Highclere’s founding partners are supported by an experienced team of seven global sector specialists and ten marketing, client service and operations professionals:
Ed Makin
CEO & Portfolio Manager
Ed Makin has over 35 years’ experience of investing in international equity markets and was a founding partner of Highclere in 2006. As Highclere has grown, Ed has devolved responsibility to the team members but remains focused on consistent implementation of the philosophy and process across all of Highclere’s investment strategies. His previous experience was built at Hambros Bank and Morgan Stanley in London, then at Wellington Management in Boston, where he set up and managed International Small and Mid Cap programs there from 1998 to 2005. In his spare time Ed enjoys woodworking and wildlife photography. Ed speaks Spanish and has strong family ties to Chile and Argentina.
Fergus Gilmour
Chief Operating Officer & Chief Compliance Officer
Fergus Gilmour is a Chartered Accountant with 34 years’ experience and is a founding partner of Highclere. He has worked in financial services in London for Morgan Stanley, Flemings and Chase before joining Ed in the launch of Highclere in 2006.
Susan Steele
Director of Marketing & Client Service
Susan Steele joined Highclere as a founding partner in 2006 and has over 25 years of international equity experience. She spent 10 years with UBS in New York in a European institutional equity sales role, primarily responsible for advising clients on European equities across all market cap ranges. Prior to this, Susan spent three years at Credit Suisse First Boston in both London and New York and two years with ICC in Hong Kong. Susan has a BSc (Hons) degree in Psychology from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
Richard Gordon
Portfolio Manager SMID Fund, Director of Research, CFA
Richard Gordon joined Highclere in 2008 and has 17 years of investment experience. He became a Portfolio Manager of the International SMID Fund in 2020 having first covered consumer sectors as a global analyst and is also responsible for overseeing all aspects of our research process as Director of Research. Richard was a Vice President in the European equity research team at Bear Stearns covering media companies prior to joining Highclere and also gained experience in Financial Services at KPMG where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in South Africa. Richard holds a BCom (Hons) degree from the University of Cape Town.