Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon

Brian Lum is an investment manager in the Japanese Equities Team. He is the lead manager of the Shin Nippon Investment Trust and co-manager of the Japanese Smaller Companies Fund and is also a member of the International Growth Portfolio Construction Group. Brian joined Baillie Gifford in 2006. He is a CFA Charterholder and graduated with an MSci and BA (Hons) in Physics from the University of Cambridge in 2006.

Jared Anderson is an investment manager in the Japanese Equities Team. He is co-manager of Japan All Cap Strategy and Japanese Smaller Companies Strategy, and deputy manager of the Shin Nippon Investment Trust. Jared joined Baillie Gifford in 2016. Prior to joining the firm he spent two years as an Assistant Economist at the Scottish Government. Jared graduated MA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Edinburgh in 2012.

Jamie Skinner was appointed a Director in 2018 and became Chair of the Audit Committee shortly thereafter. He was appointed Chair in May 2023. Jamie is a chartered accountant and a fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. He joined Cazenove & Co in 1989 as a corporate finance executive working principally on investment companies and also other sector IPO activity, and in 1995 he was appointed Managing Director of the Johannesburg office. In 1999 he joined Martin Currie Investment Management Limited as a director and in 2014 was appointed Head of Client Services. He served as President and CEO of The China Fund, Inc. until 2012, President and CEO of The Taiwan Fund, Inc. until 2014 and President of the Martin Currie Business Trust until 2015. He also served on the boards of Martin Currie, Inc. and the Martin Currie Japan Absolute Return Fund up to his retirement from Martin Currie on 31 July 2018. He was a non-executive director of Ediston Property Investment Company plc from 2018 until it went into voluntary liquidation on 6 January 2024. Jamie is Chairman of the Asian Opportunities Absolute Return Fund Limited and Audit Chair of the Ashoka India Equity Trust plc. He is also Chairman of the R&A Foundation and is the investment trustee of the Wilson Christie Foundation.

Professor Sethu Vijayakumar was appointed Director in 2018 and is the Senior Independent Director. He is the Professor of Robotics at the University of Edinburgh and the (Founding) Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics. He holds additional responsibility as the Programme Director for Artificial Intelligence at The Alan Turing Institute, London, where he helps shape the UK National roadmap in Robotics and Autonomous Systems. He is a world-renowned roboticist, pioneering the data driven control of several iconic robotic platforms including a recent collaboration with the NASA Johnson Space Centre on the Valkyrie humanoid robot being prepared for unmanned robotic pre-deployment missions to Mars. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a judge on BBC Robot Wars and winner of the 2015 Tam Dalyell Prize for Excellence in engaging the public with science. Sethu has strong ties with Japan having spent seven years in Tokyo during his PhD and postdoctoral training, still closely collaborates with several R&D firms and multinationals on translational research projects and is a fluent Japanese speaker. 

Kevin Troup was appointed to the Board in 2020. He became the Chair of the Audit Committee in May 2023. Kevin qualified as a Chartered Accountant in London in 1993 with Coopers & Lybrand. He was then an Investment Manager managing Japanese small and mid caps with Scottish Life from 1995. In 2000 he joined Martin Currie Investment Management managing Japanese Smaller Companies and gained further Japanese investment experience with Standard Life Investments from 2010 until retiring in 2018. Kevin is a director at Baring Fund Managers Limited as well as a director of Kintail Trustees Limited, the corporate trustee of The Robertson Trust charity where he is Chair of the Investment Committee.

Claire Finn was appointed to the Board in 2021. Claire began her career in Japan in 1995 before moving back to the UK in 1999. She worked for Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank in London from 1999 to 2001. In 2001 she joined Henderson Global Investors undertaking roles in client service and product development. In 2005 Claire joined Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) as Vice President of Product Development. MLIM was subsequently bought by BlackRock and Claire moved into the distribution team, rising to the position of Managing Director of Defined Contributions, Unit Linked and Platforms. Claire left BlackRock in 2018 and transitioned to a portfolio career in 2019. Claire is currently the Chair of UBS Asset Management Life Limited and a director of Artemis Fund Managers Limited and Sparrows Capital Limited. She is also a Director of The Law Debenture Corporation plc, where she is Chair of the Remuneration Committee.

Abigail Rotheroe was appointed to the Board in 2022 and is Chair of the Nomination Committee. Abigail is a CFA® charterholder whose investment career began at Schroder Capital Management in 1987 as an analyst on the Japanese desk. She worked in Hong Kong for Schroders and then HSBC, managing specialist Asia/Pacific equity portfolios for Japanese clients. On her return to London in 1994, she joined Threadneedle Investments with responsibility for the Threadneedle Asia Growth Fund, Threadneedle Asia and Pacific inc. Japan Growth Fund and the TIML India Fund. Since 2013 Abigail has been involved in social and impact investing and in her most recent role was Investment Director of Snowball Impact Management which she left in August 2022. Abigail is a non-executive director of Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust plc, Hydrogen Capital Growth plc and Greencoat UK Wind PLC. She is an Investment Committee member/co-optee of Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, The Robertson Trust and a member of WHEB’s Investment Advisory Committee.