Fund Management

Philip Best is the Chairman of QUAERO CAPITAL’s Board. He is also a Founding Partner of the company and a Portfolio Manager.

Philip started his career as a fund manager at Warburg Investment Management in 1983 initially as a trainee, then managing the Mercury European Income Fund. In 1987, he joined Enskilda Securities as a broker specialising in European small cap companies. In 1994 he established and ran the Paris office of The Europe Company Limited, a specialist research-driven European small cap brokerage (purchased by Jefferies & Co in 2000).

In 2003, Philip launched The Argonaut Fund, a fund he still manages today.

Philip graduated from Oxford University. He worked in London and Paris before he settled in Geneva. He is bilingual in English and French.

Sophie Bigeard joined Quaero Capital (France) SAS in June 2020.

A multi-manager investment professional for 25 years, she began her career in 1995 at the Banque du Louvre, as a mutual fund analyst and then as Head of External Partnerships. In 2002, she joined the Société Générale group in Luxembourg as a Fund of Funds Manager for SGBT Lux. In 2004, Sophie Bigeard joined OFI Asset Management as a Fund of Funds Manager and then Head of Long Only Multi-Management. In 2017, she created the UCI Selection team for the entire OFI Group, a team which she headed until June 2020.

Sophie Bigeard holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Paris II Panthéon Assas and a DEA in International Finance from Sciences Po Paris.

Adrian Bignell joined Quaero Capital LLP as senior research analyst in May 2021.

Previously, Adrian looked after the European smaller company funds at Invesco, started in 2003.

After successfully turning around the performance of the small caps, in 2008 he launched and ran the all-cap Invesco European Opportunities fund. On the back of strong performance, he had a Citywire AAA rating, won the ‘best fund over 3 years’ Lipper award in 2012 and was mentioned in the Tilney Bestinvest ‘Top 100 UK Managers’ in 2014 and 2015.

Prior to Invesco, after graduating from St Andrews University where he read French, Adrian worked at Cazenove where he ran the European smaller company fund and in 2001 was made partner.

He holds an MA (Honours) in French from St Andrews University.

Edouard begann seine berufliche Laufbahn 1972 als Finanzanalyst und schlug eine umfangreiche Karriere in der institutionellen Vermögensverwaltung und im Research ein. Ab 1981 verwaltete er einen Rentenfonds für eine Tochterbank der UBS-Gruppe. 1986 wechselte er zu Cursitor Ltd. in London, einem unabhängigen Vermögensverwalter, wo er auf der Grundlage des hauseigenen Makro-Research Investmentfonds entwickelte und verwaltete.

Durch den Aufbau von Fachwissen im Bereich der makroökonomischen Analyse verwaltet er seit über 30 Jahren Anleihenfonds und erhielt von Standard & Poor’s Auszeichnungen für herausragende Leistungen über 3, 5 und 10 Jahre. Von 2004 bis 2021 war Edouard Mitglied des Verwaltungsrats und des Prüfungs- und dann des Governance-Ausschusses der Wendel-Gruppe (Frankreich), einer öffentlichen Investmentgesellschaft mit einem Bruttovermögen von über 10 Milliarden Euro, die als aktiver Aktionär mit langfristiger Perspektive große Beteiligungen eingeht. In diese Funktion brachte er seine ausgeprägten makroökonomischen Analysefähigkeiten und seine Erfahrung auf den Finanzmärkten ein.

Edouard ist Absolvent der ESCP, Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris.

Margaux Cugura joined Quaero Capital (France) SAS in 2022 as Fund Manager in the Real Estate division.

Before that, she worked for more than 4 years as an auditor in the Real Estate division of PwC, where she was mainly responsible for carrying out legal audits for listed companies in the French real estate sector.

Margaux holds a Master’s degree in Audit – Management Control from the Iéseg School of Management. She completed her third year of Bachelor’s degree at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul.

Eric Daniel joined Quaero Capital LLP in 2020 and manages QUAERO CAPITAL Global Convertible Bonds investment strategy.

Prior to joining QUAERO CAPITAL, Eric was a portfolio manager for Tyndaris. Eric’s career in convertibles bonds spans over 22 years across a number of tier-1 global investment banks, including Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank. Eric opened the KBC Financial Products continental Europe branch in 2000. Eric was Head of Equity Derivatives and Convertibles Bonds sales for Citigroup (Paris) covering the largest global convertible bonds accounts for the bank until December 2014.

He started his career as a futures and equity derivatives trader at Bacot Allain Warburg from 1991 to 1994 and managed a CTA fund at Capital Fund Management in Paris until 1997.

Eric graduated from the French Business School ESC Le Havre in Business & Economics with a specialization in Finance.

Mark Ebert joined Quaero Capital SA in 2012 and manages the Infrastructure Securities Fund.

Mark began his career with Price Waterhouse in Chicago and London. He then joined Citicorp Investment Bank – London in the Corporate Finance / M&A Department responsible for transatlantic M&A advisory. He joined UBS in London as Head of European M&A, becoming Senior Managing Director – Global Co-ordinator of M&A, based in Zurich. He became co-head of Panmure Gordon in London, an Institutional Broker and Corporate Finance Adviser focussed on UK & European high growth sectors.

He then pursued his career as a Member of the Executive Committee and Head of Lombard Odier’s Investment Banking Division in Geneva.  He was responsible for the bank’s Private Equity activities as well as Securities Trading, Equity Brokerage, and M&A. He then founded Quadrum Partners in Zurich, providing corporate finance advisory services to European Institutional Investment Managers.

He later joined the Fortune Group, London, as Chairman.  Fortune advised institutional investors on hedge fund strategies and ran several Hedge Funds of Funds. After Close Brothers acquired Fortune, he became a Managing Director and was responsible for developing Close’s Real Asset investment strategy, before joining QUAERO CAPITAL.

Mark’s degrees inlcude BSc, Gdip, and MSc.  He qualified as a Certified Public Accountant.

David Giboudeau joined Quaero Capital SA in 2021 as Portfolio Manager for the Infrastructure Securities fund managed by Mark Ebert.

He previously worked at Auris Gestion in Paris for seven years as Equity Analyst and then became Portfolio Manager. He managed several European and international equities funds for both wealth managers and institutional clients.

David graduated from Neoma Business School, holds a master’s degree in Economics from Paris X University and is a CFA charter holder.

Sebastien Hoyez joined Quaero Capital SA in 2014 in the role of research analyst.

In 2008, he began his career at Natixis, before joining AXA IM as a Portfolio Controller. In 2011, Sebastien moved to Carmignac Gestion to reinforce the Middle Office team, subsequently joining Tikehau IM in 2013 also to assist in the development of new support tools and systems. In addition to his responsibilities at this time, Sebastien decided to widen his competence to investment analysis and undertook the CFA (Chartered Financial Analysts) exams.  Sebastien joined Quaero Capital SA in September 2014 to work with Philip Best and Marc Saint John Webb on fund management support and research analysis.

Sebastien holds a Master Degree of Portfolio Management (Paris XII), Master Degree of Corporate Finance (ESM-A),  and since September 2015, is a CFA® charterholder.

Jim Huang joined Quaero Capital LLP in 2022 as Research Analyst for the Asia ex-Japan funds.

Previously, he worked at Highclere International Investors, where he conducted company research and financial modelling for investments within the Greater China region including China A, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Prior to Highclere International Investors, Jim has also worked for SOSV MOX, an active seed VC focusing on mobile tech startups mainly in South East Asia and India.

Jim holds a degree in Management from London Business School. He also has dual degrees with a BS in Finance and a BA in Advertising at National Chengchi University. He was born in Taiwan and is a native Mandarin speaker.

Olivier Ken joined Quaero Capital (France) SAS in 2022 as a Portfolio Manager.

He started his career in 1996 at Caisse des dépôts et consignations in Paris, then joined The Europe Company as a stockbroker.

From 2000 to 2010, he worked for Jefferies in Paris, developing the “cleantechnology” franchise.

In 2010, he joined Ecofi Investment, part of Credit Cooperatif as a thematic fund manager. He was in charge of the European megatrend fund, Ecofi trajectoires durables and the greenfind fund, Ecofi Agir pour le climat.

Olivier holds a Master in Finance from the University of Paris-Nanterre and he is a member of Société Française des Analystes Financiers.

Frédéric Loisel joined the Fixed income team of Quaero Capital France (SAS) in 2021.

Frédéric was an investment banker for 25 years.

From 2006 to 2018, he was Managing Director in charge of the Solutions Sales Team at Deutsche Bank in Paris.

Previously, he was Head of Institutional Sales at IXIS CIB after having been Sales Manager France at DG Bank in Frankfurt as well as Market Economist and Money Trader at Louis Dreyfus Finance.

Frédéric Loisel has graduated from Sciences Po Paris and holds a degree in History.

Xavier Nicolas joined Quaero Capital France (SAS) in 2021 and manages the Fixed income strategies.

Xavier has 30 years of experience in managing Rates and Credit portfolios.

From 2001 to 2018, he was responsible for mandates Private Debt team at Aviva Investors France and Head of the fixed income UCITS funds.

Previously, he was Lead Manager of AFER’s bond portfolio after having managed bond and convertible funds for various management companies.

Xavier Nicolas holds a DEA in Econometrics from the University of Paris 1.

Georgina Parker joined Quaero Capital SA in April 2018 and is Head of Sustainability.

Georgina began her career in 2007 as an equity analyst with Bessemer Trust, working first with the UK smid-cap team before joining the global large cap fund as a generalist analyst working in both London and New York. In 2015 she left to take part in the business development of Virgin Pure, a Virgin-backed start-up focused on reducing plastic waste. In 2018 she returned to the investment industry to contribute to the movement towards sustainability, joining the sustainable investment experts at Conser Invest in Geneva.

In 2014, Georgina co-founded a network for ambitious career women, called BroadMinded, currently spanning nearly 1000 women in London.

Georgina holds a degree in Economics from the University of Edinburgh and is a CFA charterholder.

Shi Pengmai is a graduate of Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics and has a Master of Science in Financial Management from Boston University. She previously was an intern at Lloyd George Management (HK), where she reported to Alice Wang and was responsible for conducting field studies and market research into consumer brands. She is responsible for conducting channel checks and fathering consumer intelligence for existing and future investments for both the Bamboo and the China Funds.

Marc Saint John Webb joined Quaero Capital SA in 2006 as Portfolio Manager.

Marc Saint John Webb is co-manager of the QCF (Lux) – Argonaut and QCF (CH) – Swiss Small&Mid Cap Funds. He is a significant shareholder of the firm.

He started investing in European equities in 1987, when he joined Warburg Securities in Paris. He subsequently worked as a research analyst for Schelcher Prince before moving on to small cap stock picking at Oddo. In 1997, he joined CCF Elysées Bourse as Head of the Small Caps Division, where he developed a new research product dedicated to smaller companies. He oversaw a number of IPOs and raised further capital for listed smaller companies. In 2001, he co-founded IXIS-Rothschild Midcaps, a Paris-based joint venture specialising in corporate brokerage and research on French mid-sized companies.

Marc studied at Aston Business School in England, the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain and INSEAD in France. He holds the diploma of the SFAF (the French Society of Financial Analysts).

Philippe Scemama joined the Fixed income team of Quaero Capital France (SAS) in 2021.

Philippe was an investment banker for 25 years.

From 2005 to 2017, he was Co-Head of Institutional Investor Solutions at Goldman Sachs in London and Paris.

Previously, he was Head of Central Banks and Supranational Investors at IXIS CIB after having been Head of Hedge Funds Sales at CIC’s European Union and Auditor in charge of financial institutions at Ernst & Young.

Philippe Scemama is a graduate of HEC.

Laurent Stöckli joined Quaero Capital SA in August 2017 in the role of research analyst for the small cap team of QUAERO CAPITAL, managed by Philip Best and Marc Saint John Web, both fund managers.

Together, they manage 2 funds with a focus on small European companies: QCF (Lux) Argonaut and QCF (CH) Swiss Small&Mid Cap.

Laurent has over 10 years experience in asset management. He started his career working for a Swiss-based Hedge fund as research analyst and then Portfolio manager. Several years later, he joined the international family office, Stanhope Capital, with responsibility for the portfolio management in Geneva for Ultra High Net Worth Individual clients. While he was reinforcing his conviction for the value investing approach during his professional and personal experiences, he met Philip Best (co-founder of Quaero) who shared his passion for this approach and convinced Laurent to join the Small Cap team at QUAERO CAPITAL.

Laurent holds a Bachelor in Business Administration from the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland.

Louis-Marie Toupet joined Quaero Capital (France) SAS in Paris in 2018 as junior portfolio manager within the Multi-Assets team.

He previously worked in the Risk Department at DNCA Finance in Luxembourg as assistant risk manager.

He holds a Master’s degree in Economic and Financial Engineering from the University of Rennes 1, with a specialisation in Data Science.

Martina Turner joined Quaero Capital (France) SAS in 2017 as a Portfolio Manager.

Martina has 30 years of experience in European financial markets. She is the founder of the Accessible Clean Energy investment strategy.

Following extensive experience acquired at Tier-1 financial institutions in equities, business development, and clean energy investments, Martina received training in solar technology and materials ‘science’ at MIT seminars and in microcredit for solar installation at Grameen Bank.

Subsequently, Martina developed an investment strategy to generate profitable returns investing in companies focused on development, production and sale of technologies that enable the global dissemination of clean energy from the developed world to the most populated and most remote regions. After over 2 years of successful tracking, the investment model became the strategy of a structured fund, anchored by a pension fund.

She holds a Master of Science from the Faculty of Economics of the London School of Economics. She is a member of the French Analyst Society.

Louise joined Quaero Capital SA in October 2018. She is an ESG analyst.

Prior to joining, she gained experience in NGOs and government fields.

She holds a Master degree in International Studies and Diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London with a specialization in diplomacy, international security and global energy and climate policy. She also has a Bachelor degree in International Relations from the University of Geneva and a Certificate in Advanced Studies in Sustainable Finance from the HEG in Geneva.

Alice Wang joined Quaero Capital LLP in London as portfolio manager in June 2020. She manages the QCF (Lux) – Bamboo and the QCF (Lux) – China. She is a frequent commentator on broader investment trends in China and across Asia and she has been published widely across the global financial media.

Previously, she worked for Lloyd George Management (HK) Limited, where she was already responsible for the portfolio of the Bamboo Fund. She began her career as a China specialist, and her responsibility eventually included South Korea, Taiwan and Philippines, with a particular focus on technology, healthcare, and consumer sectors. She is co-author of a multi-year case study on Haier Electronics for London School of Economics. In her early career, Alice worked as a brand strategist in New York for major global consumer brands, such as United Airlines, Google, and LVMH, and helped lead Groupon’s expansion to China in a joint venture with Tencent in 2011.

She is a CFA® charterholder and she graduated from Yale University with a BA in Humanities focusing on Chinese Intellectual History. Alice Wang was born in China and is a native Mandarin speaker.

Arrash Zafari began working for Quaero Capital SA in 2013 and is the Portfolio Manager for the Quaero Capital Funds (Lux) – New Europe.

He started his investing career in 2005 at Orbis Funds, as an Analyst on global equities. In 2009 he moved to work on a long/short equity fund at Millennium Capital. After this he managed an emerging markets fund at Castlestone Management. Prior to entering the investment industry, he undertook accountancy training with Ernst & Young.

He holds a First Class Honours degree in International Relations from the  University of St Andrews.