Michael O’Dwyer

In profile

A counterpointed career

My academic past and investment present strike a contrast.

Before joining Baillie Gifford, I turned back time on animal cells – literally reprogramming them to resemble their embryonic form and studying how proteins interacted with DNA during the transition. After nearly a decade’s work, Nature published the University of Edinburgh study. The research may have been more academic than applied, but could eventually help combat disease by giving scientists a deeper understanding of how it arises at the cellular level.

In essence, I reversed the ageing process – the opposite of my role today: accelerating private companies’ progress by providing them with capital. Timescales differ, too. As investors, we dedicate time to building relationships with founders, but working in weeks rather than years suits everyone: the entrepreneurs, our clients – and my temperament.

Endurance and uncertainty

What my two careers have in common, however, is longevity. Just as I hope others build on my PhD research to ultimately extend lives, my intent at Baillie Gifford is to help companies endure.

Likewise, both involve a high degree of uncertainty. You never know in science whether an experiment will validate your theory or set you on a new path. The parallel for long-term investors is that we can’t predict every setback or opportunity a company will face. But to tilt the odds in our favour, I gravitate towards companies that think hard about resilience and have scalability, laying the foundations for their second act even as they focus on the first. You can’t always anticipate what will come next, but adaptability increases a company’s chances of success.