Catch up on Baillie Gifford’s latest investment trust news
New blood at ‘New Japan’
Brian Lum, a specialist in small companies investing, has been promoted from deputy to sole lead manager of Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon (‘New Japan’), the younger of the two Japan-focused trusts launched by Baillie Gifford in the 1980s.
Lum joined the firm in 2006 and is an investment manager on the Japanese Equities Team. Shin Nippon’s stated aim is “to achieve long-term capital growth through investment in small Japanese companies believed to have above average prospects for capital growth”.
The Trust’s objectives and investment process are unchanged.
The new deputy manager is Jared Anderson, a former Scottish Government economist who joined the firm in 2016.
Brian Lum, manager of Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon
Photography by Liam Russell
Stand up and be counted
Earlier this year, US hedge fund Saba Capital attempted to take control of seven UK investment trusts, including three then managed by Baillie Gifford.
Boaz Weinstein’s challenge to the UK investment trust industry inspired thousands of retail shareholders to ‘vote their shares’ in support of each trust’s investment strategy.
All the trusts were able to keep their existing leadership and respective investment objectives, demonstrating the impact of each investor exercising their rights. To find out how to ensure your voice counts in future decisions, go to the Association of Investment Companies’ site theaic.co.uk/how-to-vote-your-shares
Disruption Week
New industries, new ideas, new approaches: Baillie Gifford’s investment floor is a nursery of new ideas where emerging big themes are scoped and stress-tested, part of the search for the growth stars of tomorrow. Every autumn, we host Disruption Week (DW), our four-day online webinar series in which we share thoughts and invite questions on the big themes and most promising companies on our horizon.
This year’s series, taking place 10–13 November, is titled DW25: vision amid volatility. It reflects a year in which global security and trade crises have thrown geopolitics off balance while AI shakes up the workplace.
Over the week, four Baillie Gifford investment managers will venture beyond well-trodden paths to examine the companies whose upward trajectories inspire confidence amid chaos. This year’s topics include:
- emerging market innovators
- Europe’s surprising stars
- pioneering private companies
- Silicon Valley’s gamechangers.
To find out more about this year’s daily schedule of webinars and for your chance to question our experts, go to bailliegifford.com/disruptionweek to sign up, watch recordings and read full summaries of each session afterwards.
Board business
The two largest trusts in Baillie Gifford’s stable have appointed new board chairs, reinforcing the balance between financial and other industrial experience.
Christopher Samuel and Randeep Singh Grewal have, respectively, taken over the chairs of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and The Monks Investment Trust.
Samuel, who joined Scottish Mortgage’s board in January and was appointed its chair in July, has wide boardroom experience. His previous stints in the chair includes BlackRock Throgmorton Trust and JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust.
Grewal, a former vascular surgeon, joined Monks’ board in 2024 and assumed the chair in September 2025. He has had senior roles at F&C Asset Management and the Trium Opportunistic Equity Fund.
Important information
The views expressed in this article should not be considered as advice or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a particular investment. The article contains information and opinion on investments that does not constitute independent investment research, and is therefore not subject to the protections afforded to independent research.
Some of the views expressed are not necessarily those of Baillie Gifford. Investment markets and conditions can change rapidly, therefore the views expressed should not be taken as statements of fact nor should reliance be placed on them when making investment decisions.
Baillie Gifford & Co Limited is wholly owned by Baillie Gifford & Co. Both companies are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and are based at: Calton Square, 1 Greenside Row, Edinburgh EH1 3AN.
The investment trusts managed by Baillie Gifford & Co Limited are listed on the London Stock Exchange and are not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
A Key Information Document is available by visiting bailliegifford.com