BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM) has appointed Ulrik Fugmann and Edward Lees as Senior Portfolio Managers, based in London. They joined on 17 June and report to Guy Davies, CIO of Equities.
They will manage a global long-short sustainability-themed strategy focusing on companies operating within energy, materials, agriculture and industrials markets. This will further develop BNPP AM’s thematic investing capability, as well as aligning with its Global Sustainability Strategy.
In 2012 Fugmann and Lees co-founded thematic boutique asset manager North Shore Partners, with offices in London and Shanghai, which was subsequently acquired by London based alternative asset manager Duet Group. At Duet they served as co-chief investment officers and managed a natural resources fund.
Prior to Duet, Lees was CEO of North Shore, before which he was a managing director at Goldman Sachs where he worked for nine years, founding and running a global thematic principal investment business, applying fundamental and quantitative approaches. He has also worked at Morgan Stanley in investment banking and private equity. He graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College and has an MBA with a major in Finance from the Wharton Business School.
Fugmann, previously CIO of North Shore, also worked at Goldman Sachs. During his 10 years there he ran the global principal thematic investment group, special situations investing and worked in the Principal Strategies Group, focusing on investing in energy, materials, agriculture and industrials markets globally. He holds an MSc in Political Science & Finance from the University of Copenhagen.
Guy Davies, CIO of Fundamental Active Equities at BNP Paribas Asset Management, says: “Ulrik and Edward are highly experienced thematic investors whose passion for sustainable investing in public and private markets is matched by their acknowledged expertise. Their recognised investment approach of augmenting fundamental analysis with quantitative techniques and machine learning is ideally suited to complementing and enhancing BNPP AM’s existing capabilities.”
