MEMBER PROFILE
Ian Bailey, CFA
Senior investment consultant, Hewitt Associates
INTERVIEW BY: MAHA KHAN PHILLIPS
B
efore he became a consultant, Ian I wasn’t looking for a move, but when they
Bailey spent 30 years at SG came to see me I was really tempted,
Warburg (which became Mercury because I liked the culture and could see
Asset Management, then Merrill Lynch the potential.”
Investment Management, and is now Bailey joined the Hewitt management
part of BlackRock). “I spent two years in team with responsibility for client
the back offi ce, without any real interest relations. “My job is to make sure the best
in what I was doing. Th en I became an ideas we have get out to our clients. We
assistant to one of the investment have to understand what their goals and
directors, who became a real mentor to needs are, and what value we can add.” He
me, and that’s when my interest in believes trustees have been unfairly
fi nancial markets really started to take criticised. “Trustees are much maligned.
off ,” he explains. Most trustees have actually risen well to
Bailey started doing some company the challenge of an industry that is
research, and then took the Society of changing phenomenally. Th e governance
Investment Analyst exams. “I spent more structure can be a problem. Many trustees
and more of my time researching only meet once a quarter, which means
companies. I found it fascinating. I really that decision-making is a very slow process.
enjoyed visiting companies and going But the model will change over time.”
into factories. It was just great.” When he’s not working, Bailey plays
Eventually, he started to run money tennis with his wife and two sons. “I am
in private client portfolios. “I progressed a terrible sportsman, but I have a lot of
through diff erent sorts of clients, and patience and perseverance. I took up
ended up running a team of tennis very late, because my wife played
professionals. I became a trustee of the a lot, and I became a tennis widower!”
a short term, but for the long term I Mercury Asset Management scheme,
prefer the buy side.” and when we merged with Merill Lynch
She moved back to the UK in I became a trustee of their scheme,
February 2005 to join Sofaer Capital which was fantastically stimulating.”
as a portfolio manager in their Asian In 1998, Bailey moved full time away
equities hedge fund, and became a from the private client business into
partner in January 2008. Later in the institutional investment, where he “did a
year the team of three she was bit of sorting out. Initially I was
working with moved over to RWC responsible responsible for client
Partners, where McLaren co-manages relations on the DC side, and then I
the Asian team. “We moved on the looked after large DB institutional
8th August 2008: 08/08/08. Being an clients for the next eight years.”
Asian fund we wanted to make it as Th e heart of his philosophy, he says,
lucky as possible.” he picked up at SG Warburg. “If you do
McLaren says she has no desire to the right thing for your client, then you
move away from emerging market do well for your business.”
funds. “When you do Asia and Bailey continued to sit on the board of
emerging markets, basically you see a trustees of the company pension when it
crisis somewhere every couple of became BlackRock. As a trustee, he was a
years. You become accustomed to client of Hewitt Associates, and he knew
managing money in that kind of them well. “I knew the people and
environment,” she explains. organisation and I knew it would suit me.
WWW.CFAUK.ORG PROFESSIONAL INVESTOR 15
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