The University has topped a list of the world’s best universities for producing high-performing fund managers.
According to a study by Citywire, Southampton ties with the Parisian business school École des Hautes Etudes Commerciales as best in the world for graduating the highest proportion of fund managers who consistently deliver high performance for their investors. Of the fund managers identified by Citywire as being educated at Southampton, 64 per cent rated as good or better. Southampton alumni include Jamie Seaton (BSc Economics and Business Economics, 1996), who runs the GVQ Opportunities Fund and was the top-performing manager in the Citywire research. Since February 2012, Jamie produced a 109 per cent return for fundholders, against a 66.3 per cent average return for managers investing in the UK ‘all companies’ sector. Another is Sebastian Lyon (BSc Politics and International Relations, 1989), who founded Troy Asset Management and runs its successful Trojan fund. He also advises the £800m Personal Assets Trust investment trust. Lawrence Lever, Chairman of Citywire, said:If your aim is to become a fund manager, then Oxford and Cambridge still generate the most number of them, but if you are an asset management group hiring fund managers, then your percentage chances of finding really good ones are improved by looking at applicants from places like Southampton, Bath and Warwick.
