Fund Management

Guillaume Launay joined Quaero Capital (France) SAS in 2013 as Co-General Manager.

He started at Credit Lyonnais USA on Forex and options prior to joining the Credit Lyonnais Paris headquarters Forex desk, where he spent 8 years responsible for the EMS desk. For the next five years he was in charge of Repurchase Agreements and bills desks for the Credit Lyonnais Paris, London and Tokyo operations. He worked three years in Credit Lyonnais London, two in Credit Lyonnais NY and one year in Japan.

He left Credit Lyonnais in 2001 to launch Quantic Asset Management with a strong focus on credit products. He eventually sold the company to the OFI Group in 2003 to launch and manage credit funds as well as structured credit products. While at OFI, he started OFI Investment Solutions and was its CEO. He was a senior partner at OFI and a member of the advisory board of OFI Infravia.

After 10 years at OFI, he left to start a new company called Blue Alpha with a view to investing in newly created asset management companies and to helping develop their brand and AUM.

In 1986, Guillaume Launay graduated from Paris Dauphine University with a Master 203.

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

He 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, he launched The Argonaut Fund, a fund he still manages today.

Philip Best 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, she 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 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. Since September 2023 she has been Présidente de la Société des Sélectionneurs de Fonds (SF²).

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

Before joining Quaero Capital, he launched the same investment strategy at Tyndaris in London in 2016. Eric has over 27 years of professional experience in convertible bonds, gained at leading global investment banks, including Merrill Lynch/Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. He opened the KBC Financial Products branch in continental Europe in 2000. He was then head of derivatives and convertible bond sales for Citigroup (Paris), covering the bank’s largest global accounts until December 2014.

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

Eric is a graduate of the ESC Le Havre Business School in Business Economics, with a specialisation in Finance.

Benjamin Kelly joined Quaero Capital LLP in December 2021 as a Senior Research Analyst.

Recently he worked at Charles Stanley as an analyst within its equity research team; he was responsible for the selection of UK Equities for Charles Stanley’s internal model portfolios.

Prior to Charles Stanley, he started his career in 2013 as a research assistant at Thesis Asset Management and has also previously worked at Aviva Investors and Baring Asset Management.

Benjamin has completed the Investment Management Certificate and is a CFA® charterholder.

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

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 DZ Bank in Frankfurt as well as Market Economist and Money Trader at Louis Dreyfus Finance.

Frédéric 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.

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

Ife Retat-Okewole joined Quaero Capital LLP in 2021 as a Junior Research Analyst.

Before joining Quaero Capital, he supported the infrastructure investment team at Arjun Infrastructure Partners.

Prior to Arjun, he worked as an Equity Research Analyst at Paradigma Capital.

He also gained experience at the Arab World Institute in the Press Office and at Axa Investment Managers, where he analysed and interpreted account records.

Ife holds a Bachelor’s (Hons) degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Bristol and is bilingual in English and French. Additionally, he has passed the CFA® Level 1 exam.

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

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 Quaero Capital (France) SAS in November 2021 in the the Fixed income team.

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 is a graduate of HEC.

Laurent Stöckli joined Quaero Capital SA in August 2017 in the role of Research Analyst. As of September 2024 he is Portfolio Manager.

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.

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

Louis-Marie Toupet joined the teams at Quaero Capital (France) SAS in Paris in 2018 as a Portfolio Manager within the Multi-Assets team.

Previously, he worked at the Risk Management Department at DNCA Finance in Luxembourg as an Assistant Risk Manager, where he developed analysis models and decision support tools across various asset classes.

Since 2020, he has also been involved in the bond segment launched at Quaero Capital and is one of the Portfolio Managers of the Bond Investment Opportunity fund.

Louis-Marie holds a Master’s degree in Economic and Financial Engineering from the University of Rennes 1, with a specialization in Data Science. He also teaches at the University of Rennes 1 and at the business school network GES, where he delivers portfolio optimization and Bloomberg modeling modules to Master’s level students.

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

She 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, she received training in solar technology and materials ‘science’ at MIT seminars and in microcredit for solar installation at Grameen Bank.

Subsequently, she 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.

Martina 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.