MGTS Downing
Active Defined Return Assets Fund

Tony is a Partner at Downing and Head of Liquid Alternatives. He has worked in financial services for over three decades and began his career as an economist and fund manager. Prior to joining Downing, Tony was CEO of Atlantic House Group.

Tony also spent 17 years at BlackRock and held various senior positions, most recently he was a Managing Director and Head of UK Retail Business and Head of Retirement for EMEA. Having designed and launched the first UCITS Fund to utilise derivatives for investment purposes. Tony is also non-executive Chair of The Investing and Savings Alliance (TISA).  

Tony holds a BA (Hons) in Economics and is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.

Huw is Head of Structuring in the Liquid Alternatives team and has over 35 years’ experience in financial services. Huw has held senior positions in front office roles such as; Product Management, Strategic Change, Risk and Compliance, and Consulting in major Asset Management, Life Insurance, and Investment Banking businesses. He has worked for AXA Investment Managers, Commerzbank, Santander Asset Management and consulted to Santander, SEI, HSBC, Bloomberg and the FCA, amongst others.

Most recently, Huw was Executive Director of Strategy and Transformation for Santander Asset Management UK. Huw was at the forefront of the product development utilising the UCITS regime to allow the use of derivatives for investment purposes.

Russell is Head of Retail in the Liquid Alternatives team. He is an executive with over 30 years’ market experience, including Director level at some of the world’s largest financial institutions. Russell also successfully founded, grew and sold his own asset management and trading business over 13 years to 2021. He is well known within the retail funds, discretionary and advisory areas of the industry in the UK.

After successful spells in Asset Management at AXA and Investment Banking with Citi, Russell founded what is now Atlantic House Group in 2007. The business is a market-leading Liquid Alternatives asset manager and broker dealer, operating in the derivatives space.

Russell was also a Non-Executive Director of three Downing Venture Capital from 2009 to 2021 so is very familiar with the firm.

Paul is Head of Sales in the Liquid Alternatives team. Paul built a series of successful cash equities and equity derivatives businesses over his 20+ year career in investment banking at Royal Bank of Canada, Nomura, Lehman Brothers and WestLB Panmure. Most recently, at Royal Bank of Canada, Paul was the European Head of Cash Equity and Flow Derivative Sales (part of the Global Equities division). Paul has a broad set of capital markets expertise and has directly covered a mix of institutional clients, corporates, wealth managers, pensions/insurers, and hedge funds. Paul began his career as a Chemical Engineer and then worked for 5 years at Chubb Insurance.

He has a Beng (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from Nottingham University and is also a qualified Certified Chartered Accountant.