorships in his career and was previously a board Director of the J.P. Morgan Income & Capital Trust plc, a role he from held since 2003 until recently. Roderick has created Solent Systematic Investment Strategies (Solentsis) with professors Stephen Thomas and Andrew Clare of the Cass Business School and Dr. James Seaton to design formulaic investment strategies. Plain English Finance has leveraged Solent's expertise to develop the fund strategy and composition.
Job Titles:
- DIRECTOR
- Member of the Board
Tim studied Computer Science at the University of Birmingham and brings a crucial skill-set to the board of Plain English Finance. He currently works for a FTSE100 mining business, running technology and data for one of its subsiduaries across the UK, Ireland, US, Germany and South Africa.