Departmental Profiles
Client Accounting
The role of the Institutional Clients Accounting Department is to provide a top class accounting and reporting service to Baillie Gifford’s institutional clients across the world. The department consists of administration assistants, investment accountants, team leaders and managers.
Accountants are given responsibility to maintain accounting records, produce client reports, liaise with custodian banks and develop good relations with their own group of clients, whether they be relatively small value clients invested in a pooled fund or the largest pension fund in the world.
Training within the department is comprehensive and many of our team undertake further studies, such as ACCA or the Investment Administration Qualification to gain FSA Threshold Competence, which is a requirement for the position of team leader and above. The challenge of excelling in the service we provide to clients and the prospects of promotion within the department make this an attractive part of the business in which to work.
Retail Investments Department
The Retail Investments Department is responsible for the administration and marketing of a range of OEIC/unit trust funds and the administration of pooled pension funds. Investors in these funds include some of Baillie Gifford’s institutional clients as well as “retail” investors. In addition the Department is also responsible for marketing a range of eight global and specialist investment trusts to the retail sector.
These trusts are offered through a range of “wrappers” including an Investment Trust Share Plan, a Children’s Savings Plan, and an Individual Savings Account (ISA).
Continued success requires a highly motivated, multi-disciplinary team with responsibility for Dealing, Registration, Corporate & Fund Accounting, Sales & Marketing and Client Relations. Great emphasis is placed on training and team members are encouraged to study for relevant qualifications e.g. IAQ, ACCA etc.
Information Systems
Baillie Gifford's systems department has grown rapidly over the last 10 years, but has experienced managers who provide a strong foundation for new staff to learn. It is a vibrant environment - small enough for everyone to make a difference, but large enough for staff to become specialists. We use leading edge software such as Oracle 10g and Development Tools, Visual Studio, ASP and .NET. Our infrastructure is state of the art, based on Dell, Cisco and EMC. There is strong demand for new and enhanced in house systems, while our infrastructure is constantly being enhanced with initiatives like VOIP and Virtualisation. The IT industry is very much a growth area within the Finance sector and at Baillie Gifford this is no exception.
Finance
The Finance team provides services to all areas of Baillie Gifford and our work ranges from statutory and regulatory reporting to payroll and expenses. We take pride in the timeliness, accuracy and relevance of our output and constantly strive to improve our performance. We are a forward looking team continually reviewing and developing our processes and systems. Our staff are our most important assets and consequently we invest heavily in providing whatever training is necessary and on creating a positive work environment.
Institutional Client Service and Marketing
The Institutional Clients Department is responsible for managing the relationships between the firm and its institutional clients, ensuring that excellent service standards are maintained. Our clients include both large and smaller private and public sector pension funds in the UK and large corporate and public funds in North America, Australia, the Middle East and Europe. The department is also responsible for marketing for new clients in these same geographies, developing relationships with prospective clients and the consulting community which makes fund manager recommendations.
There are a number of roles in this department where we have recruited staff from outside the firm. We are often interested in hearing from people with strong client relationship or business development experience from similar organisations, or from those with investment management backgrounds who are interested in a client-facing role. We have also sometimes recruited marketing or administrative assistants who have been involved in the preparation of presentation material or other information which is key to how the firm projects itself to the outside world.
Investment Teams
We have around sixty fund managers and trainees. We very rarely recruit to this area other than to our investment graduate recruitment programme, details of which can be found on our investment graduate recruitment section.
Support Services
The Support Services Department is a combination of Facilities Management, Printing and Publishing, Reception, Catering, Health and Safety and Landlord Liason. Each of these Teams have quite specific technical roles in maintaining the comfort, security, cleanliness and continuity of supplies which facilitate the smooth functioning of daily operations for staff and suppliers.
Support Services also collect and maintain databases on throughput of materials and monitor Supplier services which means that there is a wide range of different skills required within its confines. To assist with this, appropriate training is given when and where needed. With the growth of the company in recent years the demands on the Department have increased and the variation of tasks requiring to be met make it a vibrant area in which to work.
