Our philosophy and process

Hugh graduated from the London School of Economics with a degree in Economics. He joined Gartmore in 1987 as a UK equities graduate trainee and moved to Phillips & Drew in 1990, managing UK equities throughout his twelve years there. In March 2000 Hugh was promoted to Head of UK Equities at UBS Global Asset Management and Chairman of the UK Equities Committee.  He joined Société Générale Asset Management in 2002 as Head of UK Equities. Hugh was one of the founding members of R&M Asset Management in 2006. Hugh is Head of Value and Recovery strategies within the PVT Equities team and manages the UK Alpha, UK Recovery, Global Recovery and Global Alpha strategies.

Will graduated from the University of Oxford with a First-Class Honours Degree in Modern History, before joining R&M as an equity analyst in 2009. In 2013 he was promoted to Director of Research and in 2014 became alternate Portfolio Manager on Hugh Sergeant’s Recovery and Alpha strategies.   Will is the lead Portfolio Manager on the Global Sustainable Opportunities strategy, and co-manager of the UK Dynamic Equity strategy and Global Alpha strategy.

George graduated from Bristol University with an Upper Second Class degree in Chemistry in 2008 before joining Smith & Williamson Investment Management as a graduate trainee where he worked for five years as an analyst and Private Client Investment Manager. George joined R&M in March 2014 and is Portfolio Manager of the ES R&M UK Listed Smaller Companies Fund and the R&M UK Micro Cap Investment Company. George is a CFA charter holder.

James graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in Natural Sciences. James joined Cazenove Capital in 2007 as a graduate trainee in Wealth Management before moving to work on the Pan European desk in 2008, initially on the UK desk. In 2012 he launched the Cazenove European Income fund as co-manager and, following  the Schroders acquisition of Cazenove in 2013, was appointed manager of a number of continental and pan European equity products ultimately managing over £2bn of client assets as well as forming the specialist European equity team at Schroders. James joined River and Mercantile in June 2020 to launch the firm’s European franchise and currently manages the ES R&M European Fund. James was appointed as Head of Equities in 2022 with responsibility for driving R&M’s equities products forward.

Matt has over 20 years' experience of managing UK equities, with a deep specialist knowledge of equity income strategies. After qualifying as a chartered accountant with Coopers and Lybrand, Matt started his investment career in 2001 as an assistant fund manager at AIB Govett Fund Management. In 2001, he joined Cazenove Fund Management to launch a new fund, the Equity Income Trust for Charities and to develop his investment approach for equity income. In 2005 he launched the Cazenove UK Equity Income Fund which became one of the best performing funds in the income sector, eventually growing to c.£1bn in assets under management and which was twice shortlisted for the IA best UK equity income fund of the year.  For over a decade Matt was a key member of the highly successful and award winning Pan European Equities team at Cazenove Capital, combining his portfolio management responsibilities with his analytical work on a range of UK sectors including Banking, Utilities, Chemicals, Mining and the Building & Construction sectors. In 2013, Matt moved, along with the rest of the business cycle team, to Schroders following their take-over of Cazenove. He continued to focus on his key income fund responsibilities and was later appointed as the Head of the Schroders Pan European Business Cycle Team, managing a team of senior Portfolio Managers responsible for client assets of over £5bn in long and long/short strategies. Matt joined R&M in 2022 and is lead portfolio manager of the ES River and Mercantile UK Equity Income Fund.