Our People

Before joining CRUX, Philip Howard was CIO of Beazley, the insurance specialists and prior to that he was a senior independent director of Schroders, having acted as a non-executive director since November 2008. He was Chairman of Tarchon Capital Management LLP and spent a number of years as deputy to the Chairman of Lehman Brothers in Europe until 1997. He was also the partner in charge of international fixed income at Phillips & Drew. Philip joined CRUX as Non-Executive Chairman in September 2018 and became Executive Chairman in January 2020.

Karen joined CRUX as COO in July 2015 and became CEO on 1 October 2020. Prior to this Karen worked as a member of the senior management team at Man Group as Global Head, Client Operations and Outsourcing.
Prior to that Karen was Director of Client Service Operations at Henderson Global Investors. Karen has over 20 years’ experience in Asset Management in both alternatives and traditional products and has spent the more significant periods of her career at Fidelity International (12 years) and New Star Asset Management (9 years). Karen has a Master of Business Administration degree from Durham University.
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James graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford with a double first class degree in Engineering Science. James began his career in 2002 at KPMG in London where he qualified as a chartered accountant before moving into corporate finance. In July 2006 James joined New Star Asset Management and in April 2009 he transferred to Henderson Global Investors when it bought NEW Star. James has assisted Richard Pease with Henderson European Special Situations fund since it was launched in October 2009 and he moved to CRUX at the same time as Richard and the European Special Situations fund in June 2015. He has also co-managed the CRUX European fund since launch in November 2015.

Nino has 26 years’ experience working in Operations, Risk, Compliance and financial crime. In addition to operational and fund support for long, long-short and multi asset funds, Nino has extensive experience of regulatory change projects including MiFiD II, GDPR and implementing the Asset Management Market Study. Prior to joining CRUX in January 2017, Nino spent several years with Oriel Asset Management, as Head of Operations and Artemis, as Head of Hedge Fund Operations

Emma graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a MA Honours Degree in Economics. Upon graduation, Emma joined PwC and qualified as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland in 2011. During her time at PwC she worked on the Lehman Brothers Administration before moving into Mergers and Acquisitions at an Investment Bank. For the last eight years Emma has worked in the Asset Management industry where she held a fund controller role prior to joining CRUX in October 2016.

Richard has over three decades of experience in the financial industry. His first role in fund management was with the Central Board of Finance for the Church of England where he ran two funds. There followed a short period at Windsor Investment Management, where he set up and ran the European Unit Trust and in 1989 Richard joined Jupiter Asset Management where he started and ran the Jupiter European Unit Trust and several other European funds. In 2001 he helped to set up New Star Asset Management where he launched and managed the New Star European OEIC and its sister fund, the New Star Dublin-based OEIC. On the acquisition by Henderson Global Investors of New Star in April 2009, Richard became a Director of European Equities and continued to run the New Star European funds.  In October 2009 the European Special Situations fund was launched and Richard was its manager at the outset. Richard joined CRUX in June 2015 following a Scheme of Arrangement that allowed him to merge the Henderson European Special Situations fund with the CRUX European Special Situations fund, a process which ensured that Richard has managed the fund, uninterrupted, since October 2009.

James worked at Henderson Global Investors as a European equities fund manager from April 2009 until he joined CRUX in June 2015 with the successful merger of the Henderson European Special Situations Fund and the TM CRUX European Special Situations Fund. James co-manages the TM CRUX European Special Situations Fund and the TM CRUX European Opportunities Fund with Richard Pease. James became lead fund manager of the TM CRUX European Fund in March 2020, which he previously co-managed with Richard Pease from June 2015.

Before Henderson, James previously worked at New Star Asset Management, which he joined in July 2006. James began his career in 2002 at KPMG in London where he qualified as a chartered accountant before moving into corporate finance. He graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford with a double first class degree in Engineering Science.

Roland graduated from Magdalen College, University of Oxford in 2009 with a BA (Hons) degree in Philosophy, Politics & Economics. Between 2009 and 2013 Roland was a generalist equity analyst working across sectors and geographies at Orbis Investment Management. From 2013-2017 he was a CFA Charterholder. In April 2015 he worked as an equity analyst at GAMCO Investors focusing on European special situations. Roland joined CRUX in April 2015 working alongside Richard Pease and James Milne. In 2019 he became the Fund Manager of the CRUX Lux Pan-European Growth Fund.

Jamie has more than 10 years of experience in the industry and currently manages the CRUX UK Core Fund. He began his career as a Fund Manager at Brown Shipley. Prior to this he was an equity analyst at Investec and Williams de Broë with responsibility for several sectors. Before this, Jamie was an equity analyst at boutique hedge fund manager Wolos Capital. He joined Oriel Asset Management in 2014 to help run what is now the CRUX UK Core Fund; moving to CRUX Asset Management at the start of 2017. Jamie graduated with a first-class degree in mathematics from the University of Hull and is a CFA charter holder.

RICHARD PENNY

Richard joined CRUX Asset Management in June 2018 and started managing the TM CRUX UK Special Situations Fund in October 2018. Prior to this, Richard had worked at LGIM for 15 years where he had managed the award-winning L&G UK Alpha Trust and L&G UK Special Situations Trust as well as several segregated mandates. Previously he worked at M&G Investment Management, and prior to that Scottish Amicable Investment Management.
Richard has a master’s degree in Engineering and Economics from Oxford University.

Mark has more than 18 years’ experience in the investment industry, joining CRUX in 2014. He is responsible for distribution to the discretionary investor base within the UK including family offices, private client investment managers, global distributors and fund of funds. Prior to CRUX, Mark was a director of New Star Investment Funds, acquired by Henderson Global Investors in April 2009. At Henderson Mark was responsible for discretionary sales in London, having previously held the position of head of sales to national IFA groups and networks at Jupiter Asset Management where Mark began his investment management career.

Ashley has over 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the finance industry, for both long-only and alternative investment strategies. He has led companies and teams in international brokerage and asset management industries in Europe, Asia and the US and was based for eight years in Hong Kong, where he managed Mirae Asset’s and Harvest Global Investments’ international distribution and marketing.

He works with many clients across the world, focusing on numerous different strategies and segments, including institutions, pension funds, private banks, wealth managers, Sovereign Wealth Funds and hedge funds.

Ashley graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1989 and attained the rank of Captain in the British Army.

Tom joined CRUX Asset Management in October 2017 with responsibility for key accounts (ex-London). With an investment industry career spanning some 30 years, Tom has held a number of positions including Director, Head of Retail Sales at Alliance Trust Asset Management for over six years and Sales Director, Head of Financial Institutions Group at Jupiter Asset Management from 1998 to 2008. Earlier roles also included Head of Retail Sales at Baillie Gifford.

With over 10 years' experience in the investment industry, Will joined CRUX in October 2016. At CRUX, he is responsible for managing client relationships within the London discretionary investor base including wealth managers, family offices, global distributors and fund of funds. Prior to CRUX, Will was part of the well regarded sales and marketing team at New Star Asset Management and subsequently Henderson Global Investors when the business was acquired in April 2009. At Henderson, Will became a key part of the discretionary sales team during a period of significant change and expansion for the group.

Elizabeth joined CRUX Asset Management at the start of 2017. Previously she worked at Oriel Asset Management which she joined in 2011 after gaining a BA Hons degree in History from the University of Bristol. Elizabeth has completed the Investment Management Certificate. Whilst at university Elizabeth completed an internship at HSBC in the Equity Research Marketing department.

Izzy joined CRUX Asset Management in December 2017, working as an EA to the executive board, before moving to the marketing department in September 2018. As Marketing Executive, Izzy works across all elements of the marketing mix, specialising in social and digital media. Izzy also assists the Marketing & Communications Director with product PR.  Prior to joining CRUX, she held a number of positions at creative production agencies and ran her own photography business. Fluent in Spanish, French and Italian, Izzy graduated from the University of Reading where she studied in Graphic Communication and Typography.

Nino has 26 years’ experience working in Operations, Risk, Compliance and financial crime. In addition to operational and fund support for long, long-short and multi asset funds, Nino has extensive experience of regulatory change projects including MiFiD II, GDPR and implementing the Asset Management Market Study. Prior to joining CRUX in January 2017, Nino spent several years with Oriel Asset Management, as Head of Operations and Artemis, as Head of Hedge Fund Operations.

Emma graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a MA Honours Degree in Economics. Upon graduation, Emma joined PwC and qualified as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland in 2011. During her time at PwC she worked on the Lehman Brothers Administration before moving into Mergers and Acquisitions at an Investment Bank. For the last eight years Emma has worked in the Asset Management industry where she held a fund controller role prior to joining CRUX in October 2016.

Cate has 10 years’ experience working in the industry and joined CRUX in July 2019. Cate started her career at Rathbone Brothers plc. She then worked at Henderson Global Investors (now Janus Henderson Investors) and Legal & General Investment Management, in both roles focussing on portfolio monitoring, compliance advisory and generalist compliance monitoring. Cate has extensive regulatory knowledge, particularly related to the UCITS Directive. Cate graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2008 with a BA (Hons) in European Economics.