Team

Dr Paul Jourdan - CEO

Paul Jourdan is an award-winning fund manager with a strong track record in small cap investment. He co-founded Amati Global Investors following the management buyout of Noble Fund Managers from Noble Group in January 2010. Paul joined Noble Fund Managers in 2007 as Head of Equities. He moved to Edinburgh in 1998, joining Stewart Ivory to work on UK, emerging market, and global equities. In 2000 Stewart Ivory was taken over by Colonial First State (subsequently First State Investments). From September 2000 Paul became manager of what is now CF Amati UK Smaller Companies Fund, winning a number of awards for this fund in 2004/05. In November 2004 he was appointed Head of UK Equities at First State. In early 2005 he launched what is now Amati VCT plc. Prior to 1998 Paul worked as a professional violinist, including a four year period with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He currently serves as a Director of Hebrides Ensemble and of Sistema Scotland, and also as a Governor of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

Douglas Lawson - Director

Douglas Lawson co-founded Amati Global Investors following the management buyout of Noble Fund Managers from Noble Group in January 2010. Prior to this he worked in corporate finance and private equity, initially as an associate focusing on middle market UK private equity and listed company M&A at British Linen Advisers, and latterly as an investment manager in the private equity team at Noble. Douglas has co-managed the CF Amati UK Smaller Companies Fund since 2009, winning Growth Company Investors "Small Cap Fund of the Year Award 2011". He has also been co-manager of Amati VCT since 2009 and the Company and Amati VCT 2 since these investment management contracts moved to Amati Global Investors. Douglas started his career at Ernst & Young in London, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2002.

David Stevenson - Fund Manager

David joined Amati in February 2012. Prior to this he was a partner with investment boutique Cartesian Capital, which managed a range of retail and institutional UK equity funds in long only and long/short strategies. David co-founded Cartesian in 2005, and saw growth in client assets to a peak of £600m. Previously he was Assistant Director at SVM, where he also managed equity products including the UK Opportunities small/midcap fund which was ranked top decile amongst peers for the period from inception to late 2005. David started his career at KPMG where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He latterly specialised in corporate finance, before moving into private equity with Dunedin Fund Managers.

Chris Allen - Fund Manager

Having graduated with a degree in Economics, Chris began trading for BP's International Trading Division in 1986, working first in London, before moving to New York in 1990. He returned to the UK in 1998 to team up with Gordon Izatt to build and manage the systematic trading model that has been run by BP since 1999. Chris left BP at the end of 2009, joining Amati towards the end of 2010 to establish the Amati Systematic Trend Fund.

Gordon Izatt - Director

A contemporary of Dr Paul Jourdan (CEO of Amati) at Cambridge University, Gordon worked for BP for 22 years. In that time he managed BP's Futures Back Office, before going on to write the risk management model used by the BP International Trading Division. He went on to develop the code for systematic trading models, alongside Chris Allen, and oversaw their use between 1999 and his departure at the end of 2010. He joined Amati in January 2011 to establish the Amati Systematic Trend Fund.

Jason Rolf - Fund Manager

Jason started trading on the London International Financial Futures Exchange in 1987, trading interest-rate options for an LSE options market-maker. He became an independent trader shortly after and then founding partner of a large independent options trading group. During this time he also co-founded LDOS Ltd, (latterly FFastfill PLC), a software firm that produced one of the first commercially available option pricing models in London. Jason's work on option-pricing and trade-execution algorithms for electronic trading introduced him to the field of systematic models where he has concentrated since 2005. He joined Amati towards the end of 2010 to establish the Amati Systematic Trend Fund.

Rachel Le Derf - Investment Co-ordinator

Before joining Amati (previously Noble Fund Managers) in June 2007, Rachel worked as Desk Assistant to the UK Equities team at First State alongside Paul Jourdan. Prior to living in northern California for 2 years, Rachel worked for 5 years at the Financial Times in the Advertising Department as Office Administrator / Sales Support, 5 years at a renewable energy consultancy in Edinburgh as PA/Office Manager and before that worked in Paris as PA to Finance Director at IIEP/UNESCO.

Andrew Lynn - Investment Support

Andrew was born in Melbourne, Australia, and studied both Music and English to postgraduate level. Prior to joining Amati he enjoyed a successful career as a professional trumpet player, performing with many of the leading orchestras in the UK, and held the position of Principal Trumpet of the Orchestra of Scottish Opera. He is a member of the CFA and holds the Investment Management Certificate.

William MacLeod - Sales Consultant

William MacLeod is the owner and founder of Highland Capital Partners, founded 2 years ago to support boutique fund management groups raise assets. Prior to this Bill spent 4 years at Fidelity selling funds to Wealth Managers, Family Offices and Fund of Funds investors. 9 years at the Financial Times, former head of sales of Companies and Markets and founder of FTfm.

Eddie Edmonstone - Sales Consultant

Eddie was previously Director of Corporate Broking and a founding shareholder at FinnCap where he was involved in raising primary and secondary funds for corporate clients and acting as corporate broker on behalf of key clients. He was previously a director at Durlacher PLC, where he developed the UK institutional team, specialising in UK Small Companies primary and secondary broking. Eddie was also a founder and shareholder of Peel Hunt, where he headed up their UK Smaller Companies team.

Phil Jefferson - Sales Consultant

Phil Jefferson is the owner and founder of Jconsult (Europe) Ltd, a management consultancy specialising in investment sales and marketing. The firm is in its 6th year and has been associated with a mix of divisional designs and re-structures, as well as pure asset raising, for a variety of firms across Europe. Prior to this Phil entered the financial services sector in 1984 and subsequently spent many years in the fund industry working as Director and 'Head of Distribution' for a number of recognisable fund groups such as Fidelity, First State, JPMorgan + Henderson.

Wulf Rajek - Systems Developer

Wulf joined Noble in November 2007 to develop custom built in-house applications, primarily for the Fund Management team. He previously ran his own business Armadillo Solutions after having worked for twenty4help Knowledge Services GmbH (Dortmund, Germany) and Ltd (Newcastle upon Tyne, England & Linlithgow, Scotland) from 1998 until 2007. At twenty4help he worked in several departments ranging from providing Microsoft Personal Operating Systems support to being Programme Manager and Supervisor at Sun Microsystems' Global Remote Support Centre. In 2001 Wulf successfully completed a modern apprenticeship as a "IT Systemkaufmann".

Rosanna Colangeli

Rosanna joined Amati in December 2011, prior to this she was Head of Finance for a small accounting team at NCM Finance Ltd providing accounting services for all internal trading and general partner companies and all fund accounting for clients. Rosanna worked as the Group Accountant for Noble Group for 3 years where she oversaw the accounting for all the companies within the Investment Management division.

Rosanna is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. After qualifying, she worked as a Project Accountant at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden and then at the National Health Service. After graduation, she worked as a scientist in the field of conservation before training as an accountant.

David Nicholson - Compliance Consultant

David has over twenty years' experience in the financial services industry and over fifteen years in compliance.

Until March 2010 he was Compliance Officer and Money Laundering Reporting Officer at Noble Group having previously worked in compliance at Scottish Widows and the Clydesdale Bank.

David started his career as a fund manager at Kleinwort Benson in London. He now runs his own company, Albany Compliance Services, which provides regulatory support to FSA authorised firms.

David has a LL.B degree from the University of Aberdeen and the Securities Institute Diploma.

James Ferguson - Chairman

James Ferguson joined the Amati Board in 2010.

A graduate in Economics and Political Science from Trinity College, Dublin, James is Chairman of Value and Income Trust plc, the Monks Investment Trust plc, The Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies plc, Northern 3 VCT plc and Edinburgh US Tracker Trust plc. He is also a Director of the Independent Investment Trust plc, Audax Properties plc, and a Trustee of Lloyds TSB Foundation. He is a Governor and Trustee of the Gordonstoun Foundation, as well as Chairman of the Investment Committee for National Trust for Scotland and Penicuik House Preservation Fund, and a trustee of the National Museums for Scotland Charitable Trust.

He retired as Chairman of Stewart Ivory in 2000 and is a former Deputy Chairman of the Association of Investment Trust Companies.