There’s an old adage that “all good things come to an end”, but as I sit to write this announcement, I’m reminded of another: “from a tiny acorn, grows a great oak”.
Shaun Port joined Nutmeg as chief investment officer in 2012 to design and deliver a uniquely Nutmeg investment strategy. The brief was to open up high-quality, diversified investment portfolios at a fraction of the cost, starting from an initial investment as small as £100. Shaun delivered on the brief, and more.
A macroeconomist by training, Shaun came to Nutmeg with extensive experience developing and implementing multi-asset investment strategies for clients ranging from central banks and pension schemes to charities and high-net-worth private individuals. His approach at Nutmeg was to build globally diversified, risk-adjusted, ETF-based portfolios, with a strong focus on asset allocation as the primary driver of performance. This “active-passive” investment strategy has beaten the average net returns of the incumbent wealth managers over the seven years since Nutmeg’s inception.
Shaun has built an investment process, and an enduring investment capability, at Nutmeg. He recruited the best and brightest minds from the worlds of exchange traded funds, trading and wealth management, to build industry-leading investment and trading teams. Together, these teams have introduced fractional ETF share capability to UK retail investors, they have led the market in socially responsible investing, and they have exported their expertise to new markets in Asia.
With this strong legacy in place, Shaun is now leaving Nutmeg to start an exciting new role for one of the biggest and most well-known financial services firms in the world. It is with mixed emotions that we say goodbye to Shaun: when he joined, there were six people in a dilapidated office in Vauxhall (which has since been demolished), we’re now a thriving fintech business with 180 people in the refurbished Marmite Factory (still in Vauxhall); the investment strategy was yet to be designed, now our experienced investment team run over 100,000 client portfolios in the UK and Taiwan; Shaun was our 100th customer, now we serve over 75,000 customers in the UK alone.
Shaun has played a major role in helping Nutmeg to disrupt a stuffy old industry, and in so doing, build Nutmeg into the UK’s fifth largest wealth manager*. Shaun is leaving a very different business to the one he joined all those years ago, but he leaves behind an experienced, industry-recognised team to see Nutmeg through the next stage of growth, innovation and development.
I know I speak for everyone at Nutmeg HQ when I say an enormous thank you to Shaun for the part he’s played in growing our business into the success it is today. Shaun leaves the business as a friend, as a shareholder and as a customer too.
We all wish Shaun the very best luck in his new challenges.
Sources
*PAM Private Asset Managers Directory, January 2019, Nutmeg is the fifth largest wealth manager in the UK by customer numbers.
Risk Warning: As with all investing, your capital is at risk. The value of your portfolio with Nutmeg can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest.
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Martin Stead
Martin, our chief executive officer, joined Nutmeg in 2015 and has overseen a period of rapid growth. Like many Nutmeggers, Martin brings a diversity of experience from different industries, which Nutmeg leverages to bring fresh thinking to wealth management, for the good of our customers. Martin was a member of the Lord Mayor’s Trust Advisory Group in 2018 and has been named two years running in the FT's Top 100 global LGBT+ Executive list.Other posts by Martin Stead